Skip to content

11.2 Formatting from the Ribbon

Most formatting is done on the HOME tab, in design mode: select a part of a visual and click. The groups work like in Office programs – font, colors, borders, alignment and number formats.

Selecting What to Format

  • Table: click cells. Heading cells format the headings of that metric or dimension, value cells its values, total cells the total. To format all values of a metric at once, one value cell is enough.
  • Chart or gauge: click the part – title, legend, axis, a series – or the visual itself.
  • Text visual: select the text; only the font, color, bullets and numbering commands apply.

See 11.1 How Formatting Works for which parts have their own style.

Format Group

Command What it does
Font name and size Font of the selection
B / I / U / S Bold (Ctrl+B), Italic (Ctrl+I), Underline (Ctrl+U), Strike out
Borders Applies the last used border; the arrow opens the list below
Margins Space inside the cells: Top, Bottom, Left, Right (empty = automatic), No margins, Default margins
Font color, Fill color Color galleries – see below
Gradient A color gradient as background: linear in eight directions, radial, double linear, rectangular, polar; More gradients... for the full settings
Numbered list, Bullets Lists in text visuals
Conditional Formatting Colors, icons and bars based on the values – see Chapter 12 Rules and Conditional Formatting
Table style Ready-made table designs – see 11.4 Table Styles

The small corner button of the group opens the format editor with the Adjustment, Font, Border and Fill tabs – see 11.5 Style Objects and the Style Editor.

Borders

The Borders list offers Top border, Bottom border, Left border, Right border, No border, Outer border, Thick outer border, All borders, Bold bottom, Bold top and bottom and Top and bold bottom. "Thick" and "bold" mean a 2-pixel line.

Choose Line width (1–10 pixels) and Color first – they apply to the next border you set. More borders... opens the border settings.

Colors

The color galleries offer Standard colors, your Corporate Colors and Workbook Colors (both editable with Edit...), the theme's colors if any, and More colors with a color palette and Pick from screen. Automatic goes back to the inherited color.

Using corporate colors keeps your workbooks consistent – change a corporate color once, and the galleries offer the new one.

Adjustment Group

Align left, Align center and Align right, and Rotation for text at an angle (0–360°, in steps of 45°). Vertical alignment and word wrap are in the format editor.

Numbers Group

The number format list and the buttons Percentage, Currency, Thousands separator, Decimal increase and Decimal decrease – see 11.3 Number and Date Formats.

Format Painter

Copy the formatting of one part to another:

  1. Select the part with the formatting you want.
  2. Click Format painter (HOME → Edit group).
  3. Click the part to format.

Double-click Format painter to format several parts in a row; click it again to stop. Copying from a table cell also copies its conditional formatting. Format painter works in Interactive design.

Formatting a Single Value

To highlight one value – e.g. one customer's row, or one bar in a chart – right-click it → Format this value.... Datashop creates a rule for exactly that value and selects it, so the formatting commands apply to it alone. See 12.3 Conditional Rules.

Tips – Formatting from the Ribbon

  • Use a table style first, then adjust single parts – it's faster than formatting everything by hand.
  • Set Line width before choosing a border, not after.

Common Issues – Formatting from the Ribbon

Problem: A command does nothing. - Solution: Your selection may span several parts, e.g. headings and values. Select one part at a time – only Fill color works on mixed selections.

Problem: The color doesn't change for some values. - Solution: A rule colors those values. Change or remove the rule – see Chapter 12.