Support

CloudNetix  ·  We aim to respond within 2 business days

Getting Started

New to Format Rules Manager? Watch the walkthrough on YouTube (2:11). It covers installing the add-on and opening the sidebar, then each feature: seeing every rule on every tab, merging duplicate rules, deleting rules that do nothing, copying rules to other tabs, reordering priorities, deleting with undo, and exporting rules as JSON and importing them into another spreadsheet.

Before You Write

• If the sidebar fails to load, close it and reopen from Extensions → Format Rules Manager → Launch Format Rules Manager.
• A message like “Rules changed in the background — list refreshed. Try again.” is not an error: someone (or another of your own tabs) changed the rules while the sidebar was open. The list has already been refreshed — simply repeat the action.
• If an operation reports it can't be undone (very large changes, or a tab containing a rule the add-on can't capture), the add-on offers a JSON backup instead — copy it before applying if you want a way back.
• If you see a support code in an error message, include it in your email — it helps us correlate your report with our logs.

Authorization Problems

Format Rules Manager asks for exactly two permissions: access to the current spreadsheet, and permission to show its sidebar. Google's consent screen presents them as two separate checkboxes — both must be checked for the add-on to work.

1. When you launch the add-on, check both boxes on the Google permission screen and click Continue.
2. If you left the spreadsheet box unchecked, the sidebar opens but shows an “Access needed” message. If you left the sidebar box unchecked, Google cannot open the sidebar at all — the launch fails before any add-on screen appears. Both cases have the same fix: reset the authorization (next step).
3. To reset: open myaccount.google.com/connections, select Format Rules Manager, click Remove access, then reopen your spreadsheet, launch the add-on again, and check both boxes this time.
4. On a work or school account, your Google Workspace administrator may need to approve the add-on before you can authorize it. If the steps above do not help, email us at support@cloudnetix.de.

View-only and protected files

• With view-only access to a spreadsheet you can browse and export rules, but every change is blocked with a clear message. (Depending on how the file was shared, Google may not allow the add-on to launch at all for viewers.)
• On a protected tab, changes are blocked before anything is written unless you have edit rights on that tab — the message names the protected tab.

Known Limitations

• Tabs with more than 300 rules display the first 300 with a notice. Exports still include every rule; reordering is unavailable on the truncated view.
• Workbooks with more than 100 tabs load the first 100 automatically; the rest load on demand via Load anyway.
• Imports are capped at 500 rules per file — split larger exports and import them in parts.
• Very large changes can exceed the undo snapshot size limit. The add-on then offers a JSON backup and an explicit Apply without undo choice instead of failing silently.
• Platform limits: Google Sheets conditional formatting supports bold, italic, strikethrough, underline, text color, background color, and color scales. Font size and font family are not part of conditional formatting, so no add-on can manage them.

Privacy

For information on how Format Rules Manager handles your data — including where undo snapshots are stored and how to delete them — see the Privacy Policy.

Developer

Format Rules Manager is developed and maintained by CloudNetix.