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EP0211151A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Procedure for controlling the order of editing cells in a spreadsheet

Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
•
Filing: 1986-04-21
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2006-04-21
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Abstract

Abstract A mechanism is disclosed for programming the order of cells for an operator to enter data in a spreadsheet. Each cell of the spreadsheet may be provided with a "next cell" attribute, and these attributes as well as other attributes for the cells are stored in a table. The "next cell" attribute may be a constant, such as the name in the next cell, or it may be a logic expression so that the next cell to be edited can be different depending on some condition. When the operator presses the NEXT CELL key, the "next cell" attribute is searched by accessing the attribute table, and if a "next cell" attribute is found, it is evaluated to determine the next cell to be edited.

Inventors

  • 👤 Rex Allen Mccaskill
  • 👤 Beverly Helen Machart
  • 👤 Harry Eugene O'steen

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-24 23:34
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F40/00; G06F40/10; G06F40/166; G06F40/177; G06F40/18; G06F40/174

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 5
Claim 1
Independent Claim 60 words
A method of setting up a spreadsheet on a computer so that the user is directed to the cells of the spreadsheet in the order in which data is to be entered comprising the step of providing at least some of the cells of the spreadsheet with a "next cell" attribute which identifies the next cell after the current cell.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 60 words
A method of setting up a spreadsheet on a computer so that the user is directed to the cells of the spreadsheet in the order in which data is to be entered comprising the step of providing at least some of the cells of the spreadsheet with a "next cell" attribute which identifies the next cell after the current cell.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 49 words
The method recited in Claim 1 further comprising the steps of: responding to a next cell command from the user by evaluating the "next cell" attribute of the current cell to determine the next cell to edit; and moving to the next cell identified by the "next cell" attribute.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 22 words
The method recited in Claim 2 wherein the "next cell" attribute is a constant identifying a predetermined different cell in the spreadhsheet.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 38 words
The method recited in Claim 2 wherein the "next cell" attribute is logic expression, said method further comprising the step of evaluating said logic expression to determine the identity of the next cell to edit in the spreadsheet.

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