About using conditional formatting in documents

Conditional formatting allows you to alert document recipients to data that is likely to be important for making business decisions. You can format specified controls in your document to draw immediate attention to data that meets predefined criteria.

A conditional format is made up of two parts: the condition, and the formatting that will be applied to the control when the conditions are met. The data that meets the condition is considered to be data that has passed the threshold of the condition. Once data passes the threshold, formatting can be applied to the control, or the control can be hidden or replaced. You can create criteria for conditional formatting by qualifying on a metric. Derived metrics and summary metrics can be used to create conditional formatting; calculated expressions cannot.

You can use conditional formatting to format a control in the following ways:

Hide the control
Format the control in a particular way; for example, display profit values greater than $1,000,000 in bold text
Replace the control with text, such as Goal Met for units sold greater than 50,000
Replace the control with a symbol, such as a diamond for sales above $100,000
Replace the control with an image, such as a corporate logo for costs below $50,000

The following table lists the control types and the types of conditional formatting available for each.

Control Type	Conditional Formatting Available
Image	Hide object Formatting: Borders
Line	Hide object Formatting: Line style, color, and weight
Rectangle	Hide object Formatting: Background color; line style, color, and weight
Text field	Hide object Replacement text and symbols Formatting: All formatting properties
Section	Hide object Formatting: Background color

You can define criteria to format reports and data displayed in a grid in a document using thresholds. For examples, images, and an introduction to thresholds, see the Basic Reporting Guide.