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Editing the Appearance of Column Contents in Oracle BI Answers

The default appearance of column contents in results is based on cascading style sheets and XML message files. You can use the Value Format tab of the Column Properties dialog box to override several default settings, such as the font and font size to use, and copy and paste formatting. Your selections apply only to the contents of the column for the request with which you are working.

To edit the appearance of column contents

1. In Oracle BI Answers, click the Properties button for a column to open the Column Properties dialog box, and then click the Value Format tab.
2. Make your choices for font, cell, border, image, and additional formatting options.

   For information, see Formatting Column Content In Oracle BI Answers.

   For additional information about the cosmetic formatting available on this tab, see Applying Cosmetic Formatting to Results and Dashboards.

3. On the Data Format tab, you can control the way the data is displayed by clicking the following option:

   Override Default Data Format

   This option allows you to override the default display characteristics. The selections that you see vary based on the data type. For example, if the column contains numeric data, you can choose how you want the numbers treated, such as percentages, month names, or dates. You can choose the number of decimal places to display, how to display negative numbers, the number of digits to show, and the thousands separator to use. If your column contains text, you can choose how to treat the text, such as plain text, HTML, or a link. Based on your selection, the Custom Text Format text box displays the applicable HTML string used to display the data.

   • To use a custom format for text, choose Custom Text Format from the drop-down list, and then type the custom format. You can type HTML calls that provide special formatting. You can also type any valid HTML string, including JavaScript, VBScript, and so on.

     NOTE:  The first character must be an at sign character (@). This allows devices that are incapable of displaying the custom format to display the data in the appropriate default format.

     For example, the following example HTML sets the column width and height in tables and pivot tables. In the example, the text html enclosed in brackets ([html]) means to use HTML, and the at sign (@)character represents the dynamic contents of the column.

   @[html]<span style="width:200px; height:50px">@</span>

   If you do not know HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, and so on, consult a third-party reference.

   • To create a custom numeric format, you can use the number sign (#) to include significant digits, and the number zero (0) to include as many digits as specified, even if the number does not contain that detail.

     For example, specifying ##.# shows 12.34 as 12.3, and specifying ##.000 shows 12.34 as 12.340.

4. If you are editing a date/time column, the Data Format tab will display the Display Time Zone drop-down list where you can select and apply a specific time zone to the column. Note the following options:
   • If you select the Default time zone option from the list and the administrator has specified a system default time zone, the system default time zone will be used to display the time value in the column.
   • If you select the Default time zone option from the list and the administrator has not specified a system default time zone, the user's preferred time zone will be used to display the time value in the column.
   • If you select the Data time zone option from the list, the original data retrieved from the database will be displayed.
   • If you select a specific time zone (for example, GMT +05:45 Kathmandu) and the administrator has specified a system default time zone, the system's default time zone will be converted into the specific time zone that you selected.
5. Click OK when you are done.