Color rules: paint the records that match a condition

A filter removes records; a color rule keeps them all and makes some impossible to miss. Deliver by before today → pomegranate turns the overdue rows red without hiding anything — the difference between "show me only the problem" and "show me everything, problem first."

Make a rule

1. Open Color in the view bar.
2. Add rule. Each rule is a swatch plus a condition — color when field · operator · value — the exact same row you'd build in the filter, same operators per field type, same value editors. when Status is Cancelled, when Total is at least 1000, when Photo is empty.
3. Pick the swatch. Twelve colors: pomegranate, henna, saffron, ochre, olive, emerald, verdigris, nile, lapis, indigo, violet, rose.

Rules are checked top to bottom and the first match wins — a record is one color, never a blend. Put the rule that matters most first; the order in the panel is the order of precedence.

Like everything in the view bar, rules belong to the view: the button reads Color · 2 where two rules are set, and another view of the same table can paint by a different logic or not at all.

What the color looks like

In the grid, a matching record gets two marks: the row marker at the far left fills with the solid color, and the row itself takes a light wash of it — strong enough to scan, light enough that chips, text and checkboxes stay readable on top.

Elsewhere the same rule adapts to the surface: gallery and board cards wash the whole card; calendar entries are painted the picked color literally — and the calendar's swatch picker adds light and dark rows of each color, because there the shade you pick is exactly the shade you see. On a grouped grid the Color button also gains a Groups section — "when group is X" — for coloring whole sections rather than rows.

A public view link carries the rules with it: visitors see the wash too.

Small print worth knowing

• Renames don't break rules. A rule on a select stores the choice's id, so renaming New to Incoming leaves the rule pointing at the same choice. A rule whose choice is deleted stops matching — it never matches the wrong thing.
• Rules on computed fields work. Conditions are evaluated against the values the view is showing, so a rule on a rollup or lookup — when Items is greater than 5 — paints correctly as those values change.
• A rule with an unfinished value matches nothing. Half-built rules are inert, not surprising.
• Coloring is not filtering. Every record still shows. When the question becomes "and hide the rest," move the same condition into the filter — the row you build is identical.
• The paint stays on screen. Exporting your database exports data — tables, fields, records, files. Views and their color rules aren't in the zip, because a wash on a row is presentation, not a value.

The questions people ask

How many rules can a view hold? There's no fixed cap — but since the first match wins, a long list mostly means later rules never fire. Two or three rules that each mean something beat ten that fight.

Can I color one cell, or a whole column? No — a rule colors records. For per-value color, that's what select choice colors already are: each choice carries its own color wherever it appears.