Data Bar and Icon Set Options in LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc provides powerful conditional formatting features to visually represent spreadsheet data at a glance. This guide explores the built-in Data Bar and Icon Set visualizations available in LibreOffice Calc, detailing the specific styles, customizable formatting configurations, and graphical categories you can use to highlight trends, performance, and variance across your datasets.

Data Bar Visualizations

Data bars fill the background of a cell with a horizontal bar proportional to the numerical value within that cell relative to the surrounding range.

Visual Styling Options

• Fill Styles: Choose between a Gradient fill (smooth color transition) or a Solid fill (uniform flat color).
• Color Customization: Set distinct colors for positive values and negative values, along with customized border colors around the bars.
• Axis Positioning: Adjust how zero and negative values are handled:
  • Automatic: Sets the axis dynamically based on the range.
  • Middle: Places the zero axis in the center of the cell, extending positive values right and negative values left.
  • None: Hides the vertical axis line entirely.
• Bar Direction: Render bars from left-to-right or right-to-left.
• Display Value: Toggle whether to display both the data bar and the cell’s underlying numerical value or to display the data bar only.

Value Thresholds

Calc allows the minimum and maximum boundaries for data bars to be determined automatically or explicitly set via: * Automatic / Minimum / Maximum * Percentile * Value (Absolute Number) * Percentage * Formula

Icon Set Visualizations

Icon Sets assign small graphical symbols directly inside cells based on comparative thresholds (percentage, percentile, numerical value, or formula).

Available Icon Categories

• Arrows (Directional & Trends):
  • 3 Arrows: Up (green), Horizontal (yellow), Down (red). Available in colored or grayscale variants.
  • 4 Arrows: Up, Diagonal-Up, Diagonal-Down, Down.
  • 5 Arrows: Up, Diagonal-Up, Horizontal, Diagonal-Down, Down.
• Traffic Lights & Shapes:
  • 3 Traffic Lights: Red, yellow, and green circular indicators (available with or without a black border).
  • 3 Signs: Green triangle, yellow dash, red diamond.
  • 3 Symbols: Green checkmark, yellow exclamation point, red cross.
  • 4 Traffic Lights: Green, yellow, red, and black circular lights.
  • 3, 4, or 5 Colored Circles / Boxes: Smooth geometric color codes to denote priority or status.
• Indicators & Flags:
  • 3 Flags: Green, yellow, and red flags for quick project tracking and risk prioritization.
  • 3 Smileys: Happy (green), neutral (yellow), and sad (red) faces.
• Ratings & Progress:
  • 3 or 5 Stars: Empty, half-filled, and fully filled stars for score ratings.
  • 4 or 5 Quarters / Circles: Pie-chart-style circular progress indicators (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
  • 5 Rating Bars: Signal-strength style vertical bars.

Icon Set Configuration Features

• Show Icon Only: Hides the underlying text or numbers to produce clean dashboard indicators.
• Reverse Icon Order: Inverts the graphical ranking so that lower numbers trigger positive/higher icons where appropriate (e.g., lower error rates).
• Custom Mix & Match: Replace individual icons inside any preset set with any other available icon from the Calc library, or choose “No Icon” for specific threshold ranges.