A hallmark of well-designed models is the use of styles to manage the formatting and appearance key elements in a workbook. This allows the modeller to apply consistent formatting to key elements of a workbook, such as input, calculation, error checking, output/report cells and consistent headings.  This has an advantage as users become familiar with and are better able to interact with models, as the clear formatting effectively acts as a form of documentation.

The use of styles is an effective yet simple approach which builds user confidence, assists in the maintenance and audit of models & reports; makes it easier for users to understand and navigate complex calculations; and improves client confidence. It allows for the ready reconfiguration of the livery of a workbook which may be required to deal with accessibility issues and colour-blindness and can give management and other users a greater deal of confidence when using a well-structured workbook.

The process of building effective templates is surprisingly easy and the key techniques are demonstrated in this hands-on module in which a theme is developed (you may use your own enterprise's colours and font preferences), and the issues around colour selecting and ordering are discussed.  Then a template is built using the underlying theme, and is populated with a useful set of standard styles.  The approach for maintaining and extending the style structure is discussed and explained.  Important components such as title page, index to worksheets, error checking sheet, input styles, rounded reporting styles, advanced error checking styles and key navigation elements are all built from scratch.