15. Conditional formatting and color scheme

Conditional formatting and color scheme

A global color scheme keeps categories consistent; Conditional formatting specifically highlights deviations, thresholds and ranking positions.

Open Dashboard Designer on the desktop Administration.

Your goal

You can set a consistent dashboard color scheme and professionally apply format rules for grid, pivot, chart or card.

Why this is crucial in the dashboard designer

Good color creates orientation: the same status or category looks the same everywhere. Bad color creates alarm where there is none or hides real deviations.

Elements and settings at a glance

• Color Scheme: Global mapping of identical values to consistent colors.
• Calculated By: Data field or card whose value the rule evaluates.
• Apply To: Target value, cell, row, card part or chart element.
• Value rule: Compares with fixed limits.
• Top/Bottom: Highlighting ranking values.
• Average: Comparison with average.
• Expression: Complex condition, possibly with parameters.
• Icon/Color/Gradient Range: Icons, class colors or gradient.
• Data bar: Bars in the grid for relative size display.

Here's how to do it

1. Define a small semantic color palette.
2. Open global color scheme and unify recurring categories.
3. Create a format rule with a unique limit.
4. Choose the evaluation field and target area carefully.
5. Test below, exactly at and above the limit as well as in export.

Exercise

Mark overdue tasks in a grid with an icon plus text color, mark goal achievement in cards and give a category the same color across the dashboard.

Check the result

• The same categories have the same colors.
• Limit values are technically approved.
• Rule affects the intended element.
• Information remains understandable without color.
• Export preserves the highlighting sufficiently.

Typical errors and their solutions

• Red/green without addition: Is not recognizable for some readers and black and white export.
• Too many thresholds: Make the dashboard busy and difficult to prioritize.
• Automatic pallets per element: Same category can get different colors.

Your result

Color becomes a reliable carrier of meaning instead of decoration.

Further information / source

Related topics

1. For customizers – customize screens and forms › Dashboard designer › 09. KPI cards, gauges and geographical maps
2. For Customizer – Customize screens and forms › Dashboard designer › 11. Calculated fields and expressions
3. For customizers – customize screens and forms › Dashboard designer › 17. Titles, labels, currencies and units

Frequently asked questions