Overview
Ardoq has improved conditional formatting in the Viewpoint Builder with enhanced operators, better visual controls, and field-specific formatting options. These improvements provide more precise control over how data is highlighted and displayed in your viewpoints.
Important: These enhancements apply exclusively to Viewpoints in Ardoq. Conditional formatting in workspace (perspectives) remains unchanged and will continue to use the existing formatting system.
What's New
The enhanced conditional formatting system introduces:
Field-specific operators - Each field type now has semantically appropriate operators, making it clearer which conditions apply to different data types
New comparison operators - Additional operators including "is not", "does not contain", "greater than or equal to", "less than or equal to", "is between", and "is not between"
Color range formatting for numbers - Apply gradient color scales to numeric fields for visual data analysis
Improved empty state handling - Better support for identifying and formatting empty or unset fields across all field types
Clearer operator labels - Consistent naming conventions (e.g., "is" instead of "equals", "contains" instead of "contains substring")
Dependency map has exact colors when choosing a color and a refreshed default palette based on our recommendation.
Possibility to choose how to display data that doesn't meet your formatting rules: either fade it out (greyed out) to hide unnecessary data or keep it as is (unchanged).
Key Improvements by Field Type
Number Fields
New operators:
Applies to: Revision, Incoming references, Outgoing references, Number custom fields
Color range - Apply gradient color formatting based on numeric values
is - Check if a number equals a specific value
is not - Exclude specific numeric values
greater than or equal to - Include values at or above a threshold
less than or equal to - Include values at or below a threshold
is between - Specify a numeric range with minimum and maximum values
is not between - Exclude a numeric range
is empty - Identify fields with no value set
Example use case: Apply a color gradient to applications by using the Gartner TIME quadrant and see them automatically assigned based on traffic light colors.-
Text Fields
New operators:
Applies to: Description, Display text, Text/Textarea/Email/URL custom fields
is not - Exclude specific text values
does not contain - Exclude text containing specific substrings
is empty - Identify empty text fields
Removed operators: "greater than" and "less than" have been removed as they were not semantically appropriate for text comparison.
Example use case: Highlight all applications where the description is empty to identify gaps in documentation.
Boolean Fields (Checkboxes)
Improved operators:
Applies to: Checkbox custom fields
checked - Field is checked/true
unchecked - Field is unchecked/false
not set - Field has never been set (different from unchecked)
This replaces the previous "is true/false" system and provides clearer distinction between unchecked and unset states.
Example use case: Highlight all applications where "GDPR Compliant" checkbox is unchecked or not set for compliance auditing.
Select and Multi-Select List Fields
New operators:
Applies to: List custom fields and multi-select list custom fields
is not - Exclude specific list values
contains - For multi-select fields, check if any selected values match
does not contain - For multi-select fields, exclude specific values
is empty - Identify fields with no selection
Example use case: Highlight all projects where the Status field is "At Risk" or "Blocked" to quickly identify items needing attention.
Date and Date Range Fields
Available operators:
Applies to: Created date, Last updated, Date/DateTime custom fields
is - Exact date match
is before - Dates prior to a specific date
is after - Dates following a specific date
is between - Specify a date range (new)
is empty - Identify unset date fields (new)
Example use case: Highlight all applications last updated more than 6 months ago to identify stale data.
User Fields
New operators:
Applies to: User field custom fields, Created by, Last modified by
is not - Exclude specific users
is empty - Identify fields where no user is assigned
Removed operators: "contains", "greater than", and "less than" have been removed as they were not appropriate for user field comparisons.
Example use case: Highlight all applications where the Application Owner field is empty to identify ownership gaps.
How to Apply Conditional Formatting
Open Viewpoint Builder - Navigate "Explore Data" or open an existing Viewpoint you'd like to format.
Access Formatting Options - click on the "View Options" button in the top right corner to open the side bar and click "Conditional Formatting"
Select what to format - Choose type and field you want to apply formatting to. Based on the dataset, you'll see the options you can format and might even get
Choose Operator - Select the appropriate operator from the dropdown (operators will vary based on field type)x
Choose/adjust Color - If the value chosen is not part of our solution guide, you might need to select it yourself. Just click on the button showing default to choose from the palette, or click on the "custom" dropdown to select your personal preference.
Apply and Save changes - Save the viewpoint persist the state.
Multiple Conditions
You can create multiple conditional formatting rules for the same viewpoint. Rules are evaluated in order, with later rules taking precedence over earlier ones if there are conflicts.
Migration of Existing Rules
Existing conditional formatting rules created before this update will continue to work. The system automatically translates old rules to the new operator system:
"equals" with inversion → "is not"
"contains" with inversion → "does not contain"
Inverted "greater than" → "less than or equal to"
Inverted "less than" → "greater than or equal to"
Best Practices
Use color ranges for numeric data - Color gradients help identify patterns and outliers in numeric data more effectively than discrete color rules
Combine multiple rules - Layer multiple conditional formatting rules to create rich, informative visualizations
Check for empty values - Use "is empty" operators to identify data quality issues and incomplete records
Be specific with text matching - Use "is" for exact matches and "contains" when you need partial matching
Test your rules - After creating formatting rules, verify they highlight the expected data by reviewing your viewpoint
Related Resources
Conditional Formatting in Workspaces - For workspace-level formatting (remains unchanged)
Working with Custom Fields in Ardoq
Advanced Search and Query Builder