[Usability]Viewpoints on conditional formatting, anyone?

[Jon K Hellan <hellan acm org>]

Hi,

Conditional formatting is a much requested feature which Excel,
OpenOffice and KSpread have. It lets you specify e.g that cells with
the string "blue" should appear red, and there are many, more
sensible, applications.

We have to design a GUI for conditional formatting in
Gnumeric. Excel's GUI is a natural starting point, but hopefully we
can do better. I've put up a description with screenshots of Excel's
GUI at http://domen.uninett.no/~jk/cfmt.html.

Excel is limited to up to 3 conditions. Is there a need for more, and
can this be done without making the GUI confusing?

Excel's GUI is dynamic, it starts with a frame for a single condition
and lets you add more as you need them, and delete when you change
your mind. OpenOffice always shows all 3, and has a check box to
indicate which ones are actually used. I like OpenOffice's way, but it 
won't work for a large or unlimited number of conditions.

Let the brainstorming begin.

Regards

Jon Kåre