MOWAYS Excel Table Formatting Standards

When creating or auditing Excel reports for formal presentation or printed distribution, you often face issues like blurry default fonts after printing, chaotic mixed Chinese-English formatting, poor logical data partitioning harming traceability, or damaging existing formulas when modifying someone else's file. The skill @user_6113fd9f/moways-excel systematically addresses these pain points. It is not a simple "format painter" but a complete, programmatically enforceable Excel table formatting standard from MOWAYS management consulting.

Core Problem It Solves

The skill focuses on enhancing Excel files as printable working papers, specifically solving:
- Visual Consistency and Professionalism: Enforces rigid specifications for fonts, font sizes, borders, alignment, and colors to ensure a unified, clear visual experience for anyone opening the file on any system. This is especially critical in fields like finance and consulting with strict formatting requirements.
- Data Traceability and Verifiability: By embedding "working paper principles," it guides users to logically partition data into Input, Working, and Output sections and mandates linked references, making complex calculation processes transparent and auditable.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Automatically handles Chinese font mapping across Windows, macOS, and Linux (e.g., mapping SimHei to Heiti SC on macOS), preventing layout breakdowns due to missing system fonts.

Core Capabilities and Workflow

Integrated with the openpyxl library, the skill enforces the following key steps when generating or modifying Excel files:
1. Enforced Font and Style Specifications:
- Baseline First, Then Override: Sets the FangSong font as a baseline for all data cells, then overrides specific columns (pure numbers, English, dates) with Times New Roman. This eliminates the root cause of inconsistent fonts where unstyled cells default to Calibri.
- Zoned Styling: Title rows use bold SimHei centered across merged columns. Header rows use SimHei centered with borders. Data rows enforce specific alignments (e.g., names left-aligned, numerical values centered).
2. Intelligent Pre-Checks and Fault Handling:
- Before generation, it must perform checks for openpyxl availability, cross-platform font mapping, file corruption, column width overflow warnings, etc., and explicitly informs the user on failure instead of failing silently.
3. Embedded Working Paper Principles:
- The skill promotes and aids in creating a multi-sheet structure (e.g., Input, Working, Output sheets) and enforces inter-sheet references in formulas (e.g., =Sheet_Working!B1), fundamentally ensuring data traceability.
4. Programmatic Fine Control:
- Automatically handles number formats (thousands separator #,##0, percentage 0.00%), row height auto-estimation (based on column width and wrap_text status), and wrapping formulas with IFERROR, translating standards into code.

Applicable Scenarios and Key Considerations

This skill is best suited for: generating new consulting reports, financial projection models, or data analysis models where strict print formatting and clear logic are required.

Mandatory Boundaries:
- Data Scale: Processing datasets exceeding 10,000 rows will cause performance issues with per-row styling. Use batch operations or warn the user.
- Modifying Existing Files: When applying "MOWAYS standards" to a previously disordered file, always create a backup copy first. List all detected issues (from the 14-item checklist) and obtain user confirmation before making changes to avoid damaging existing data or formulas.
- Conflicting Format Requirements: When a user provides contradictory requirements (e.g., enlarge font size but must fit on one page), the skill explicitly identifies the conflict and asks the user to choose a priority rather than deciding autonomously.
- Non-Structured Data: If the raw data lacks clear column definitions, the skill will pause and require the user to first clarify headers and data mapping before blindly converting it to a table.