Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Eoin James Burke

Michael J McCormack

Chad B Rothschiller

Robert C Collie

Juha P Niemisto

Kelly J Lynch

Joseph N Chirilov

Ramakrishnan Natarajan

Marise Chan

Ulrich Homann

James Rivera

Parul Dalia

Lawrence Fubini Waldman

Daniel C Battagin

Keyur Rahul Patel

Robert Wayne Coffen

Hannah Wei Zhou

Jon Garrett Simmons

Thao Moua

Roy E Dumas

Dennis R Newland

John C Haymond

Brian M Jones

Robert Andrew Little

Shahar Prish

Shawn Alan Villaron

Andrew K Bishop

Josh Pollock

Charles Scott Walker

Su-Piao Bill Wu

Sharad Kumar Garg

Joseph M Chirilov

Ashley L Morgan

Chad Rothchiller

Sharar Prish

Block properties and improved calculated columns properties are provided in a spreadsheet application. Once block properties are set for a group of spreadsheet cells or a spreadsheet list, the properties may be applied to the entire group of selected cells or list as opposed to requiring application of properties to individual cells. If rows or columns are added to the group of selected cells or list, properties applied to the group of cells or list are automatically applied to the new rows or columns. Block properties also provide for intelligent-behaving list borders where list borders are not corrupted by the movement or changing of columns or rows sharing edges with a list border. Calculated columns are a type of block property that extends the functionality of formulas throughout an entire column of an associated group of cells or list.

Block properties and calculated columns in a spreadsheet application

Gadgets integrate with spreadsheets and the spreadsheet calculation engine. A gadget is bound to a range of cells (one or more) within a sheet. When one or more of the cells of the bound range is accessed (e.g. selected, hovered over, edited, deleted, added), the gadget is notified. The gadget may use this information for updating a display rendered by the gadget and/or performing some other action. The gadget uses an Application Programming Interface (API) to create the binding, communicate with the spreadsheet, and perform actions in the spreadsheet. The gadget is a Named Item object within the spreadsheet such that the gadget may be viewed/displayed differently from other objects. Out of date requests from the gadget are attempted to be detected and prevented from being processed such that the gadget is not acting on the latest data.

Interaction between web gadgets and spreadsheets

A method and system are provided for inferring a schema from an electronic document containing hierarchical data for use in a spreadsheet application program. The electronic document containing the hierarchical data is received into an application program. The application program may be a spreadsheet application program. The format of the hierarchical data structure may be XML. The hierarchical data includes a set of nodes making up the structure of the hierarchical data. The nodes may be XML elements and attributes. The hierarchical data is then parsed to discover one of the nodes in the hierarchical data. Once the node has been discovered, content associated with the discovered node is saved to a memory location in the computer system. The content may include data associated with the discovered node and the type of data associated with the node. The hierarchical data is then parsed again to discover subsequent nodes until the content for all of the nodes has been saved to the memory location. Then a schema generator generates schema elements using complex rules based on the particular qualities of each discovered node for each discovered node until a schema is generated for the hierarchical data.

Method and system for inferring a schema from a hierarchical data structure for use in a spreadsheet

XML data is associated with an XML schema file defining XML data types and data type definitions for applying XML data to the document. An XML data map is prepared that relates that any XML data applied to the document back to corresponding XML elements or attributes defined in the associated schema file. When the document is imported into a spreadsheet application grid, the data map is parsed to find XPATHs in the imported spreadsheet document of XML data and the user entered data. After an imported document has been edited, or after a document is created to include the application of XML data in association with a selected XML schema file, the document may be exported such that the XML data applied to the document is maintained for subsequent import and use of the document.

Importing and exporting markup language data in a spreadsheet application document

Data presented in a hierarchical format is rendered in a form allowing the data to be imported into a spreadsheet document where the data can be modified and new data can be added. A data file containing the hierarchically formatted data is selected for importing. A mapping relating a plurality of elements within the hierarchical data to a plurality of respective locations in the spreadsheet document is accessed. The hierarchical data is rendered in the spreadsheet document according to the mapping. Input is received to modify the hierarchical data rendered in the spreadsheet document. The mapping is updated to include the modifications to the hierarchical data. The modifications to the hierarchical data and the updated mapping are exported for subsequent rendering in a second spreadsheet document according to the updated mapping.

Extensible markup language data in an extensible markup language (such as XML) is associated with a schema file for defining data types and data type definitions for applying data to the document. A map is prepared that relates that any extensible markup data applied to the document back to corresponding elements or attributes defined in the associated schema file. When the document is imported into a spreadsheet application grid, the data map is parsed to find XPATHs which determine the location, data types and user data for each cell or list object in the document related to the schema file. The cells and lists are populated with the extensible markup data and user data, and rendered according to formatting dictated by the extensible markup data applied to the document. The document may be exported such that the extensible markup data is maintained for subsequent import and use.

Methods and systems provide for breaking a computer-generated document into a number of components where the components have explicit relationships with each other. A relationship representation is generated for the components of the document. A user may then navigate the relationships between the components to quickly understand the nature of the document and its components and to locate particular portions of the document that are important to the user. In addition, the user may open, edit and reuse particular components of the document apart from the rest of the document and without having to open or edit the document.

Management and use of data in a computer-generated document

Methods and systems are provided for importing markup language formatted data into a spreadsheet document and for exporting markup language formatted data from a spreadsheet document. XML data is associated with an XML schema file defining XML data types and data type definitions for applying the XML data to the document. An XML data map is prepared that relates any XML data applied to the document back to corresponding XML elements or attributes defined in the associated schema file. When the document is imported into a spreadsheet application grid, the data map is parsed to find XPATHs in the imported spreadsheet document of XML data and the user entered data. After an imported document has been edited, the document may be exported such that the XML data applied to the document is maintained for subsequent import and use of the document.

Methods and systems are provided for importing and exporting markup language formatted data into a spreadsheet document. XML data is associated with a schema file defining data types and data type definitions for applying the XML data to the document. A map is prepared that relates any XML data applied to the document back to corresponding elements or attributes defined in the schema file. When the document is imported into a spreadsheet application grid, the map is parsed to find XPATHs which determine the location, data types and user data for each cell or list object in the document related to the schema file. The cells and lists are populated with the XML data and user data and rendered according to formatting dictated by the XML data applied to the document. The document may be exported such that the XML data is maintained for subsequent import and use.

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Eoin James Burke