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How formatting layers

A cell can get its look from several places at once. They are applied from the most general to the most specific, and the later one wins, field by field:

  1. The template - the base look (alignment, header weight and background, lines, banding, outline), and your global font (Start tab > Font Name / Font Size with nothing selected).
  2. The column - formatting you gave a column's values.
  3. The row - formatting you gave a row. It wins over the column on a cell where both say something.
  4. The cell - formatting you gave that single cell. It wins over row and column.
  5. Conditional Formatting rules - a rule that matches the cell's value wins over everything above, for the fields it sets.

"Field by field" matters: a cell can be bold from its column, red from its row and filled from a rule. Only the fields that are set win; a layer that does not mention a field leaves the one below in place.

Formatting a column or a row after its cells​

A column or a row that you format is formatted for all of its cells. So when you format a column (or a row), the formatting that single cells in it had of their own for the same thing is taken away: a new fill replaces the cells' own fills, a new Bold their own Bold, a new border edge their own edge on that side, a new number format (columns only) their own number format. Say you gave one cell a red fill and now give its column a yellow one: the whole column is yellow, the cell too. What the new formatting does not touch stays - the italic of that cell is still there under the new fill.

It works in this direction only: format the column first and the cell afterwards, and the cell keeps its own look on top.

Switching a style off​

Pressing Bold on a row and pressing it again takes the row's Bold away: the row is then as the layers below make it. In a column that is bold, that second press makes the row plain - the button goes by the row's own settings, so the row first gets a Bold of its own, and the second press gives it a "not bold" that wins over the column. That "not bold" is the one kind of "off" that is saved (see Saving, Undo and Reset); it goes as soon as the column is not bold any more. Italic, Underline, Strikethrough and No Fill work the same way.

The same for borders​

A cell's borders come from its column and its row. A side that both set takes the row's. A cell's own borders win over both, and a rule's borders win over those. The column's top and bottom borders only apply to the first and last row of the table, and the row's left and right borders to the first and last cell of the row - which is what lets Outside Borders on a block of rows or columns draw one frame around the block. See Borders.

Headers and the first column are separate​

  • A column header has formatting of its own, separate from the values below it. Select the column and click its header a second time to narrow the selection to the header; the Start tab then formats the header only. The Formatting panel lists a column's header settings after its values' settings, as "Header ...".
  • The first column (the row labels and the corner cells above them) is formatted as one column of its own: select it by clicking a corner cell. Its row labels and its header (the corner cells) are two parts, each with its own formatting. For the row labels it is the layer under a row's own formatting: where a row sets something, the row wins.

What a template changes - and does not​

A template sets the base look and a few View tab options. It does not remove what you formatted: your column, row, cell and first-column formatting stays when you pick another template. See Templates.

What Reset does​

Reset (Start tab) removes all of these layers except the data: template, row, column, cell and first-column formatting, rules and View tab options. See Saving, Undo and Reset.