Workiva Support Center

You can customize content in your spreadsheet by adding text formatting, background colors, and images. 

Format text

You can access cell and text formatting options for spreadsheets in the Edit toolbar. From here, you can format text, select cell alignment, and change number options. You can also Insert, Delete, Hide, and Lock rows and columns from this toolbar.

To have row heights automatically resize to fit the content of the largest cell in that row, open Sheet Properties and select Resize row to fit cell contents.

Use the text rotation feature to align text vertically within a cell.

Add Colors and Borders to Cells

To add a background color to a cell:

1

Select a cell or group of cells.

2

From the Edit toolbar, click the dropdown arrow for Background Color.

3

Select a color to fill the cells.

If you'd like to use a color that is not in the color selector, enter a HEX number or RGB code for that color in the My Colors field and click Add. You can also import your own colors to this palette.

To add borders to cells:

1

Select your cells.

2

Click the Borders icon in the Edit toolbar.

3

Choose where you want to add a single or double border.

4

Choose the color, style, and line weight for the borders.

If you’d like to remove your borders, click the no borders option in the menu.

Add images and symbols to cells

To insert an image in a table cell:

1

Double-click the cell.

2

From the Edit toolbar, click Modify and then click Insert  .

3

Select Image from the dropdown menu.

4

Select your image and click Open to insert it into the cell.

If you need to resize your image after inserting it, double-click the cell, then double-click the image. Click the Image Properties  tab in the right panel to adjust the height and width of the image.

This panel also shows your image's name and file type. To rename your image, click Rename and type a new file name.

To insert a symbol in a table cell:

1

Double-click the cell.

2

From the Edit toolbar, click Modify and then click Insert .

3

Select Symbol from the dropdown menu.

4

Find the symbol and click to insert into the cell.

Fill a range of cells

To copy the same data or formatting across a range of cells, you can use the Fill Series options.

To fill a range of cells:

1

Select the cells with content you want to duplicate.

2

Click and drag the blue selection box across the range you want to fill.

3

Click the icon at the bottom of the selection.

4

Select an option from the menu:

• Copy Cells copies all the data and formatting in the selected range.
• Copy Cells Without Formatting copies only the data in the range.
• Fill Series fills the range with the selection's data and formatting.
• Fill Series Without Formatting fills the range with only the entered data.
• Fill Formatting Only fills the range with only the color and text formatting.

Lock cells

Once you have formatted your cells, you can lock a cell or range of cells to prevent further changes. 

To lock a cell or group of cells:

1

Select the cells you want to lock.

2

From the Edit toolbar, click Lock .

To see which cells are locked, use the Overlay in the View toolbar. Locked cells are shown in gray, while unlocked cells are blue. An indicator appears in the bottom left when you enable an overlay.