Formatting Conditionally

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to Implement formatting rules to highlight information.

Conditional Formatting Rules

Conditional formatting rules enable you to highlight results that meet or fail specific business targets. You can create a simple rule to highlight high or low results with a specific color or advanced conditional formatting rules that display a text comment, such as High Performer.

For example, you can create a rule to highlight margin results that exceed $1,100,000. The margin results greater than $1,100,000 are highlighted every time the report data is refreshed.

The object or cell contents, the operator, and the operand make up the condition that determines whether the formatting is applied to each cell where the rule is applied. When you apply the new rule or alerter to a table column, row, or cell on a report, Web Intelligence applies the condition to the cell values and displays any values that meet the condition in the rule with the specified formatting.

Web Intelligence applies a default format to display the formatting rule.

You can make changes to this default format. You can insert multiple conditions within a rule. You can also create an advanced formatting rule by inserting a formula.

A formatting rule contains the following elements:

  • A name
  • An object or cell contents
  • An operator
  • The operand values or another object
  • The conditional formatting

There are additional principles to remember while creating rules; those principles are as follows:

  • You can apply rules to tables, forms, section cells, and free-standing cells.
  • You cannot apply rules to charts.
  • You can include up to 30 formatting rules in a document. You can apply rules to a maximum of 20 table columns or rows, free-standing cells or section cells on the reports. A maximum of 10 formatting rules can be applied to a single-table column or row, free-standing cell or section cell.

Create and Activate a Conditional Formatting Rule

You can create a formatting rule in the Formatting Rule Editor. When you create conditions for the rule, you must specify the appropriate filtered object or cell, the operator, and the operand for the rule.

You can define the formatting in which the data should display when it satisfies the conditions for the rule. For example, you can define the formatting for the numbers, font style, background style, and borders.

Then, you can define the formatting in which the data should display when it satisfies the conditions for the rule. Finally, you can apply the rule.

You can apply the rules to the following report elements:

  • Columns in vertical tables
  • Rows in horizontal tables
  • Cells in forms and cross tables
  • Section headers
  • Free-standing cells

Multiple Condition Formatting Rules

You can apply multiple conditions in a single formatting rule.

For example, you can highlight Sales revenue when results reach more than $300,000 and when those results occur in stores in any U.S. state except California.

The data that meets both conditions triggers the formatting that you defined. To display the data that meets different conditions with different formatting, create multiple conditions. You create conditions by choosing Add at the top of the condition area and define the new condition using different formatting settings.

Note

You can create a maximum of 30 formatting rules in a document.

Create a Complex Formatting Rule

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