Zebra Stripes on Google Apps Spreadsheets
2011 Nov 22 at 13:53 » Tagged as :javascript, cloud, disqus, google apps,
It was a bit of a surprise to find that there is no easy way to add zebra stripes to a Google spreadsheet. There is a template with Zebra stripes added in. But if you sort the spreadsheet, you lose the stripes, or it gets randomized. However I did run across a small script by Otávio A. Ribeiro that allows you to add stripes to any spreadsheet. But by the author's own admission it's rather slow. So I took a couple of minutes to improve it and here is the effort:
function zebraStripe() { var i, thisRow; var s = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet(); var aWhites = new Array(1); var aGrays = new Array(1); var lastCol = s.getMaxRows(); aWhites = "#FAFAFA";; aGrays = "white"; for (i = 1; i <= lastCol; i++) { thisRow = s.getRange(i, 1, 1, lastCol); thisRow.setBackgroundColor((i % 2 == 0)?aWhites:aGrays); } }
If you add zebra stripes to a spreadsheet with thousands of rows, it will not update at the blink of an eye (apps scripts rarely do) but it's still reasonably quick. Certainly quick enough to add a trigger and make the stripes update automatically each time you sort.