You can use your favorite social network to register or link an existing account:
Or use your email address to register without a social network:
Sign in with these social networks:
Or enter your username and password
Forgot your password?
Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.
No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.
We are interested in getting some user feedback on how conditional formatting (Data Bars specifically – see here for some info on Data Bars) should behave when the sheet direction is set to right-to-left (RTL). (Background for those not familiar with RTL - when a sheet direction is set to RTL, cell A1 is at the top-right corner as opposed to the top-left corner ... see two images below – the one on the left is regular left-to-right sheet orientation, the one on the right is RTL.) Excel has an RTL option for users of languages that read right to left, such as Hebrew and Arabic.
Numbers in a worksheet are always aligned to the right of the cell regardless of the sheet direction. When the sheet direction is the regular (left-to-right) orientation, Data Bars start from the left (see the first picture below). What we would love to hear feedback on is how Data Bars should behave in a sheet that has the RTL option set on … should Data Bars start from the right when the sheet direction is set to RTL (second picture)? Or should Data Bars always start from the left since it is a conditional formatting option associated with numbers (basically, work the same way regardless of whether RTL is on or off)?
Here are the two images:
Which orientation for the Data Bars would make the most sense to a RTL user? We would really like to hear back from some native RTL users, so with your feedback please indicate whether or not you are a native RTL user. All feedback is greatly appreciated.
Comments: (12) Collapse
I'd like the ability to select which way the bars go, even if all I use is left-to-right. Or to specify positive-right and negative-left.
Given that the numbers are right justified in both circumstances, then I believe it would be sensible to keep the Data Bars starting from the left. [I don't use RTL].
If you did change them, as indicated in the second option, then the view is totally different.
Another spanner-in-the-works comment. I use LTR but would want to be able to have data bars both ways or, as someone previously said, to be able to have +/- bars (i.e. with 0 somewhere in the centre of the cell). This latter would, of course, require two sets of colour options ... Have data bars opened a whole new can of worms?!
Seriously - this is a good feature and I think it can be improved. For me, as a LTR user, the right aligned bars are the most intuitive for me (as opposed to your default) because the bar emphasises the digit. Given that numbers are right-aligned as well in RTL, then I would have thought that default would then naturally carry to them.
On a random further note, is there an option for a bottom-to-top (BTT?) mode? It would be very useful for certain graphing systems and seeing as you've already written the LTR/RTL code it can't be that much of a grind ... can it? [naive perhaps of me to suggests such a thing ...]
I'd stick by the adage 'If your having to have a long debate about which way it should be make it configurable'
I'd like to be able to select if the bars start left or right or in the middle (with two colors for positive and negative values - this would be a great function!) [I don't use RTL].
(I'm a RTL user.)
I have a previous negative opinion on this conditional formatting, even in the LTR view. Choosing a third color to fit a front- and back-ground scheme is really hard. This mid-option must be visible on the cell color, and at same time not interrupt the text color.
For this, I assume, the LTR bar design is good enough – because of the color fading in it, in contrary to the RTL coloring problem. Note that this RTL coloring problem may appear even on LTR sheet (if the column is best fitted) as well.
It seems that the Office team chose to ignore this problem, and let the coloring problems to the user handle. That may be a right decision, and under this decision, the coloring problem should not be an issue even in the RTL conditional format.
The second issue is the independent question of any bars direction for Hebrew and Arabic eves. I can tell that the native right-to-left reader see any information in the same direction. That's why the "correct" RTL bars should be as proposed on the right side of the picture.
I can support this behavior with the default RTL x-axis graphs in Excel, which increase from the right to the left.
[I am not an RTL user]
I have no true opinion either way, except that if the darkest part of the databar overlaps with the text, it makes the text really hard to read. I think ittays was saying something similar, that the user has to struggle to find a colour combination that makes the text legible. This is of course true even in the LTR case when the databar approaches 100%
I guess I'll throw in another vote for customizable and let the user decide what works best in his situation.
Thanks for all the great feedback! Although having the ability to select which way the bars go would be a great option, we are just too late in the development cycle to implement that. It would require a change to our file formats and we’ve locked down our new file formats consequently, we’re not taking any changes that require us to save new types of information at this point. So given that selection of the direction of the data bars is not an option, which orientation for RTL users would be most appropriate?
Hi David,
It is strange to note that someone in Microsoft is seeking feedback for something which should have been configurable by default for all the users, whereas for other much more important issues they never heed to the cries of the users.
Regards
Kanwal
I concur with those who are suggesting that something like a left align/right align toggle would be nice.
Cheers,
Shane Devenshire
<<<<i><<<
<<<<i><
Comments: (loading) Collapse