The Workbase uses cell colors, font colors and font styles for the tree, list and table view of the Workbase to provide additional feedback about information during a dialog and after results have been achieved.

Colors in the list and table view of the Workbase

In the list and table view of the Workbase the cell colors provide feedback on the status and the value type of requested and presented information.

Pending or determined

First of all a value can be pending or determined. When a value is pending, it means that Quaestor has not yet been able to determine its value. This can either be because it is input, or because it can not yet be calculated due to the lack of other information.

Independent of their cell color, pending values are presented with a dash or Hyphen (see [Wikipedia]) as value:

Above you see that all the values, except for Date_prepared$ are pending. Date_prepared$ has a proposed value so it is determined.

Another example:

And an example of a pending list selection:

As mentioned, besides being pending or determined, you see different cell colors and that some of the parameter names or values are printed Bold. First we will discuss the cell colors, hereafter we will discuss the font type behaviour.

Generic cell colors

With the cell colors, Quaestor communicates about the type of a value:

• Light blue: the value is used as inputinput/proposed value;
• Yellow: the value is a Top Goal for the analysis. This means that it will be determined by relations in the Entity;
• Light yellow: the value is an intermediate result. this mans that it was calculated as necessary port to determine the Top Goal;
• Green: the value contains a document. This can be either a data set (for instance TeLiTab formatted) or a text document.
• Aqua: the value is an object. This means that it contains further parameters and data itself. An Entity is a generic object for a Taxonomy structure.

Please note that the above colors are the default colors to communicate about the type of values. See the Colors tab or the Options window to change these defaults.

Special colors

Besides these generic cell colors, there are three other reasons for cells to have different colors:

1. When the parameter has a predefined color (the knowledge engineer has defined a special color). Note that in that case the whole row will have this color.
2. When you modify a special proposed value (see also @CHANGEDRED ), the cell color will turn red. In this case the Knowledge Engineer has decided that the color should change to warn the user;
3. When you add a value comment in a Taxonomy type of applications, you can give another cell color;

Note that predefined colors can only be modified by the Knowledge Engineer. If you have any comment on these colors, or parameter names, descriptions, pictures etc. please discuss these issues with your Knowledge Engineers. They will be more than willing to discuss your comments and where agreed upon and where possible make quick modifications. The red system color for modified values is determined by Quaestor.

Bold or not bold...

With the font style Quaestor communicates about the necessity for providing user input.

If a parameter name is bold, Quaestor communicates that there is no other way to determine this values, in other words, you have to provide input in order to get a solution.

If a parameter name is not bold, Quaestor communicates that there are alternative ways to determine its value. In technical terms it means that the parameter has a relation it can use to determine its value.

In the example below you see that all the parameter names of all Top Goal values aren't bold and of all input values the name is bold. However, you see that Yield_N is shown as input (light blue cell color) but is not bold. The reason is that the value is determined by a relation and presented as proposed values (and used as input hereafter).

You also see that the values differ in font style. This is basically for the same reason but than the other way around. Input values are presented non bold. And Top Goal values are presented Bold.

Colors in the tree

For Taxonomy type of applications, the colors of the Entities in the tree of the Taxonomy solution provide information on the status of the required information in the Entity:

• The red color means that more input is required to determine all information in the Entity;
• The blue color means that some information is not yet determined. The reason can be that first information in other Entities have to be determined.

Besides colors for users, you have colors for Knowledge Engineers. When you check the dependencies of Entities in a Taxonomy:

• Magenta is the level, including sub-levels you have selected; 
• The red color means that values in these Entities are dependent on one or more of the Magenta ones;
• The blue color means that these Entities contain input values for one or more of the Magenta ones; 

Quaestor Interface | Workbase