Add a setting to automatically alternate row colors for Confluence tables
Asked by Sarah Holdgrafer:

We build a lot of reference pages for our products' features and integrations in Confluence - we rely heavily on tables to organize certain types of content in an easily scannable/readable format for our internal teams.

Once a table has more than 5-6 rows, though, we've found that formatting it with alternating row colors improves the readability significantly. However, we sometimes have to remove a row with outdated info or insert a new row with new info within the table, causing us to have to manually recolor the rows to maintain the alternating row color scheme. **It's super tedious.**

It would be great if there was a table setting that could automatically alternate the row colors, so if we add or remove rows the alternating colors remain consistent (would be cool if this worked for alternating column colors too, btw).

I do see this is possible with the Elements Spreadsheet add-on: <https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/How-to-alternate-color-rows-in-Confluence-tables/ba-p/1788022>

But, that is really more functionality than we need and the tables in our use case tend to be only 3-4 columns wide (I'm also not keen to replace the tables in literally hundreds of pages with an add-on).

Would this be useful to anyone else? Any chance of this type of enhancement happening?

Thanks!


Answers:
author: Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft}
body: And an update from me - the [Table Spreadsheet](https://docs.stiltsoft.com/display/public/TFAC/How+to+use+Table+Spreadsheet+macro?utm_source=atl_community&utm_medium=answer&utm_campaign=table-filter-traffic-sources&utm_vendorID=1216111) macro that also belongs to our Table Filter and Charts for Confluence app and is compatible with our other macros can do the trick: go to the Background colors icon -\> Alternating colors -\> select the required cells' range and the type of formatting.

![Mon 12-1.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/219842i3A241F754E46EEFE/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Mon 12-1.png")

This feature copies the "Format as a table" feature in Excel. If you add/remove rows, the coloring is also adjusted automatically.


author: Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft}
body: Hi [@Sarah Holdgrafer](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1163464) ,

If your company uses the [Table Filter and Charts for Confluence](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/27447/table-filter-and-charts-for-confluence?tab=overview&hosting=cloud&utm_source=atl_community&utm_medium=answer&utm_campaign=table-filter-traffic-sources&utm_vendorID=1216111) app (that is our add-on), note that you can apply conditional formatting via its Table Transformer macro.

It is not exactly your case as I see it, but if you already have the app installed for your instance, the coloring based on condition will make your tables more easy-to-read.

You may check [here](https://docs.stiltsoft.com/display/public/TFAC/Advanced+table+cells+formatting#Advancedtablecellsformatting-Conditionalformatting?utm_source=atl_community&utm_medium=answer&utm_campaign=table-filter-traffic-sources&utm_vendorID=1216111) for an example.


author: Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft}
body: Hi [@Sarah Holdgrafer](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1163464) ,

Please raise a [support request](https://jsd.stiltsoft.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/2) - our portal is based on the Jira Service Desk and it's confidential. Attach a screenshot of your table with the headers visible and describe what exactly you need to get (on what condition to color rows, use alternating colors, etc.). We'll try to guide you through the case.


author: Sarah Holdgrafer
body: Hi Katerina,

The Table Toolbox macro you suggest is in our account - and looks like it can do what I need - but I am not familiar with how to write the necessary SQL query to achieve alternating row colors. The examples on the developer's page haven't helped here.

Can you point me somewhere that might give me more direction?

Thanks!


author: Jack Brickey
body: I'm unsure if Atlassian would make this a priority or not. I used the alternating shading a couple of times. What I did was to not delete any rows but would replace content with "-".


Tags: table

cloud

colour

confluence-cloud

filter

format

spreadsheet

table-filter

table-filter-and-charts

table-transformer