Create Conditional Formatting Rules for Relationships
On the Relationships tab in Conditional Formatting, you can define formatting rules for the relationship lines in your chart to better distinguish them visually.
Note
Conditional Formatting is available to clients with a Professional or Enterprise package. Contact your Customer Success Manager to learn more.
Watch this short video on conditional formatting or continue reading.
You can format the relationship lines in your visualised group chart based on relationship characteristics as well as based on characteristics of the entities the lines connect. When you define a rule using a property of the entities the line connects, you also have the option to specify which entity the condition applies to:
- It can apply to the source entity, that is, the entity the line is coming from
- It can be applicable to the target entity, that is, the entity the line points to
- And it can apply to both the source and the target entity.
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Run a group structure and select Visualisation.
Refer to Run a Group Structure to learn more about how to run a group structure.
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In the Edit Panel, select the Conditional Formatting
option. -
Go to the Relationships tab.
On this tab, three rules are available by default: one for primary, one for secondary, and one for external ownership relationships. If required, you can change, remove, reorder, and complete other actions on the rules in the list. Refer to Options for Conditional Formatting Rules to learn more about the options available to you.
- On the Relationships tab, select Add a rule and select an attribute from the list such as Alternate Control.
Once an attribute is selected, the Edit rule panel displays.
Alternatively, use the LIST-TEXT switch at the bottom to open the Text Editor. With the Text Editor, you can quickly create rules and conditions by entering if-then statements. The Text Editor is useful if you want to use custom colours that are not available in the colour palette or when you want to copy and share the rules with your team. You can enter, update, or remove any rules or conditions in the Text Editor. When you're done, use the LIST-TEXT switch again to view the rule you just added in the list view: when you switch back to list view, the system validates the if-then statements you added and lets you know if it finds any errors in them.
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At the top of the Edit rule panel, enter a name for the rule such as Alternate Control.
By default, the name of the first rule is Rule 1, for the second rule, it's Rule 2 and so on.
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Specify the details for the condition you selected.
For example, for the alternate control relationship in this example, select an operator from the list such as Is true. This selection means that the rule applies to alternate control relationships. To learn more about how the different operator options work, refer to Operators.
If you selected an entity attribute such as Country, you can also specify if the condition applies to the source entity, the target entity or both. For example, you can create a rule to format relationship lines with yellow colour if the target entity is in the United Kingdom.
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(Optional) To add another condition to the rule, select Add a condition and choose a relationship, then provide the details for the condition.
You can add multiple conditions to a rule. For example, select Interest Percentage. Select the Greater than operator and enter 80 as interest percentage. To learn more about how the different operator options work, refer to Operators.
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At the bottom of the Edit rule panel, define at least one of the available formatting options.
- To change what the relationship line is made up of, such as dots or dashes, select an option from the Style menu.
- To apply a colour to the relationship line, choose one in Colour.
- To apply a rule to the percentages on the relationship line, select an option in Percentage.
- To select what text to display, if any, on the relationship line, choose an option in Text.
- If you select Text Value in Text, you can enter the text to be displayed on the relationship line in Text Value.
Note
What you define in Percentage and Text only displays if the Show relationship text option is selected in Ownership. Refer to Ownership Options in Group Structure Visualisation to learn more about that option. For corporate relationships, administrators can define what displays as parent and subsidiary code in List Manager > Corporate Relationships.
In this example, Dashed is selected in Style and a dark red is selected in Colour.
Tip
If you want to use a colour that is not in the palette, save the rule, if you can, or select Cancel to exit the edit mode and use the LIST-TEXT switch on the Relationships tab of the Conditional Formatting panel to open the Text Editor and create the rule using if-then statements.
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(Optional) Once you have added at least two conditions, use the AND-OR switch at the bottom to define how the conditions relate to each other.
By default, the switch is set to AND which means that the rule applies to relationship lines that meet all the conditions. If you want the rule to apply to any relationship lines that meet any of the conditions, switch to OR. In this example, with the AND option, the rule applies to the alternate control relationship lines where the interest percentage is greater than 80%. With the OR option, the rule would apply to alternate control relationship lines as well as any relationship lines where the interest percentage is greater than 80%.
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When finished, select Save.
The Save button is only enabled once the rule name is populated, all rule conditions are complete, and at least one formatting option is specified.
The rule you created displays on the Relationships tab of the Conditional Formatting panel. If required, you can change, remove, reorder, and complete other actions on the rules in the list. Refer to Options for Conditional Formatting Rules to learn more about the available options.
- To apply the rule you just created to the group structure chart, select Apply.
The chart updates to show the formatting you just applied. In this example, the chart updates to display the alternate control relationship lines where the interest percentage is greater than 80% as dashed lines but does not change their colour to dark red.
That is because the system applies the rules in the order in which you see them in the list, that is, first applies the rule for primary ownership, then secondary ownership and so on. One of the alternate control relationships in this chart is also a primary relationship, the other one is also a secondary ownership relationship. The rules for the primary and the secondary ownership lines define the colour of the lines as blue, therefore the alternate control relationship lines are blue. To make the system apply the colour in the Alternate control rule that was just created, the rule must be moved to the top of the rule list using the up arrow next to the rule.
For more information about what options are available for the rules you created, refer to Options for Conditional Formatting Rules.
What's next?
You can save the conditional formatting rules you create for later use for yourself and also share them with others. Refer to Save and Share Settings to learn more.
To share the chart with others on your team or print it out for a meeting, use the export option that best fits your needs. When you export the chart, any rules you added display in the chart legend provided that a legend is included in the export. Refer to the topics on how to create exports.
See also
Display User-Defined Fields in Group Structure and Visualisation
