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Creating a Block Format

A Block Format is a Row or Column space, authored the same way as any other space in the Matrix. The difference is it isn't displayed on its own: it only appears in the grid where the condition of an associated Block Formatting Rule is matched.

Marking a space as a Block Format​

Check Block Format on a Row or Column space to move it out of the regular layout and into the Block Formats list.

Row vs. Column blocks​

  • Row block — runs across a row; stamped into the grid horizontally.
  • Column block — runs down a column; stamped into the grid vertically.

Templates​

The content of a Block Format space is defined by Templates. Each template corresponds to one or more cells. For each template, you may define any of the following cell properties:

  • A label
  • A formula
  • Styling (colors, number format, borders, locked state)
note

The cell addresses in a formula are shifted each time the block is stamped, so the same block reads correctly wherever it lands. See Shifting Cell References.

tip

A template with no label and no formula is blank, but it can still carry styling — see Copy Options for how blank templates and the Apply content/Apply style toggles interact.

Extends​

Extends works the same way it does on an ordinary Row or Column space: the template repeats to fill out the rest of the line. On a block, that means stretching all the way to the actual edge of whatever it's stamped into: a matched row or column, or a newly inserted one.

Only the last template in a block can extend. Checking Extends on an earlier template has no effect and the template will still occupy only one cell. Put whatever should repeat — a running formula, a fill style — in the last template.

note

Extends To, which points an ordinary space at another space's boundary, is ignored on a Block Format template.