Use a shared heatmap scale when workbook columns must be compared

Source facts

The workbook heatmap renderer colors a cell relative to its column’s minimum and maximum, using configured or calculated bounds. Microsoft’s shared-scale procedure selects multiple columns with a regular expression and removes their individual default settings. The resulting multicolumn setting supplies a common scale. A matching color across independently scaled columns is therefore not, by itself, an equality test. Microsoft Learn.

Applicability

Review grids whose readers compare related numeric columns, such as several duration statistics. Identify each column’s units, renderer, bounds, and individual overrides. Keep unlike quantities separate unless the report explicitly explains the intended visual relationship.

DSE recommendation

Choose explicitly between within-column emphasis and cross-column comparison before applying a heatmap palette. For comparable columns, review a shared-scale configuration and remove competing individual settings through the documented procedure. Retain the numeric values and units so color supplements the evidence instead of replacing it. Have the report owner explain the scale in the reader-facing description.

Verification

Build a controlled result set containing equal values in different columns and deliberately different column ranges. Compare the initial rendering with the shared-scale version, checking both equal and unequal values. Add a new matching column to test the selection expression. Preserve the settings and visual comparison, and confirm that an unrelated count column did not inherit a scale intended for duration.

Official references

Microsoft Learn: Workbook grid visualizations. Source reviewed September 9, 2026.