How to customize layout and appearance for Excel Table Data

Where to find these settings

These settings are configured in the App configuration tab for your Excel Table Data App.

Layout

Controls how views are arranged on screen, how long each view is shown, and how much small ranges can be enlarged.

Setting	Default	Options	What it does
Columns in the view grid	0 (auto)	0, or any number	Number of columns used to arrange multiple views on screen. 0 lets Valotalive arrange them automatically. Use 1,2,3... when you want precise control over the layout, for example always showing two views side by side.
Arrangement of combined ranges	Automatic	Automatic, Horizontal, Vertical	How ranges combined with + are placed on screen.
Seconds per item	15	Any number	How long each screenful of views is shown before cycling to the next.
Maximum zoom	300%	100%-1000%	Maximum scale for small ranges when enlarged to fill the screen.

💡 Tip: If you use the + operator to combine ranges into a single view, those ranges are arranged within that view - not across the grid. Use Arrangement of combined ranges to control their layout.

💡 Tip: Increase Seconds per item if your views contain a lot of data that takes time to read. For dense production dashboards, 20–30 seconds is a common choice.

💡 Tip: Lower Maximum zoom if zoomed content appears too large or pixelated. Increase it if small ranges look too small on large screens.

Table Appearance

Controls how the table itself looks - cell colors, borders, row shading, bold headers, and column widths.

Setting	Default	Options	What it does
Use the cell colours of the file	Yes	Yes / No	Renders cell background colours from Excel. When Yes, Show grid lines and Shade every other row have no effect.
Show grid lines	Yes	Yes / No	Draws a border around each cell. Only active when cell colours are off.
Shade every other row	Yes	Yes / No	Shades alternating rows for readability. Only active when cell colours are off.
Header rows	1	0, or any number	Rows at the top of each range shown in bold.
Header columns	0	0, or any number	Columns at the left of each range shown in bold.
Column widths	As in the file	As in the file, Size to content	How column widths are determined on screen.

💡 Tip: If your Excel file uses color-coding to signal status (e.g. red = issue, green = on target), keep Use the cell colours of the file set to Yes so those signals are visible on screen.

Note: Show grid lines and Shade every other row only take effect when Use the cell colours of the file is set to No.

💡 Tip: Use Header columns when the first column of your table contains row labels, such as department names, machine IDs, or shift codes.

Data Display

Controls which data is shown or hidden, and how spreadsheet errors and dates are handled.

Setting	Default	Options	What it does
Show sheet names	Yes	Yes / No	Labels each view with its sheet name and cell range, e.g. Sheet1!A1:H20.
Skip empty rows	Yes	Yes / No	Hides rows with no content in the shown range.
Skip empty columns	Yes	Yes / No	Hides columns with no content in the shown range.
Skip hidden rows and columns	Yes	Yes / No	Respects rows and columns hidden in the Excel file.
Hide error cells	Yes	Yes / No	Shows spreadsheet errors (#REF!, #N/A, #DIV/0!, etc.) as blank instead of the error text.
Highlight today	Yes	Yes / No	Draws a red border around today's date in a header row or column. Updates automatically at midnight.

💡 Tip: Keep Hide error cells set to Yes to avoid distracting error messages on screen when data sources are temporarily unavailable.

💡 Tip: Highlight today is especially useful for week plan or shift schedule views where each column represents a day - today's column is immediately visible to anyone looking at the screen.