Excel Themes and Styles
How to style your Excel outputs
Themes
In Models, you can set a specific theme for any Model, or use a default theme, set in the Application Settings.
You can create as many themes as you like. Each Theme comprises:
An Excel Theme File, which sets the color scheme for your Model
A set of Styles, which instructs Models how it should format different types of cell in your Excel output
You can create and edit Themes in the Themes applet, accessible from the Navigation Bar, or from any Themes picker.
Default and Model Themes
You can set the Theme for a Model in two ways:
Use the Default theme for all Models
Set a specific theme for an individual Model
Default themes are set by navigating to Edit > Edit settings, and selecting/creating a Theme in the Default Theme page of the wizard. This Theme will automatically be applied to any new Models.
To set a specific theme for a Model, in the Model Editor, open the Model settings bar, and click Edit in the Model settings section. This will open a wizard in which you can set the Theme to be used in the Model.
Excel Theme Files
To generate spreadsheets, Models must have access to an Excel color scheme file (.xml extension). Models comes installed with a default Theme File, but you can change to a color scheme of your choosing at any time.
When you create a new Theme File item, you will be asked to select a .xml color scheme file from your computer, which Models will copy to your data folder locally.
Creating a .xml color scheme
There are several ways of creating one of these files, including from within Excel, Word or PowerPoint. Below are the steps to create a scheme from Excel (modern versions).
Exporting a color scheme from Excel
Open any spreadsheet in Excel
Navigate to Page Layout > Colors
Click on Customize Colors... at bottom of list
Use the dialog box to edit your color scheme, enter a Name for it, and click Save
Your color scheme will be saved as [Name].xml in C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes\Theme Colors
Styles
Styles allow you to select formatting options for certain types of cell in the Excel output that Models produces, such as headings, input cells and calculation cells.
The Themes wizard shows you how each type of cell is currently formatted, and allows you to choose a color and font style.
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