View Style Editor

Available from: Arc v3.3.0

The View Style Editor lets you create and manage visual styles for cube views in Arc. Styles control colours, fonts, and formatting for each section of a view (title area, column headers, data cells, row levels, etc.). Once created, styles can be applied to any cube view and are also used by MDX Forms in Excel.

Accessing the View Style Editor

There are two ways to open the View Style Editor:

Option 1 – From a cube view:
Click the View Style icon in the cube view toolbar and select a style from the dropdown, or click Edit to open the editor directly.

Option 2 – From the left-hand menu:
Expand Tools in the left-hand navigation and click View Style Editor. The editor opens in a new tab.

Toolbar Button Reference

Button	Action
Style dropdown	Switch between available styles (`*` indicates the current default)
Load	Load the selected style into the editor
Edit JSON	Edit the style definition directly as JSON — useful for bulk colour changes
Save	Save changes to the current style
Save As	Save the current style as a new style with a different name
Set as Default	Make the selected style the default for all cube views
Add	Create a brand-new blank style
Delete	Remove the selected style

Creating a New View Style – Step-by-Step

Step 1 – Add a New Style

Click the Add button in the toolbar. Enter a name for the new style (e.g. Horizon) and confirm.

Alternatively, start from an existing style by selecting it and clicking Save As, then give it a new name.

Step 2 – Configure Section Properties

The editor shows a live preview of the view divided into sections. Use the Properties dropdown on the right to select a section, or click directly on any section in the preview — the properties panel will update automatically to show that section's settings.

For each section you can configure:

Background colour
Text / font colour
Font type and size

Example – Cube Label (Title Area):
Select the Title Area section and set:

Background: Red
Font colour: White
Font: Verdana

Step 3 – Configure Column Headers

Click on a column header in the preview. The properties panel updates to show column header settings. Apply your desired colour and font choices.

Step 4 – Configure Row Level Colours (Optional)

You can define specific colours for rows at a given consolidation level. For example, set a distinct background colour for all cells where the row element is at level 1. This makes hierarchical data easier to read at a glance.

Step 5 – Save the Style

Click Save once you are satisfied with your design. Styles are stored in the Arc application folder under viewstyles.

Tip: You can also add style files directly to the viewstyles folder and refresh Arc to load them. Additional community-created styles are available from the GitHub repository:
Download more view styles

Editing an Existing Style

To make bulk changes (e.g. replacing one colour with another throughout the entire style), click Edit JSON to open the raw JSON editor. Use find-and-replace within the JSON to update all matching values at once.

Applying a View Style to a Cube View

Open the desired cube (e.g. Listing AnalysisSolution) from the left-hand Cubes menu.
In the cube view toolbar, click the View Style icon.
Select your style from the dropdown (e.g. Horizon).

The style is applied immediately to the current view.

Using View Styles in MDX Forms (Excel)

View styles defined in Arc are available as the Format Range in Slice MDX Forms. When exporting a cube view as an MDX Form to Excel, the active view style determines the initial formatting applied to the report. The Format Range in Excel can be further customised independently of the Arc style.

For more information, see What is an MDX Form and How Does it Work?