Patent ID: 7779000

Claim:
A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of applying a conditional format to a summary table, wherein the summary table is linked to a data source having a plurality of fields, the method comprising: receiving a selection of a plurality of cells within a summary table, wherein each cell of the plurality of cells includes a selected data point; determining an active cell of the plurality of cells, the active cell including an active cell data point, and wherein the active cell data point includes an associated data field; determining one or more related data points, wherein the one or more related data points comprise data points having the same associated data field as the active cell data point; selecting the conditional format to apply to the selected data points, the one or more related data points, and the active data point; selecting a scope, wherein the selected scope pertains to a subset of all of the one or more related data points; associating the conditional format with the selected data points, the active data point, and the scope of related data points, wherein the conditional format remains associated with the associated data points following a change in location of one of the associated data points within the summary table; and saving the conditional format associated with the associated data points to a cache associated with the summary table, wherein saving the conditional format associated with the associated data points to the cache associated with the summary table comprises: ensuring that the conditional format is still associated with each of the associated data points when the summary table is closed and later reopened; ensuring that the conditional format is associated with each of the associated data points when a cell containing an associated data point was not displayed at the time the conditional format was associated.