Overview

There are several ways to express formatting applied to objects in a worksheet. SpreadsheetML supports the concepts of Styles, Themes, and Direct Formatting applied to cell ranges, Tables, PivotTables, Charts, and Shapes.

A Style is a named collection of formatting elements. A cell style can specify number format, cell alignment, font information, cell border specifications, colors, and background / foreground fills. Table styles specify formatting elements for the regions of a table (e.g. make the header row & totals bold face, and apply light gray fill to alternating rows in the data portion of the table to achieve striped or banded rows). PivotTable styles specify formatting elements for the regions of a PivotTable (e.g. 1st & 2nd level subtotals, row axis, column axis, and page fields).

A Style can specify color, fonts, and shape effects directly, or these elements can be referenced indirectly by referring to a Theme definition. Using styles allows for quicker application of formatting and more consistently stylized documents.

Themes define a set of colors, font information, and effects on shapes (including Charts). If a style or formatting element defines its color, font, or effect by referencing a theme, then picking a new theme switches all the colors, fonts, and effects for that formatting element.

Applying Direct Formatting means that particular elements of formatting (e.g. a bold font face or a number format) have been applied, but the elements of formatting have been chosen individually instead of collectively by choosing a named Style. Note that when applying direct formatting, themes can still be referenced, causing those elements to change as the theme is changed.