About Conditional Formatting

Use conditional formatting to apply specific formatting to cells in a grid. For example, assume you define "current cell value = 0" and then define a format to change the color of the cell font to blue if the criteria is met. If the data returned for the cell has a value of 0, then the font color is changed to blue.

Conditional formatting takes precedence over all other formatting and replaces formatting previously set at the grid, row or column, or cell level. For example, if you use conditional formatting to change cell colors, yet want to retain a specific number of decimal places applied with regular formatting, you must specify both formats using conditional formatting.

You can apply conditional formatting to enhance your reports. For example, you could underline any values greater than 1000. You can also set up more complex conditional formatting. For example, if the account type equals expense and the current cell value is greater than 1000, you could apply bold to the cell. In addition, if the value of a product cell is less than 1000, you could set the background color of the cell to green.

The manner in which you use conditional formatting can impact performance depending on the size of the report. Performance is also contingent on the criteria used and the frequency of use. All of these factors combined can affect performance. Criteria such as Data Value, Member Name, and Member Alias/Description are faster because they are part of the metadata or data query. Data Value comparisons are the fastest. Avoid criteria such as Generation, Level, Account Type, and Attribute Value whenever possible, as performance is slower because those criteria are not part of the regular metadata or data query.