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Format Cells

Description​

The Format Cells activity applies formatting to one or more cells within a worksheet.

Formatting can be applied to a single cell, a range of cells, or multiple cells and ranges specified using a comma-separated list.

Common settings​

Use Process Data to bind supported inputs to workflow values or upstream outputs. See Common Activity Features for shared execution, error-handling, and output-persistence settings. Availability depends on the activity.

Design-Time Configuration​

Workbook Configuration​

This activity requires an Excel workbook.

Learn more → Excel Workbook Configuration

Worksheet Selection​

This activity operates on a worksheet within the workbook.

Learn more → Excel Worksheet Selection

Worksheet Data Selection​

This activity targets specific cells within a worksheet.

Learn more → Worksheet Data Selection

Cells​

Cell address, range address, or comma-separated list of cell and range addresses to format.

Examples:

  • A1
  • A1:B10
  • A1,C5,D10
  • A1:B5,D10:F20

Font Settings​

Controls the appearance of text within the selected cells.

Available options include:

  • Font family
  • Font size
  • Font style
  • Bold
  • Italic
  • Underline
  • Font color
  • Strikethrough
  • Superscript
  • Subscript

Alignment Settings​

Controls how content is positioned within the selected cells.

Available options include:

  • Horizontal alignment
  • Vertical alignment
  • Indentation
  • Text rotation
  • Wrap text
  • Shrink to fit

Fill Settings​

Controls cell background formatting.

Available options include:

  • Fill color
  • Pattern type
  • Pattern color

Border Settings​

Controls cell border appearance.

Available options include:

  • Top border
  • Bottom border
  • Left border
  • Right border
  • Diagonal borders
  • Inside borders for ranges
  • Border line styles
  • Border colors

Formatting Behavior​

Most formatting properties support a Do not change option.

When selected, the corresponding formatting attribute remains unchanged.

This allows workflows to update only specific formatting properties while preserving existing cell formatting.

Fonts on the execution host​

Formatting depends on the fonts installed on the execution host or inside its container. If a required font is absent, a fallback can change the result. See Spreadsheet Fonts on Linux.

Outputs​

This activity does not produce any activity-specific outputs.

Execution settings​

Configure Wait All Incoming when execution paths converge, and On Error for failure handling. Select Inherit where available to use the workflow-level error policy.

Example: Format a header​

Set Cells to A1:D1, enable Bold, and choose a fill color. Leave other formatting attributes at Do not change to preserve their existing values. The activity modifies formatting and does not return a separate output.

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