Colored Cells in Excel sheet

Question

hi
we have a excel sheet with values which we created based on a tutorial spreadsheet. We tried the exactly the same steps provided in the PDF but it did not work. however when we used the original file we got the same output that was shown in the PDF screenshot. Here is what we tried.
we created a spreadsheet similar to the one given below
City     JAN     FEB     MAR     APR     MAY     JUN     JUL     AUG     SEP     OCT     NOV     DEC     Low     High
ABILENE, TX     44     49     56     65     73     80     84     83     76     66     54     45     44     84
AMARILLO, TX     36     41     48     56     65     74     78     76     69     58     45     37     36     78
AUSTIN/BERGSTROM, TX     48     53     60     67     75     80     83     82     78     69     58     50     48     83
In the canvas we placed a spreadsheet table control which contained the city names , a line chart and 2 gauges for HIGH and LOW values.
Now the problem we faced was when we click on the city name in the table control nothing changed in the chart even though it was mapped to the correct cells.
In the original file that came with the PDF there were YELLOW and RED blank cells to which it asked to map but those cells didnot contain any hidden data also. We would like to know is there any significance of those colored cells. whenever we download some sample excel file from the internet for a dashboard creation it has some colored cells, we would like to know does those cells contain any hidden info to make the dashboard work.
Thanks
GURU

Answer 1

Most of the times, colored cells are used by the dashboard's designer to represent cells that are used at run time as origin/destination cells. This means that although at design time they are empty (they indeed are - there is no "hidden" data there), they contain data when the dashboard is executed.
Some suggestions:
- Check the component's properties to see which cells it uses.
- Also, when in Preview, go to File -> Snapshot -> Current Excel Data to see what the Excel file actually looks like at run time. There you should see data in the colored cells.
HTH,
JK