
Sparklines in Excel - soundsop
http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/07/17/sparklines-in-excel.aspx
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decode
Apparently Microsoft filed for a patent on this in May of 2008. It's
fascinating to me that Edward Tufte isn't mentioned anywhere in the patent
application.

<http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0282325.html>

Interestingly, that's the same month that someone else started posting mockups
for the feature:

<http://sparklines-excel.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html>

I wonder where that leaves these companies:

[http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLiner_Overview...](http://www.bonavistasystems.com/Products_SparkLiner_Overview.html)

<http://www.bissantz.com/sparkmaker/index_en.asp>

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nfnaaron
I was planning to use them in a web app. I wonder where that leaves ...
everybody?

Will Tufte have to license his own invention for a future book or app? It
would be odd, considering that Microsoft names Tufte as the inventor on the
posted page.

"For Excel 2010 we’ve implemented sparklines, “intense, simple, word-sized
graphics”, as their inventor Edward Tufte describes them in his book Beautiful
Evidence. "

~~~
imp
It's still just an application, so there's a chance that it will be rejected
or limited in scope before it's approved. You may also be able to design
around their specific claims.

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michael_dorfman
That's very cool.

It's nice to see there's still innovation going on in the spreadsheet arena. I
used to think that Lotus 1-2-3 v1.01a was all that I'd even need (much as
WordPerfect 4.2 seemed to be the natural end-point of word processing), but
it's nice to be surprised from time to time with something new.

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parbo
Hmm, those are useful. When can we expect them in OO.o?

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zzkt
now.
[http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/eurooffice...](http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/eurooffice-
sparkline)

