Excel Formatting

How to change the appearance of your spreadsheets

Overview

Models ensures that all of your generated spreadsheets are consistent in layout and style, and it uses formatting to provide visual indications of how the spreadsheet should be used.

Cell styles

To format cells in Excel, Models uses Excel's built-in Cell Styles feature, as shown in the screenshot below.

Models adds styles to the spreadsheet and then applies these to different types of cells. Editing the style from within Excel changes all cells in the spreadsheet that have the style applied. The main styles that should be understood are listed in the table below.

Style	Details
	The value of these cells can be changed at will. Typically used for Scenario and Sensitivity dropdowns.
	Input values to the Model. These cells should typically only be updated if you have better data than is currently present.
	Cells that are linked to input values. Assumption Variables link to their Assumptions using this type of cell.
	Calculations. Most Variable cells look like this.
	A cell that links to an existing calculation. If you enter a Variable into the Layout multiple times, only the first instance will perform the calculation - subsequent instances of the Variable will link to the first one.
	Cells that should never be changed.
	Indicates a potential problem in generating the spreadsheet (e.g. linking to a Variable which has not been added to the Layout).

Style

Details

The value of these cells can be changed at will. Typically used for Scenario and Sensitivity dropdowns.

Input values to the Model. These cells should typically only be updated if you have better data than is currently present.

Cells that are linked to input values. Assumption Variables link to their Assumptions using this type of cell.

Calculations. Most Variable cells look like this.

A cell that links to an existing calculation. If you enter a Variable into the Layout multiple times, only the first instance will perform the calculation - subsequent instances of the Variable will link to the first one.

Cells that should never be changed.

Indicates a potential problem in generating the spreadsheet (e.g. linking to a Variable which has not been added to the Layout).

Calculation formatting

Models gives users clear indications of how Calculation cells can be interpreted by using separator lines, as shown below. These separator lines show how, if you were building your Model directly in Excel, you could copy/paste a formula vs. where a formula needs to be manually changed.

In the example below:

Time separator: Indicates that a formula cannot be copy/pasted across this line. In this example, the formula references a previous period, so the first period uses a different formula to deal with this case. Time separators are also placed between different Time Segments.
Dimension separator: Indicates that a formula cannot be copy/pasted across this line. In this example, the Churned members Variable has two Dimensions, but references Churn rate which has a single Dimension. This means that the formula can only be copied across the first three rows, and then must be manually changed for the fourth row onwards.
Summary separator: Indicates the summary line of the Variable

While Models controls most of the layout of your spreadsheet, you can tailor some colors and cell formatting to your requirements - read on to find out more.

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Last updated 6 months ago

Overview

Models ensures that all of your generated spreadsheets are consistent in layout and style, and it uses formatting to provide visual indications of how the spreadsheet should be used.

Cell styles

To format cells in Excel, Models uses Excel's built-in Cell Styles feature, as shown in the screenshot below.

Style	Details
	The value of these cells can be changed at will. Typically used for Scenario and Sensitivity dropdowns.
	Input values to the Model. These cells should typically only be updated if you have better data than is currently present.
	Cells that are linked to input values. Assumption Variables link to their Assumptions using this type of cell.
	Calculations. Most Variable cells look like this.
	A cell that links to an existing calculation. If you enter a Variable into the Layout multiple times, only the first instance will perform the calculation - subsequent instances of the Variable will link to the first one.
	Cells that should never be changed.
	Indicates a potential problem in generating the spreadsheet (e.g. linking to a Variable which has not been added to the Layout).

Style

Details

The value of these cells can be changed at will. Typically used for Scenario and Sensitivity dropdowns.

Input values to the Model. These cells should typically only be updated if you have better data than is currently present.

Cells that are linked to input values. Assumption Variables link to their Assumptions using this type of cell.

Calculations. Most Variable cells look like this.

Cells that should never be changed.

Indicates a potential problem in generating the spreadsheet (e.g. linking to a Variable which has not been added to the Layout).

Calculation formatting

In the example below:

Time separator: Indicates that a formula cannot be copy/pasted across this line. In this example, the formula references a previous period, so the first period uses a different formula to deal with this case. Time separators are also placed between different Time Segments.

Dimension separator: Indicates that a formula cannot be copy/pasted across this line. In this example, the Churned members Variable has two Dimensions, but references Churn rate which has a single Dimension. This means that the formula can only be copied across the first three rows, and then must be manually changed for the fourth row onwards.

Summary separator: Indicates the summary line of the Variable

While Models controls most of the layout of your spreadsheet, you can tailor some colors and cell formatting to your requirements - read on to find out more.