Build 3.5.0.16 of xlsgen improves the generation of PDF files (the new PDF file format with selectable text) by using floating-point values instead of integer values for all PDF element locations (text glyph, vector shape, ...).

This results in a more accurate and streamlined layout.

Build 3.5.0.15 of xlsgen adds rendering support for icon sets in print, print preview, PDF.

Icon sets are a special type of conditional formatting introduced in Excel 2007 and updated in Excel 2010 by adding more icon sets and making it possible to set custom icon sets (including a no icon case).

Icon sets are conditional formattings rendered in cells on the left, that are meant to alert visually someone who sees the data in cells. Clearly, icon sets belong to business intelligence.

17 icon sets were introduced in Excel 2007. These have either 3 icons in each, 4 icons or 5 icons. Each icon reflects a state, such as a traffic light color.

Excel 2010 added 4 icon sets to it, making it a total of 21 icon sets to choose from.

xlsgen takes care of all the conditional formatting formula rule evaluation and icon rendering.

Better yet, in the new PDF, icon sets are rendered as vector shapes, which means they scale properly, contrary to Excel itself which renders icon sets as low resolution bitmaps.

Below is an example of icon sets.


Rendering all icon sets in xlsgen next to cells

Build 3.5.0.14 of xlsgen adds rendering of color scales in print, print preview, PDF, ...

Color scales are conditional formattings that were introduced in Excel 2007. It allows to set the background of a cell dynamically based on some predefined rule. Excel 2007 and more recent versions of Excel support 2-color scales and 3-color scales, which means these are color scales made of respectively 2 and 3 color stops. For example, a color scale made of 2 color stops such as red and blue, will compute shades of red and blue across the entire range where conditional formatting applies.

xlsgen adds a little more to this. If the conditional formatting in question is created with xlsgen itself instead of manually in Excel, then you can create n-color scales, which means as many color stops you need.

In any case, xlsgen takes care of all the color shades between color stops, so you do not have to worry about all this.

Below are examples of 2 and 3 color scales.

Color scales can be used in business intelligence for visual alerts.


Rendering conditional formatting color scales in xlsgen