Patent ID: 8321799

Claim:
A computer program product tangibly embodied on a machine-readable storage device, the product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to: display a table of data having a plurality of rows or a plurality of columns as an element of a graphical user interface display and display a set of markers, each marker being associated with a row of the table or each marker being associated with a column of the table, the table of data having a plurality of sort keys having a specified sort key order including a most significant sort key, each sort key being a row or each sort key being a column of the table, each sort key having a sort direction, each sort key having a position in the sort key order; receive from the user one input gesture selecting a marker, where the selected marker remains within the table of data; establish the row or column associated with the user-selected marker as the most significant sort key in the sort key order in response to the input gesture selecting the marker and where establishing the row or column as the most significant sort key includes maintaining the sort direction from the sort key order, and maintain the positions and the sort directions of two or more remaining sort keys in the sort key order; sort the respective rows or columns of the table of data according to the plurality of sort keys, the sort key order, and the sort key directions in response to the input gesture; and display the sorted table of data, wherein displaying the sorted table of data includes displaying the table of data including the same plurality of rows or the plurality of columns where content of the table of data has been sorted.