A render engine for a spreadsheet application is described. The render engine facilitates the rendering of cell regions containing data that are maintained by both a spreadsheet application (user-defined cell region) and/or a third-party application (application-defined cell region). In particular, an embodiment of the render engine facilitates the repositioning of one or more existing cell regions within a spreadsheet interface, when the insertion of a new cell region is determined to cause a layout conflict with one or more existing cell regions. Repositioning of the existing cell regions is achieved without overwriting any cell information, and without breaking any formulas contained within an affected cell.