Creating a conditional format using complex conditions

You can define multiple simple thresholds and corresponding formatting options to apply conditional formatting on a control in your document. This allows you to create thresholds for more than one metric. A simple threshold consists of one expression; for example, one threshold can calculate a revenue that is greater than $10,000.

Conditional formatting on selector totals

Selectors provide dashboards with interactivity, allowing each user to change how he sees the data. A selector can change panels, the focus of a Grid/Graph, or dynamic text fields (a text field that is a reference to an object on a report) in a panel stack. Selectors that contain attribute, custom group, or consolidation elements as selector items can also include an option to display totals. The total is calculated for all the selector items. A user can choose whether to display specific elements, all of the elements at the same time, or the totals.

If the control you are formatting is the target of a selector, you can specify whether to apply conditional formatting to the control only when metrics are selected in the selector, or for both metrics and totals. For example, a document contains the Region attribute and the Revenue metric on a panel stack. The panel stack is targeted by a selector, which allows a user to choose the region to display in the panel stack. The selector includes the option to display the total, which is calculated for all the regions. The conditional formatting on the Revenue metric displays low revenue in red and high revenue in green. The conditional formatting can be applied to the regional revenue values only (that is, the metric only), or to both the regional revenue values and the total value.

For steps to show totals in a selector, see Showing totals in selectors.

To create a conditional format using complex conditions

Open the document in Design or Editable Mode.
Right-click the control you want to format in the document layout area, point to Conditional Formatting, then select Advanced. The Conditional Formatting dialog box opens.

Specify the threshold's qualifications

Select the metric on which to base the threshold from the Filter on drop-down list.
From the second drop-down list, select a comparison operator such as Greater Than or Less Than.
Do one of the following:

To compare the metric to a specified value, type the value in the text field.

To compare the metric to a second metric, click Select Metric. From the drop-down list, select the second metric to use for the comparison.

Click the Apply icon to create the new threshold.
You can create, edit, and delete thresholds:

It is often convenient to make a copy of a threshold if you plan to create similar thresholds in the document. To copy a threshold, select the threshold in the Conditional Formatting dialog box and select the Copy icon on the toolbar. To paste a copied threshold, select the threshold and select the Paste icon on the toolbar.

To delete a threshold, select the threshold and select the Delete Threshold icon on the toolbar.

To delete all thresholds, click the Delete All Thresholds icon.

To add an additional condition to a threshold, select the threshold and select the Add Condition icon .

To clear the conditions from a threshold, select the threshold and select the Clear Conditions icon .

Specify the formatting for the threshold

To specify how data that meets the threshold is formatted, click the threshold, then click the Cell Formatting icon on the toolbar. The Format dialog box opens.
Specify a name for the threshold in the Name field, if desired.
To replace the threshold values with text, an image, or a quick symbol, select the Replace Data check box and select one of the following from the drop-down list.

Replace Text: Replace data with any text you specify. For example, a document shows the financial values of various sales opportunities. For those sales opportunities that have been lost, you might display the word LOST in red, rather than displaying the financial value. A common use of this option is to display the word EMPTY when a data value is null.

If you select this option, type the text with which to replace the values in the corresponding text field.
Quick Symbol: Replace the normally displayed data with a common symbol. For example, a document shows the financial contribution of various sales groups to overall sales office activity. For the monthly trend column you could show either a green plus + or a red minus – symbol to represent positive or negative contribution trends.

If you select this option, select the symbol with which to replace the values from the corresponding drop-down menu.
Hide: Hide the control. For example, a document shows an image if the number of units sold is less than a specified value. You can hide this image when the units sold is greater than or equal to the target value.

To format the threshold values by adjusting the font, color, alignment, and other options, make the appropriate selections within the Font, Number, Alignment, and Color and Lines tabs. See Format Thresholds Editor for more information on the options available.
Click OK to apply the changes and return to the Conditional Formatting dialog box.
To determine if a background color is applied to graphs in which thresholds are met, select the Enable Thresholds on Graph icon .
To create an alert based on the threshold so that an email is delivered to you or other users when the threshold is met, select the icon. For details on using the Alerts Editor, see the Basic Reporting Guide.
To determine how to apply conditional formatting if the control you are formatting is the target of a selector, select one of the following options on the toolbar:

To apply conditional formatting only when metrics are selected in the selector, click the Format metrics only icon.

To apply conditional formatting for both metrics and the Total option, click the Format metrics and subtotals icon.

For steps to show the Total option in a selector, see Showing totals in selectors.
To add additional threshold conditions, click the Add Threshold icon , then follow the appropriate steps above to define the threshold conditions.
Click OK to apply the new thresholds to the document.