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Color Table Utilities

Choose your own ways to color table rows
Ever wanted to have some more freedom on row colors? Preset gradients are too few and restricted to numbers only? Here are some tricks to expand coloring capabilities!

Read me first!

This document is designed to demonstrate and test Coda's potential capabilities rather than to serve as a production template.
It primarily utilizes the unofficial _GRADIENT() formula (within the conditional format section). Please note that this formula has certain limitations and could be subject to changes or discontinuation at any time.
You are encouraged to experiment with it, but please be aware that its use is at your own risk.
This doc also uses a convenient pack () that has been built for this precise purpose. Almost everything could have been done in a “pure” Coda, but it would have required a lot of intensive computation.

Examples

[Some basic formula knowledge is required, here]

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1. [Easy] For each row, a manually selectable color

This way you can decide a color for each single row. Useful in Lookup tables. Here’s an example:
Status Table
Name
Color
Not Started
In Progress
Done
Won’t Do
There are no rows in this table
Add a relation column Color to in your table
In the Conditional format, add a formula-based rule like this (you can copy/paste it) and apply to the columns of your choice
[Optional, but recommended] Still in the Conditional format, add another formula-based rule:
Then, just select a white text (More → Custom → Text Color → White) and apply it to the same columns you chose for the background

2. [Medium] Multi-level: for every row, a shade of a specific color

Useful when you have hierarchies. typically category and sub-category.
There are several variations, here is just one of the possible use cases:
Taxonomy
Name
Parent
Color
2nd Color
Mammalia
Lion
Tiger
Bear
Wolf
Aves
Sparrow
Eagle
Owl
Actinopterygii
Goldfish
Carp
Shark
Trout
Salmon
Catfish
Bass
There are no rows in this table
Animals
Name
Species
Class
Richard Parker
Sam the Eagle
Bruce
There are no rows in this table
To achieve this, just start as in the first example, but define colors only for top-level rows
Then, you add a custom gradient for children that takes the parent’s color as the upper bound and the second Color (default White) as the lower bound.
You can add complexity to multiple nested categories.

3. [Advanced] Tables gradient from a custom palette

If you want fully custom gradients, you “bind” a table to an existing palette here.
Teams
Name
Description
Team 1
Description of Team 1
Team 2
Description of Team 2
Team 3
Description of Team 3
Team 4
Description of Team 4
Team 5
Description of Team 5
Team 6
Description of Team 6
Team 7
Description of Team 7
Team 8
Description of Team 8
Team 9
Description of Team 9
Team 10
Description of Team 10
Team 11
Description of Team 11
Team 12
Description of Team 12
Team 13
Description of Team 13
Team 14
Description of Team 14
Team 15
Description of Team 15
Team 16
Description of Team 16
Team 17
Description of Team 17
Team 18
Description of Team 18
Team 19
Description of Team 19
Team 20
Description of Team 20
There are no rows in this table
To add a palette-based gradient to any table there are some steps to follow Assuming you have a table “My Table”:
Create a new row in the table (see )
Add the link to My Table (via @-mention)
Select the palette you prefer (and wait for the color set to be updated)
Add a Gradient Info (formula) column in the destination table.
Click the ‘ Gradient Info button and paste the content in its formula field
Go to conditional formal and add two formula-based rules (here it’s similar to the Easy first step, with slightly different formulas)
Click Background Color button, add a formula-based rule, and paste it into the formula field
Similarly, click ‘ Foreground Color button, add a formula-based rule, and paste it in the formula field, then select only a white text for that formula (More → Custom → Text → White)


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