Color rules
Mark bars and table cells that meet a rule with status colors, data bars and scales, without letting color carry the meaning alone.
Color rules call out what needs attention: the months above a target, the regions below a floor. Charts use them on bars, and tables use conditional formats on cells. In both, the color always comes with words or a number, so meaning never rests on color alone.
A rule marks months of at least 12,000 orders as busy, and the legend says so.
Color bars by a rule
Rules work on column and bar charts without a Breakdown.
In the chart editor, open Analysis. Under Color bars when, choose Add rule.
Choose a condition: Above, At least, Below, At most or Between.
Type the value, or both ends for Between, which includes them.
Choose a status: Good, Warning, Serious or Critical.
Add a Label for the legend, such as Busy month. Left empty, the rule is described in words.
A chart can have up to five rules, and the first one a bar meets wins. So put the most specific rule first: "Below 1,000 is Critical" before "Below 2,000 is Warning".
Each rule that a bar meets adds a legend entry, and the tooltip names it. Rules no bar meets stay out of the legend.
Rule values are fixed in the chart, so they don't follow filters. For a line that does, use a computed reference line.
Status colors and series colors
Status colors mean one thing: how a value stands. They're never used as series colors, and series colors never mean status.
Series colors follow a fixed order of eight, or your organization's brand palette, chosen so neighboring series stay distinct for colorblind readers. You don't pick them per chart. Saving a chart pins each series to its color, so a filter never repaints the ones that remain. Past eight series, the rest fold into a gray Other. Set your brand's palette in Branding.
Conditional formats in tables
Tables have richer rules, called conditional formats. Find Conditional formats in a report table's settings, or in the dataset explorer, where they're saved with table views.
Choose Add rule, pick a column, then choose the kind of rule:
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Threshold | Marks values that meet a condition with a color, an icon and words |
| Color scale | Shades each cell by where its value falls |
| Data bar | Draws a bar behind each value |
The value always stays printed in the cell.
Threshold
When the value is: Above, At least, Below, At most, Equal to or Not equal to, and a Value.
Mark it as: Good, Warning, Critical or Note. Each has its own icon.
Say: words read with the value by screen readers, such as Below target.
Color scale
Low to high runs one ramp from the lowest value to the highest.
Around a midpoint runs two directions from a neutral middle. Use it for growth or variance to target, where above and below mean different things. Without a Midpoint, it's 0 when the values span 0, and otherwise the middle of the range.
Low end and High end default to the data's own, so set them to compare fairly across filters.
Data bar
From the low end draws each bar from the range's low end. Good for sizes, such as revenue.
Both ways draws bars from a midpoint toward each value, in two colors. Good for growth rates.
Shaded charts
Heatmaps, calendars and region maps shade by value on their own, on a ramp checked for contrast in light and dark. There's nothing to set. A region with no data takes a neutral fill that the legend names, so it can't be mistaken for a low value.
Good habits
Use few rules. If everything is marked, nothing stands out.
Choose the status for its meaning. High returns are bad, so make them Critical, even though the number is high.
Name the rule. "Below target" says more than a color does.