Font and text styling in Google Sheets - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Font and text styling

Dashboard Goal

Show how to use font and text styling in Google Sheets to highlight important sales data and improve readability.

Sample Data

Product	Region	Sales	Status
Apples	East	150	Good
Bananas	West	90	Average
Cherries	East	200	Excellent
Dates	South	50	Poor
Elderberries	West	120	Good

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: =SUBTOTAL(109,C2:C6)
  Shows total sales across all products.
• Styled Sales Table
  Uses conditional formatting:
  • Sales >= 150: Bold and green font
  • Sales < 100: Italic and red font
  • Status = 'Excellent': Blue font and underline
  Helps quickly see high and low sales and top status.
• Average Sales
  Formula: =SUBTOTAL(101,C2:C6)
  Displayed with bold font to stand out.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|   Total Sales (KPI)  |   Average Sales (KPI) |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                                              |
|            Styled Sales Table                 |
|                                              |
+----------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Apply a filter on the Region column to show sales only for selected regions. When filtered:

• Total Sales and Average Sales update to reflect filtered data.
• Styled Sales Table shows only rows matching the filter with the same font styling rules.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Region = East, which components update?

• Total Sales and Average Sales show sums and averages only for East region (Apples and Cherries).
• Styled Sales Table shows only Apples and Cherries rows with correct font styling.

Key Result

Dashboard demonstrating font and text styling in Google Sheets to highlight sales data with interactive region filtering.

Practice

1. Which toolbar button in Google Sheets would you use to make text bold?

easy

A. The button with a paint bucket icon

B. The button with an I icon

C. The button with a B icon

D. The button with a U icon

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the bold icon in the toolbar

   The bold button is represented by a capital letter B in bold style.

2. Step 2: Match the icon to the correct function

   Clicking the B icon makes selected text bold.

3. Final Answer:

   The button with a B icon -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Bold text = B icon [OK]

Hint: Bold text uses the B icon on the toolbar [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing italic (I) with bold (B)
• Choosing underline (U) instead of bold
• Selecting paint bucket which changes background color

2. Which of these is the correct way to change the font color of a cell's text in Google Sheets using the toolbar?

easy

A. Right-click the cell and select 'Font Color'

B. Click the paint bucket icon and select a color

C. Click the bold button and choose a color

D. Click the letter A with a color bar underneath and pick a color

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the font color button on the toolbar

   The font color button shows a letter A with a colored bar below it.

2. Step 2: Understand the paint bucket icon function

   The paint bucket changes the cell background color, not text color.

3. Final Answer:

   Click the letter A with a color bar underneath and pick a color -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Font color = A with color bar [OK]

Hint: Font color uses the A icon with a color bar [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing paint bucket which changes background color
• Thinking bold button changes color
• Right-click menu does not have 'Font Color' option

3. If cell A1 contains the text "Hello" and you apply the formula =UPPER(A1) in cell B1, what will be the font style and text in B1?

medium

A. "HELLO" in uppercase letters, font style unchanged

B. "hello" in lowercase letters, font style bold

C. "Hello" unchanged, font style italic

D. Error because UPPER changes font style

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the UPPER function effect on text

   The UPPER function converts all letters to uppercase but does not change font style.

2. Step 2: Check the output in cell B1

   Cell B1 will show "HELLO" in uppercase with the default font style (no bold or italic applied).

3. Final Answer:

   "HELLO" in uppercase letters, font style unchanged -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   UPPER changes text case only [OK]

Hint: UPPER changes text case, not font style [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking UPPER makes text bold or italic
• Confusing UPPER with formatting tools
• Expecting an error from UPPER function

4. You want to automatically make text red in cells with values less than 50. Which step fixes this conditional formatting rule that is not working?

Rule set: Format cells if "Less than" 50, but text color stays black.

medium

A. Change the rule to "Greater than" 50

B. Set the text color in formatting style to red

C. Remove the conditional formatting rule

D. Change the cell format to bold instead of color

Solution

1. Step 1: Check the conditional formatting rule setup

   The rule "Less than 50" is correct to target cells with values under 50.

2. Step 2: Verify the formatting style applied

   If text color stays black, the formatting style likely does not have text color set to red.

3. Final Answer:

   Set the text color in formatting style to red -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Conditional formatting needs style set [OK]

Hint: Set text color in conditional formatting style [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Changing rule condition instead of style
• Removing rule instead of fixing style
• Changing format to bold does not fix color issue

5. You want to highlight all cells in column B that contain the word "urgent" (case insensitive) by making the text bold and red automatically. Which conditional formatting custom formula should you use?

hard

A. =SEARCH("urgent", B1)

B. =EXACT(B1, "urgent")

C. =REGEXMATCH(B1, "urgent")

D. =LOWER(B1) = "urgent"

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the need for case-insensitive substring matching

   SEARCH("urgent", B1) finds "urgent" anywhere in the cell ignoring case, returns a number if found (truthy in conditional formatting), or #VALUE! if not (falsy).

2. Step 2: Compare other formulas

   REGEXMATCH is case-sensitive by default; EXACT is case-sensitive exact match; LOWER(B1) = "urgent" requires the entire cell to match exactly after lowering.

3. Final Answer:

   =SEARCH("urgent", B1) -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   SEARCH for case-insensitive substring [OK]

Hint: SEARCH for case-insensitive substring search [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using REGEXMATCH which is case-sensitive
• Using EXACT which is case-sensitive exact match
• Using LOWER(B1) = "urgent" which matches exact cell content only