Hi Richard,
Here are some answers to questions you may have about icon sets:
-
Icon sets come in three sizes, so as you increase or decrease the font
size, the icon become larger or smaller, as appropriate.
-
You cannot add your own icons in this release of Excel. However, as you
have seen, there are a large number of icons to choose from so this
should not be an issue.
-
It is possible to hide the value of the cell and just draw the icon when
you apply a conditional formatting rule for icon sets. This enables you
to build all sorts of interesting "dashboards" in Excel 2007.
-
For people familiar with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Key
Performance Indicators (KPI), data imported into Excel is synched up
with the graphics, so if you use Analysis Services KPIs in Excel 2007,
when you apply conditional formatting rules, the correct icons are put
into the cells automatically.
-
You can overwrite default behavior of the icon by using formulas. For
example, for a growing portfolio, a negative net income might not be a
true "red" as long as it is more than that outlined in a plan.
The above explaination is given from MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb407306%28office.11%29.aspx
You can imagine this something similar to Windows Explorer - View Small Icons, Medium Icons, Large Icons concept.
Thanks,
Kamlesh