To access user attributes, click the properties 
button on a feature type in the workspace, and select the User Attributes tab.
For information on the parameters in this dialog that are common to all readers, see:
For information on the parameters in this dialog that are common to all writers, see:
User attributes for this format are defined below.
Name
The name of the attribute to be written.
Type
Choose one of the following field types.
auto (default)
The writer will scan the schema cell by cell and, based on the type of attribute stored on the individual feature, will try to automatically identify the type.
boolean
Boolean fields store true/false data. Data that is read from or written to these fields must always have a value of either true or false.
date
This type is used to represent date data from January 1, 0001 to December 31, 9999.
See Standard FME Date/Time Format for information about the formatting of FME date and time as input produced by the reader for date cells. See the Formatting section below for the options for custom number formatting, which also applies to date types.
datetime
This type is used to represent date and time data from January 1, 1753 to December 31, 9999 with an accuracy of 3.33 milliseconds.
See Standard FME Date/Time Format for information about the formatting of FME date and time as input produced by the reader for date cells. See the Formatting section below for the options for custom number formatting, which also applies to datetime types.
number
Number fields store single and double precision floating point values. The width parameter is the total number of characters allocated to the field, including the decimal point. The decimals parameter controls the precision of the data and is the number of digits to the right of the decimal.
Note:
- Incoming numbers of greater width or precision will still be returned and will not be modified to fit.
- Numbers will not be padded to fit the specified decimal value.
- The width and decimal parameters are only valuable if the features will be passed to another format that requires this information.
string
String fields store variable-length character data up to a length of 32767 characters.
String fields longer than 32767 are truncated. Numeric data will be written as type number.
time
This type is used to represent time data with an accuracy of 100 nanoseconds.
See Standard FME Date/Time Format for information about the formatting of FME date and time as input produced by the reader for date cells. See the Formatting section below for the options for custom number formatting, which also applies to time types.
Cell Width
Sets the width of the column.
Formatting
Formatting sets the format on a per-column basis. The Edit button displays the Edit Column Properties dialog.
Each option that is set overrides any corresponding existing formatting defined in a template or existing sheet. If formatting is not edited, it will be taken from the existing sheet or template. Unset values will not override the corresponding existing values.
Additionally, sources of formatting other than existing sheets or templates, or explicit user options in the Column Properties dialog, include the column type (if set to date, time, or datetime), and hyperlink attributes.
In general, each part of the formatting can be set separately without affecting other parts. For example, the Font and Custom Number Formatting can be set from different sources of formatting without overwriting each other. Note, however, that Font is considered a single element and cannot have its parts, such as Arial, or Italic, or Color, set from different sources. These options are applied in the following order:
- Existing sheet or template formatting
- Column types (that is, date, time, and datetime)
- User settings from Column Properties (described below)
- Hyperlinks formatting
All of these options are only applied if applicable.
Number
Custom Number Format
Defines a custom number format string for the cell. This value will override any format string in the cell for an existing sheet or template sheet.
The custom format string can be created using Microsoft's rules for creating a custom number format.
Custom number string examples:
| To display: | as: | use the code: |
|---|---|---|
| 1234.59 | 1234.6 | ###.# |
| 12 1234.568 | 12.0 1234.57 | #.0# |
| January 2, 2015 | 2015/01/02 | yyyy/mm/dd |
| 1000 -1000 | $1,000 ($1,000) | $#,##0_);[Red]($#,##0) |
The Custom field also supports a set of commonly used standard formats used in Excel.
Note: These common values may display with a prefix resembling [$-409] and/or a suffix resembling ;@. These additions exist to ensure that these number formats are properly recognized as standard formats once written to Excel (instead of custom format strings).
Font
Font
The Font dialog allows the specification of the font family, style, size, and the strikeout or underline effect on the font. This information is encoded into a font string. Changing any of the font settings will apply the whole setting to the cell.
For example, if the existing font in worksheet is Arial Underline, and the option is set to Arial Bold, the cell will be formatted with Arial Bold and the Underline attribute will be lost.
Font Color
The color of the text for the column. Colors are specified in normalized RGB triples.
Fill
Background Color
Specifies the background color of the Pattern Style Selected.
To set the background color of the cell, set the Background color and the Pattern Style to Solid. Colors are specified in normalized RGB triples.
Pattern Color
Specifies the foreground color of the pattern.
Pattern Style
Specifies the pattern used to fill the cell, using the colors from Pattern Color and Background Color.
Colors are specified in normalized RGB triples.
Text Alignment
Horizontal Alignment
Specifies the horizontal alignment of text within the cell. Options are Left, Center, or Right. If no value is set, Microsoft Excel’s default behavior is to left-align text and right-align numbers.
Vertical Alignment
Specifies the vertical alignment of text within the cell, Options are Top, Center, or Bottom. If no value is set, Microsoft Excel’s behavior is to align text to the bottom of the cell.
Text Indent
Valid values are from 0 to 15. Values represents spaces in Microsoft Excel. This value works in conjunction with Horizontal Alignment, and specifies the level of indentation from the alignment boundary.
This value has no effect on Center Alignment.
Text Orientation
Specifies the angle, in degrees, to rotate the text.
The valid range is from -90 to 90. Positive values rotate the text counterclockwise, and negative values rotate the text clockwise.
The default orientation is 0 degrees, where the text is printed horizontally.
Shrink To Fit
Shrink the text to fit in the width of the cell.
The font size will reduce until all text fits into the width of the cell.
Wrap Text
Print the text on multiple lines if it does not fit in the cell. The height of any given row will increase until all the text can be displayed.
Cell Protection
Cell Protection
Hidden: If set to Yes, the formulas in the cell will be hidden from view if the worksheet protection is turned on in Microsoft Excel.
Locked: If set to Yes, the cell will not be editable if worksheet protection has been turned on in Microsoft Excel.