Patent ID: 7454695

Claim:
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to process on a computer for generically rendering a table for output processing, comprising the steps of: receiving a table having a plurality of cells wherein each cell spans one or more columns and one or more rows; representing the table as a geometric grid wherein one or more positions within the grid house one or more of the cells, and wherein each cell is assigned a synchronization marker; and providing a generic table represented by one or more formatting commands operable to provide a rendering of the grid to one or more output media, wherein a size of the generic table is configurable and when the grid is rendered to the one or more output media by processing different ones of the cells representing different aspects of a same version of the generic table in an order defined by each cell's synchronization marker, wherein a number of the cells which have a same synchronization marker are processed together as an independent group, and wherein at least two different cells have the same synchronization marker, and wherein the cells are processed in a sequential order defined by their corresponding synchronization marker to render the grid.