Patent · US Expired

User interface for creating a spreadsheet pivottable

US6411313B1 · kind B1 · utility

91Cited by
5References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 14, 1999
Grant dateJun 25, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 14, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F40/18
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A drag-and-drop form displayed directly on a spreadsheet enables a user to drag-and-drop fields to create a PivotTable data display directly on the spreadsheet. Fields of data selected by a user are displayed within a field well (an array) included with a PivotTable Button Bar. The user can select a field with a mouse, drag the selected field over a desired region, and drop the field to insert it in the desired region. The drag-and-drop form identifies a page region, a row region, a column region, and a data region on the spreadsheet. If the data is of the OLAP type, the field well also includes icons indicating whether the fields in rows to the right of the icons are of the dimension type or the measure type. Since the PivotTable Button Bar is optionally displayed on the spreadsheet at all times, the user can readily add a selected field to one of the regions of the PivotTable data display by dragging and dropping the selected field. Changes can also be made to a PivotTable data display by dragging fields within a region or between different regions. Changes in the cursor shape indicate a portion of the PivotTable data display over which a field is currently being dragged.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.