Concept: Visual Cues in the Worksheets User Interface
Icons
This table describes notable icons that indicate certain actions and states in the user interface.
Icon | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Static formula, array formula, or data cell | Gray fx without braces. |
| Constrained formula | Blue fx with curly braces. |
| Unconstrained formula | Orange fx with curly braces. |
| Global prompts | Gray icon in the toolbar that you can use to assign global prompts for a live data area. |
| AI Formula Writer | Purple icon that opens the AI Formula Writer. |
| External references | Gray icon with arrow pointing out. Indicates that this is a consumer workbook, and data from the producer is up to date. |
| External references | Green icon with arrow pointing in. Indicates that this is a consumer workbook and data in the producer workbook was changed. You can click the icon to update the data in the consumer workbook. The update that occurs as a result of the action is the same as Recalculate All. Once the producer workbook's data changes occur, there might be a delay of up to 2 minutes before the consumer workbook External References icon turns green. |
| Circular references and iteration limits | A red or yellow icon indicates that Worksheets didn't finish calculating; the workbook is in a state where some formulas didn't fully run and are showing stale values. You can hover the cursor over the icon to see a tooltip with information about the problem. There are two common causes for a workbook to prematurely stop calculating: either the calculation limit was reached, or one or more circular references exist in the workbook. If the problem is caused by a circular reference, you can click the red icon to navigate to the cell location of the reference. If you have more than one circular reference, Worksheets navigates to the location of the first one. |
| Circular references and iteration limits | A red or yellow icon indicates that Worksheets didn't finish calculating; the workbook is in a state where some formulas didn't fully run and are showing stale values. A yellow icon indicates that during formula calculations a function such as ARRAYAREA, INDIRECT, or IF has revisited cells more than 5 times. Essentially a kind of chain reaction exists where an unconstrained formula changes data, which causes another unconstrained formula to run, and it repeats until this has continued 5 times. If this occurs, you need to simplify your usage of unconstrained formulas. |
| Protected data | A lock indicator displays on the function bar when a user selects a cell or a row in a protected range. |
| Protected data | A lock icon displays in the header of a protected column. |
| Protected data | A lock icon displays next to the sheet name of a protected sheet. |
| Comments | A dot on the Collaborate icon indicates unread comments. To open the Collaborate panel and mark all comments as read, click the icon. |
| Comments | A triangle in the corner of a workbook cell indicates that a comment exists for that specific cell. To view the comment, right-click the cell and select View Comment . |
| Filter | A blue filter icon displays at the top of any column that has an active filter. |
Colors and Borders
This table describes notable colors and borders that display around different types of data in specific situations.
Color or Border | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Solid purple border | Array data | Worksheets displays a solid purple border around all the cells of an array created using an array formula. |
Solid orange border and banner | Public filter | An orange border and banner indicate an active public filter. |
Solid teal border and banner | Private filter | A teal border and banner indicate an active private filter. |
Solid purple border and banner | Shared filter | A purple border and banner indicate an active shared filter. |
Dashed line blue border | Live data | Worksheets displays a dashed line blue border around all the cells in live data. You can toggle the live data highlighting off and on using the check box in the Live Data panel. |
Dashed line purple border | Spill error | If a formula calculation or a data update results in a SPILL error (the results can't display because they would overlap existing data), and then you select the anchor cell of the array, a dashed line purple border appears around the cells that would be populated if the calculation/update could occur. The border includes the cells that are preventing the data from populating. |
Dashed line green border | Integrating products | Worksheets displays a dashed line green border around updatable cell ranges from integrating applications such as Workday Payroll and Workday Projects. The formula icon becomes green with a lightning bolt shape at the lower right when a selected workbook cell contains updatable data. |
Colored background in column | Live data |
|
Avatar border and cell border | User presence | When more than one user views or edits a workbook simultaneously, Worksheets assigns a different color to each user and shows a cell border in that color to identify the users interacting with the cells. Avatars for the users display above the workbook. |