Patents by Inventor Harry E. O'Steen

Harry E. O'Steen has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Method for controlling the order of editing cells in a spreadsheet by evaluating entered next cell attribute of current cell
    Patent number: 5121499
    Abstract: A mechanism allows 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 of 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 9, 1992
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Rex A. McCaskill, Beverly H. Machart, Harry E. O'Steen