You can apply conditional formatting to tables or charts to highlight specific values in your data. This approach helps key information, like values falling above, below, or within a specific threshold, stand out at a glance.
Understand conditional formatting
Many organizations create Boards to track vital metrics during regular staff meetings. By using conditional formatting, team members can immediately see how they are performing relative to those specific metrics.
You can add visual cues for KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or threshold metrics to your charts and tables to easily see where you are falling short or exceeding your targets. These visual cues apply color formatting directly to your search results. For tables, you can set the background color of specific cells based on the data they contain. For charts, conditional formatting highlights the thresholds you define, displaying data that falls within those limits using a consistent color.
Apply conditional formatting to a table
You can apply conditional formatting to both individual table cells and column summaries. You have the flexibility to specify background colors, font colors, and font styles such as bold, italics, underlined, or strikethrough. Rules can be created for both measures and attributes, though pivot tables only support conditional formatting for measures.
Pivot tables follow the same conditional formatting rules as standard tables, even though they are grouped under the chart category. Note that you cannot set unique conditional formatting rules for pivot table cells that differ from their column summaries.
Conditional formatting only applies to numbers and strings. For example, you can format a "month of year" column with values like "January," but you cannot apply it to a date column using the "1 Jan 2021" format. For pivot tables, formatting is only available for measures and requires the new answer experience.
If you create multiple rules for a single measure or attribute, the first rule created will override the others if a conflict occurs. To change the priority, simply drag and drop your preferred rule to the top of the list.
In the following example, a table cell falls under two separate rules. Because one rule is positioned higher in the list, its formatting is applied while the other is ignored.
<IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT> (bug affects getting this image)
To create a conditional formatting rule:
Select the edit table configuration icon (the gear icon) at the upper right of your table. The edit table panel will appear on the Configure tab.
Select the measure or attribute you want to format.
The edit panel for that column will open. Under Conditional formatting, select Edit. If you want to format a column summary, select Summary under the column name, check Display Summary, and click Edit. Rules created for a column do not automatically apply to the summary; you must create a separate rule for the column summary.
Select an operator. Valid options for attributes include
is,not,contains,does not contain,starts with,ends with,empty, andnot empty. For measures, options includeless than,greater than,less than or equal to,greater than or equal to,equal to,not equal to,between,empty, andnot empty.Specify the column value(s) that the formatting should affect.
Choose your background color, font color, and/or font style. In this example, if the selling season
is (=) christmas, the background color is set to green and the font color to red.<IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT> (bug affects getting this image)
Select Save. Trends AI will apply the rule to the column or summary.
You can edit an existing rule from the Edit panel by clicking on it.
You can delete a rule by selecting the delete icon that appears when you hover over it in the Edit panel.
<IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT> (bug affects getting this image)
If you switch to a different chart type, you must reapply your conditional formatting. Formatting is specific to each visualization.
Apply conditional formatting to a chart
You can use conditional formatting to display charts with target values or ranges represented as lines. Legend colors are then determined by how data values fall relative to those targets.
To apply conditional formatting to a chart:
Select the edit chart configuration icon (the gear icon) in the upper right of your chart. The Edit chart panel will appear on the Configure menu. Alternatively, select Conditional formatting from the axis menu for the specific measure. If the new answer experience is disabled, you can only access this through the axis menu.
From the Edit chart menu, select the measure you want to format.
In the Edit panel, under Conditional formatting, select + Add rule.
Select an operator. Valid options for measures are
less than,greater than,less than or equal to,greater than or equal to,equal to,not equal to,between,empty, andnot empty.Select the conditional value or range. In this example, we apply formatting to revenue values between
100 millionand125 million. <IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT>To change the color, select a new option from the color selector. This draws upper and lower limit lines and colors chart elements that meet your requirements. <IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT> Alternatively, you can place a range band on the chart by selecting the Fill chart option. <IMAGE OF ORIGINAL CONTENT>
To add another condition, select + Add rule below your existing rules.
To remove a format, go to the Edit panel for the measure and select the delete icon that appears on hover.
Select Done.
The following image shows a comparison between highlighting individual elements and using a background chart band.
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Limitations
The following chart types do NOT support conditional formatting:
Funnel
Geo area
Geo bubble
Geo heatmap
Heatmap
Pie
Radar
Sankey
Treemap