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11.1 How Formatting Works

Fonts, colors, borders, alignment and number formats in Datashop are all styles. Knowing how styles inherit from each other explains why a change sometimes affects one cell and sometimes a whole table – and how to give many workbooks the same look.

Every Part Has Its Own Style

Each part of a visual is formatted separately:

Visual Parts with their own style
Table For each metric, row dimension and column dimension: the label (heading) and the data (values). Each total has its own label and data style. The table frame has one too.
Chart Title, axis titles, legend, axes, plot area, each series, data labels
Gauge Title, legend, the metric
Rule Each rule and condition – see 12.2 Rule Conditions and Styles

Select the part, and the ribbon's formatting commands apply to it – e.g. click a heading cell of a metric to format all its headings, or a value to format all its values. See 11.2 Formatting from the Ribbon.

Automatic Means Inherited

Every setting in a style can be (automatic): the value then comes from the style it is based on. That style can again inherit from its base, all the way up to the built-in Application style – Arial 10, black on white.

So a cell shows:

  1. what you set on the cell's part, if anything;
  2. otherwise what its base style says;
  3. and so on, up to Application.

Inheritance is live: change a base style, and every style based on it changes too – for the settings they leave on (automatic).

Where the Defaults Come From

  • Metric values inherit from the metric's own format, e.g. its number format – see 10.3 Creating and Editing Metrics. Choose in the number format list to go back to it. This applies wherever you add the metric from – dragging, search, nikolAI, the object tree or a menu – and a table style or template applied later keeps it (build 20381 and later; before, only a metric dropped on a table got its own format, and applying a table style could replace it). A metric without a number format of its own gets the format of the table style, the neighbouring column or the default.
  • New table parts get a copy of the built-in styles in Styles → System default → Grid default – e.g. Metric data with format #,##0.00, or Left pivot label for row headings.
  • New tables get the Web Modern table style, or the look of the workbook's theme if it has one – see 11.4 Table Styles and 7.8 Themes and Templates.

The Grid default styles are copied when a part is added. Changing them affects tables built afterwards, not existing ones.

Reusing a Style

To give many tables or workbooks the same look, create a Style object in the main window's Styles folder and base parts on it: in the part's style dialog, click the button next to Based on and pick the style. Whatever the part leaves on (automatic) then follows your style – change the style once, and every part based on it changes. See 11.5 Style Objects and the Style Editor.

Tips – How Formatting Works

  • Format as high up as you can: a table style or a Style object is easier to change later than many single cells.
  • If a cell won't change, check whether a rule formats it – rules override the cell's style for the values they match.
  • Undo (Ctrl+Z) reverses any formatting change.

Common Issues – How Formatting Works

Problem: Formatting commands are greyed out. - Solution: Switch to design mode and select a visual or cells. Pictures have no styles; text visuals use only the font commands.

Problem: Nothing happens when I format a selection of headings and values together. - Solution: Select cells of one part at a time – e.g. first the headings, then the values. Only Fill color works on a mixed selection.