PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-9619452-B2
Application Number: US-201113093778-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Pasting a set of cells

Abstract:
Pasting a set of cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination is received; and in response to determining that the paste destination is not large enough to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option, the paste destination is automatically expanded so that the paste destination is large enough to accommodate the paste operation.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for pasting, comprising:
 receiving, on an electronic device, a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination; 
 determining, on the electronic device, that the paste destination does not contain enough cells to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option; and 
 automatically adding one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to the paste destination using a processor so that the paste destination contains just enough cells to accommodate the paste operation. 
 
     
     
       2. The method recited in  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a selection of an option to cut or copy the set of cells. 
     
     
       3. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the selection of the option to paste the set of cells is received with respect to an anchor cell relative to which the set of cells is desired to be pasted. 
     
     
       4. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the paste operation comprises pasting the set of cells in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set. 
     
     
       5. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the set of cells comprises a set of discontiguous cells. 
     
     
       6. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the paste destination comprises a table. 
     
     
       7. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein the paste destination comprises at least a portion of a grid of spreadsheet cells. 
     
     
       8. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein determining that the paste destination does not contain enough cells to accommodate the paste operation comprises determining that the paste destination does not comprise enough rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to accommodate the paste operation. 
     
     
       9. The method recited in  claim 1 , further comprising pasting the set of cells in the paste destination after adding the one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both. 
     
     
       10. The method recited in  claim 1 , wherein at least a subset of the set of cells comprises spreadsheet functionality. 
     
     
       11. A system for pasting, comprising:
 a processor configured to:
 receive a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination; 
 determine that the paste destination does not contain enough cells to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option; and 
 automatically add one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to the paste destination so that the paste destination contains just enough cells to accommodate the paste operation; and 
 
 a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions. 
 
     
     
       12. The system recited in  claim 11 , wherein the selection of the option to paste the set of cells is received with respect to an anchor cell relative to which the set of cells is desired to be pasted. 
     
     
       13. The system recited in  claim 11 , wherein the paste operation comprises pasting the set of cells in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set. 
     
     
       14. A computer program product for pasting, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible, non-transitory, computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
 receiving a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination; 
 determining that the paste destination does not contain enough cells to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option; and 
 automatically adding one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to the paste destination so that the paste destination contains just enough cells to accommodate the paste operation. 
 
     
     
       15. The computer program product recited in  claim 14 , wherein the selection of the option to paste the set of cells is received with respect to an anchor cell relative to which the set of cells is desired to be pasted. 
     
     
       16. The computer program product recited in  claim 14 , wherein the paste operation comprises pasting the set of cells in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set. 
     
     
       17. The computer program product recited in  claim 14 , wherein automatically adding one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to the paste destination comprises adding one or more rows of cells, columns of cells, or both to the paste destination.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/890,652, entitled CUTTING AND COPYING DISCONTIGUOUS SELECTIONS OF CELLS, filed Aug. 6, 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In typical spreadsheets and tables, a paste operation is not permitted if the paste destination is not large enough to accommodate the paste operation. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. 
         FIG. 1A  illustrates the selection of a set of cells. 
         FIG. 1B  illustrates the selection of an option to cut. 
         FIG. 1C  illustrates the selection of an option to paste. 
         FIG. 1D  illustrates the result of a paste operation. 
         FIG. 2A  illustrates an embodiment of a process for cutting or copying a set of cells. 
         FIG. 2B  illustrates an embodiment of a process for pasting a set of cells relative to an anchor point. 
         FIG. 3A  illustrates an embodiment of a process for cutting or copying a set of cells. 
         FIG. 3B  illustrates an embodiment of a process for pasting a set of cells relative to an anchor point. 
         FIG. 4A  illustrates the selection of a set of cells. 
         FIG. 4B  illustrates the selection of an option to copy. 
         FIG. 4C  illustrates an embodiment of a grid saved to a clipboard in response to the selection of an option to copy. 
         FIG. 4D  illustrates the selection of an option to paste. 
         FIG. 4E  illustrates the result of a paste operation. 
         FIG. 4F  illustrates the selection of an option to paste. 
         FIG. 4G  illustrates the result of a paste operation. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of a process for automatically expanding a paste destination. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a composition of matter, a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or communication links. In this specification, these implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred to as techniques. A component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task includes both a general component that is temporarily configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention. 
     A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention. The invention is described in connection with such embodiments, but the invention is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. These details are provided for the purpose of example and the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured. 
     Cutting and copying discontiguous selections of cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, in response to receiving an indication of a selection of a set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells and receiving an indication of a selection of a paste destination in which the set of cells is desired to be pasted, the set of cells is pasted in the paste destination in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set. In some embodiments, if a paste destination is not large enough to accommodate a paste operation, the paste destination is automatically expanded so that it is large enough to accommodate the paste operation. 
     As used herein, the term “cell” refers to a cell associated with at least standard spreadsheet functionality. The term “at least standard spreadsheet functionality” in the context of a cell includes the ability to define the content of one cell in such a way that the content of the one cell is determined based at least in part on the content of one or more other cells, and the content of the one cell is updated automatically without further human action if the content of one or more of the one or more other cells is changed. As used herein, the term “anchor cell” refers to a cell relative to which a paste operation is performed, e.g., the cell selected when a paste operation is selected or the cell over which a cursor is positioned when a “drop” input, such as releasing a mouse or other input device button, is received in connection with a drag-and-drop operation. In some embodiments, cells in a spreadsheet application are organized into one or more individual tables or table objects, each of which includes a desired number of rows and columns of cells. In such cases, a sheet of a spreadsheet document may include a desired number of table objects. Although in many of the examples described herein the cells of a spreadsheet application are organized into such table objects, the techniques described herein may be similarly employed with respect to other cell configurations or organizations, such as the (seemingly) infinite single grid or table of cells in each sheet of some typical spreadsheet applications that includes an unlimited (or very large) number of rows and columns of cells. Although many of the examples provided herein are with respect to a spreadsheet application, the techniques described herein may be similarly employed with respect to any application, spreadsheet or otherwise. 
     In some embodiments, as disclosed herein, options to cut and/or copy are available for and can be used with respect to arbitrarily complex selections of cells, including without limitation a group of selected cells that does not comprise only a continuous grid of selected cells. Such a selection of cells that is cut or copied in some embodiments can be non-destructively pasted relative to a selected anchor cell or point in a manner that preserves the relative geometry or positions of the cells. The pasting is non-destructive in the sense that at the destination sheet or table only those cells corresponding to the cells selected in the source sheet or table are overwritten and/or created and written, as applicable. As used herein, the term “discontiguous” when used in connection with a set of selected cells refers to a set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells. A continuous grid of selected cells is one that includes all cells in a grid of M continuous rows by N continuous columns, and no others. 
       FIGS. 1A-1D  illustrate an embodiment of an operation in which an arbitrary set of cells not comprising only a continuous grid of selected cells is cut and pasted.  FIG. 1A  illustrates the selection of a set of cells comprising cells A 1 , B 2 , and C 3 .  FIG. 1B  illustrates the selection of an option to cut the selected set of cells.  FIG. 1C  illustrates the selection of an option to paste the current contents of a clipboard (i.e. the set of cells selected and cut in  FIGS. 1A-1B ) relative to a selected anchor cell A 7 .  FIG. 1D  illustrates the result of the cut and paste operations. Although cutting and pasting a set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells is depicted in the example of  FIGS. 1A-1D , a set of cells can be similarly copied and pasted. 
       FIG. 2A  illustrates an embodiment of a process for cutting or copying a set of cells. In some embodiments, process  200  is employed with respect to  FIG. 1B  and  FIGS. 4B-4C . Process  200  starts at  204  at which an indication of a selection of an option to cut or copy a selected set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells is received. At  206 , the set of cells is saved to a clipboard, pasteboard, or other memory location associated with cut, copy, and paste operations, and process  200  ends.  FIG. 2B  illustrates an embodiment of a process for pasting a set of cells relative to an anchor point. In some embodiments, process  202  is employed to paste a set of cells cut or copied using process  200 . In some embodiments, process  202  is employed with respect to  FIGS. 1C-1D ,  FIGS. 4D-4E , and  FIGS. 4F-4G . Process  202  starts at  208  at which an indication of a selection of an option to paste the current contents of a clipboard is received relative to a selected anchor cell or point with respect to which the paste operation is desired to be performed. At  210 , the current contents of the clipboard are pasted relative to the anchor cell, and process  202  ends. In some embodiments, in the cases in which processes  200  and  202  are employed for cut and paste operations,  210  includes deleting the values of the cut cells when pasting. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the values of the cut cells are deleted when an option to cut is selected, e.g., at step  204 . 
     In some embodiments, when cutting or copying a selected set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells, a grid of continuous cells just large enough to circumscribe or encompass all cells in the set is saved to a clipboard so that the correct geometry and/or relative positions of the cells in the set can be maintained during the cut or copy and paste operations. In such cases, cells of the grid corresponding to cells included in the set are populated with the actual cut or copied values. The actual cut or copied value of a cell included in the set could be no value, in the case of a blank cell in which no data has been entered. Each of the other cells of the grid that does not correspond to a cell included in the set is, in some embodiments, populated with an object or value that indicates a null cell. Such null objects or values are ignored during a paste operation so that the values of corresponding cells in the paste destination can be preserved (i.e. are not overwritten during the paste operation). When a paste option is selected relative to an anchor cell, the grid of cells saved to the clipboard is pasted relative to the anchor cell, in some embodiments, with the top left cell of the grid coinciding with the anchor cell. In some embodiments, a cell other than the top left-most cell of the grid that circumscribes the selected cells may serve as the anchor cell, such as the top-most and/or left-most selected cell in the set. When the grid is pasted, the actual cut or copied values included in cells of the grid that are not populated with null values or objects are copied to corresponding destination cells, overwriting existing values in the destination cells, while null cell values or objects are ignored so that values in corresponding destination cells are not overwritten. With respect to the example of  FIGS. 1A-1D , for instance, the selection of an option to cut the set of discontiguous cells A 1 , B 2 , and C 3  in  FIG. 1B  results in a 3×3 grid that encompasses cells A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , B 1 , B 2 , B 3 , C 1 , C 2 , and C 3  to be saved to the clipboard. The actual values of cells A 1 , B 2 , and C 3  are used to populate corresponding cells in the grid, but null cell values are used to populate the other cells (i.e. A 2 , A 3 , B 1 , B 3 , C 1 , and C 2 ) in the grid. When an option to paste is selected with respect to anchor cell A 7  in  FIG. 1C , the grid of cells is pasted relative to anchor cell A 7 , with the top left cell of the grid (corresponding to cell A 1 ) coinciding with anchor cell A 7 . 
       FIG. 3A  illustrates an embodiment of a process for cutting or copying a set of cells. In some embodiments, process  300  is employed with respect to  FIG. 1B  and  FIGS. 4B-4C . Process  300  starts at  304  at which an indication of a selection of an option to cut or copy a selected set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells is received. At  306 , a grid of continuous cells that is just large enough to circumscribe or encompass the set of cells of  304  is created and saved to a clipboard, with cells of the grid corresponding to cells in the set populated with the cut or copied values and with the other cells of the grid populated with null cell values or objects. In some embodiments, the dimensions of the grid are based on the dimensions encompassed by the set of cells. In some embodiments, the top left cell of the grid is determined by the top-most row and left-most column associated with cells in the set, and the bottom right cell of the grid is determined by the bottom-most row and right-most column associated with cells in the set.  FIG. 3B  illustrates an embodiment of a process for pasting a set of cells relative to an anchor point. In some embodiments, process  302  is employed with respect to  FIGS. 1C-1D ,  FIGS. 4D-4E , and  FIGS. 4F-4G . In some embodiments, process  302  is employed to paste the set of cells cut or copied using process  300 . Process  302  starts at  308  at which an indication of a selection of an option to paste the current contents of a clipboard (e.g., the grid of cells of  306 ) is received relative to a selected anchor cell or point with respect to which the paste operation is desired to be performed. In some embodiments, the anchor cell is a part of a plurality of cells that are selected when the paste option of  308  is selected. In some such cases in which multiple cells are selected when the paste option is selected, the anchor cell comprises the top-most and/or left-most cell of the plurality of selected cells. At  310 , the current contents of the clipboard are pasted relative to the anchor cell. For example, the grid of cells saved to the clipboard at  306  is pasted onto a corresponding range of cells relative to the anchor cell, with the top left cell of the grid coinciding with the anchor cell. In some such cases, during the paste operation, the actual cut or copied values included in cells of the grid that are not populated with null values or objects are written to corresponding destination cells while null cell values or objects are ignored during the paste operation, preserving the contents of the associated destination cells. 
       FIGS. 4A-4G  illustrate embodiments in which a set of discontiguous cells is copied from table  402  and pasted into table  404 . Although copying and pasting a set of discontiguous cells is depicted in the examples of  FIGS. 4A-4G , a set of discontiguous cells can be similarly cut and pasted.  FIG. 4A  illustrates the selection of a set of cells of table  402 , i.e. cells A 4  and B 2  and cell range C 4 :C 5 .  FIG. 4B  illustrates the selection of an option to copy the selected set of cells.  FIG. 4C  illustrates an embodiment of the grid  406  saved to a clipboard in response to the selection of the option to copy the selected set of cells in  FIG. 4B .  FIG. 4D  illustrates the selection of an option to paste the current contents of the clipboard (i.e. grid  406  of  FIG. 4C ) relative to a selected anchor cell B 5  in table  404 .  FIG. 4E  illustrates the result of the paste operation. 
     In some embodiments, a paste destination may not be large enough to accommodate the contents of a clipboard during a paste operation. In some such cases, in some embodiments, the paste destination is automatically enlarged or expanded to a size large enough to accommodate the contents of a clipboard during a paste operation. A destination table, for instance, may be automatically expanded by adding additional rows and columns as needed, as illustrated in the example of  FIGS. 4F-4G  in which because the existing destination table  404  of  FIG. 4F  is too small to accommodate grid  406  of  FIG. 4C  during a paste operation, it is automatically expanded in  FIG. 4G  as needed. Specifically, consider that an option to copy a selected set of cells of table  402  is selected according to  FIGS. 4A-4C . In  FIG. 4F , an option to paste the current contents of the clipboard (i.e. the grid of  FIG. 4C ) relative to a selected anchor cell A 2  in table  404  is selected.  FIG. 4G  illustrates the result of the paste operation. As depicted, table  404  of  FIG. 4F  is expanded as needed as depicted in  FIG. 4G  to complete the paste operation. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of a process for automatically expanding a paste destination during a paste operation. In some embodiments, the paste destination comprises a table. In some embodiments, process  500  is employed with respect to  FIGS. 4F-4G . Process  500  starts at  502  at which an indication of a selection of an option to paste the current contents of a clipboard with respect to an anchor cell is received. At  504 , it is determined whether the paste destination is large enough to accommodate the current contents of the clip board (e.g., a grid of cells such as grid  406  of  FIG. 4C ) relative to the anchor cell during the paste operation. If it is determined at  504  that the paste destination is not large enough, the paste destination is expanded as need at  506 , so that, for example, it is just large enough to accommodate the current contents of the clipboard relative to the anchor cell. In the cases in which the paste destination comprises a table, in some embodiments,  506  includes adding rows and/or columns to the table as needed. If it is determined at  504  that the paste destination is large enough or upon expanding the paste destination as needed at  506 , the current contents of the clipboard are pasted relative to the anchor cell at  508 , and process  500  ends. 
     Although described for a set of selected cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells, many of the techniques described herein may be similarly employed with respect to a set of continuous cells. For example, a table or other paste destination may be automatically expanded as described above with respect to  FIGS. 4F-4G  and process  500  of  FIG. 5  to accommodate the pasting of a set of continuous cells relative to an anchor cell if the existing dimensions of the table or paste destination are not adequate to accommodate the paste operation. 
     Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, the invention is not limited to the details provided. There are many alternative ways of implementing the invention. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20110425
Publication Date: 20170411
Grant Date: 20170411
Priority Date: 20070806
Inventors: BERGER PETER GLEN
CAPELA JAY CHRISTOPHER
GUR YANIV
ROSNER ROGER ROCK
SU PETER
WEELDREYER CHRISTOPHER DOUGLAS
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "G06F40/18", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06F40/18", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06F17/246", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 40347622