TABULAR RANGE EDITING MECHANISM

A method of manipulation of cells within a table on an interactive user display comprising the steps of: (a) selecting a subset of cells of the table as a block on the display, the block having an orientation of fields of the cells along at least one dimension; (b) determining data characteristics of the block for each the field in the direction of the orientation; (c) selecting representative data from the block for each the field in the direction of the orientation; (d) generating a first interface displaying for each the field (i) one or more of the data characteristics; and (ii) corresponding the representative data as an editable element; (e) making user desired modifications to each the editable element to form a changed elements; (f) applying corresponding modifications of each the changed element to all cells of the block in a direction perpendicular to the orientation to form an altered block; and (g) outputting the altered block to the table for display.