Abstract: An object-oriented framework is used to create container objects which are, in turn, used to hold both other objects and information in order to organize the information in a variety of ways. The framework contains a set of pre-defined class information which allows container objects to be constructed or instantiated. An instantiated container object can be accessed by a multitude of users and may contain other objects which can hold information defining other containers, such as shelves and trash cans, or which can hold information representing physical "things" such as locations, maps and people. The pre-defined class information includes member functions which provide default editing operations such as cut, copy, paste, drag, drop, selection, move, undo and redo, which editing operations are applicable to all objects in the container. Member functions are also provided to generate one or more presentations on a display which represent the container.

Abstract: A data processing system is programmed for automatically resizing a table to preserve its original appearance. The table is resized when a cell size changes or when an explicit request from the user is received. The resizing seeks to preserve the relative dimensions of cells in the table as much as possible. The resizing occurs automatically without user intervention. The table may be part of a publication in a desktop publishing system.