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Applying Cosmetic Formatting to Results and Dashboards

Cosmetic formatting affects the visual appearance of results and dashboards. You can apply cosmetic formatting, copy and paste cosmetic formatting attributes, and save a formatted request to use as a style template. This section contains the following topics:

• Customizing the Cosmetic Appearance of Reports and Dashboards
• Copying, Pasting, and Clearing Cosmetic Formatting Attributes
• Using a Saved Request as a Style Template for the Cosmetic Appearance of Other Requests

Customizing the Cosmetic Appearance of Reports and Dashboards

In Oracle BI Answers and in the Dashboard Editor, a cosmetic formatting dialog box provides access to and control over cosmetic attributes of reports and dashboards. Depending on the object you are formatting, the dialog box displays different options, such as font, cell, and border controls, background color, additional formatting options such as cell padding, and custom CSS style options for HTML.

In an Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard, cosmetic formatting affects the visual appearance of columns and sections on a dashboard, such as background color and borders. In Oracle BI Answers, cosmetic formatting affects the visual appearance of objects such as columns in tables and the size of titles.

When selections for horizontal and vertical alignment appear, they are similar to text justification selections in word processors. Vertical alignment does not have any impact unless the column spans multiple rows of other columns.

The following procedures explain how to access and use the cosmetic formatting dialog box.

To access the common format dialog box

• Perform one of the following actions:
  • In the Dashboard Editor, click the Properties button for a column or section and choose the Format Column or Format Section option, respectively.
  • In Oracle BI Answers, from a view that supports cosmetic formatting, click the cosmetic formatting button.

    NOTE:  In the table view, you can also click the format column button and use the Value Format tab. In the pivot table view, you can also click the section properties button and use the Section Properties tab.

    The cosmetic format dialog box appears.

To use the cosmetic format dialog box

1. In the Font area, make your selections for font family, size, color, style (such as bold), and any effects to apply (such as underlining).
2. In the Cell area, make your selections for alignment.
   • For horizontal alignment, choose one of the options described in the following table.

     Option	Usage Notes
     Left	Left justifies the data. This is the most common justification for text data.
     Right	Right justifies the data. This is the most common justification for numeric data.
     Center	Centers the data.
     Default	Retains the default data alignment.

   • For vertical alignment, choose one of the options described in the following table.

     Option	Usage Notes
     Top	Aligns the data to the top.
     Bottom	Aligns the data to the bottom.
     Center	Aligns the data to the middle.
     Default	Retains the default vertical alignment.

3. In the Cell area, make your selection for a background color.
4. In the Border area, make your selections for the border position, color, and style of the cell.

   TIP:   You can select or deselect custom borders by clicking the top, bottom, left, and right borders near the Position drop-down list.

5. To override style and class elements specified in Oracle BI style sheets, make your selections in the Advanced Style Options (CSS) area:
   1. Click the settings you want to use.
   2. Provide the location of the class, style, or style sheet.

      NOTE:  The advanced style formatting options are for use by users who know how to work with cascading style sheets.

6. Click OK when you are done.

Copying, Pasting, and Clearing Cosmetic Formatting Attributes

In Oracle BI Answers, you can copy the range of cosmetic formatting attributes that you apply to an object, such as a column in a table, and paste them to an object of the same type, such as another column in the table or a column in a different table. You can also restore the default appearance.

Views that support copying and pasting include the table, pivot table, and chart views.

To copy and paste a formatting attribute

1. Select the object whose formatting you want to copy, such as a row, column, or table cell.
2. Access the cosmetic formatting dialog box and click the copy formatting button.
3. Select the object to which you want to paste the formatting, access the cosmetic formatting dialog box, and click the paste formatting button.

To restore the default appearance

• Access the cosmetic formatting dialog box for the object, and then click the clear formatting button.

Using a Saved Request as a Style Template for the Cosmetic Appearance of Other Requests

In Oracle BI Answers, after you have customized the cosmetic appearance of a request and saved it, you can use it as a template. This allows you apply the formatting from the saved request to new or existing requests.

Views that support the use of a saved request as a template include the table, pivot table, and chart views.

To use a saved request as a template

1. Click the import view formatting button near the top of the workspace:
2. At the Choose Request dialog box, navigate to saved request and click OK.
3. Click the Saved Results link, or the dashboard preview button to view the results (if available).

   NOTE:  If the preview button is not available, your Oracle BI Presentation Services administrator has suppressed its display.