---
title: "Managing chart highlights as an administrator"
description: "Administrators build chart highlights on Structure settings > Visualisation > Highlight, then publish them by adding them to a shared view. A highlight on its own colours nobody's chart."
category: structure-governance
section: chart-and-circles
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-08-26
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/manage-highlights-as-an-admin
---

# Managing chart highlights as an administrator


## Managing chart highlights as an administrator

A highlight is a colour rule for your organisation chart. You name it, pick a colour, and describe which roles or circles it should paint. Administrators build highlights once for the whole organisation, on **Structure settings > Visualisation > Highlight**. For what a highlight is and how members switch one on, read [Role and Circle Highlights in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/understanding-highlights); this article covers building and publishing them.

One thing to know before you start, because it catches most administrators: creating a highlight does not colour anybody's chart. A highlight only becomes visible once it has been added to a **view**, and a member applies that view from the **Highlight** menu on the chart. Publishing is a second step, covered below.

Only administrators reach this page: the **Structure settings** menu does not offer **Visualisation** to anyone else. Nothing here belongs to the Holacracy add-on and nothing depends on your plan.

## How do I create a highlight?

1. Open the **Structure** app.
2. Click **Structure settings** at the bottom of the left panel.
3. Select **Visualisation**, then open the **Highlight** tab.
4. Click **Add Highlight**.

Until your organisation has built one, the tab reads **No highlights configured**.

![The Highlight tab of Visualisation settings in the Structure module, showing the empty state and the Add Highlight button](/images/structure-governance/manage-highlights-as-an-admin/01-visualisation-settings-highlight-tab.png)

The **Create Highlight** dialog asks for five things.

- **Name**, required. Members read this in the chart legend, so write it for them rather than for yourself.
- **Description**, optional and worth writing. Members see it as the tooltip when they point at this highlight in the chart legend.
- **Colour**, chosen from the palette. The **+** at the end of the row opens a custom colour picker.
- **Target**: **Roles**, **Circles**, or **Circles and Roles**. This also decides which fields a rule can test, so set it before you write the rule.
- **Rules**, at least one. Each rule is a field, an operator and a value.

Click **Create**. Talkspirit confirms with **Highlight created successfully**.

![The Create Highlight dialog filled in with a name, description, colour, target and one rule](/images/structure-governance/manage-highlights-as-an-admin/02-create-highlight-dialog.png)

Click **Add Rule** for a second condition. A **Rule Logic** menu then appears, offering **All rules must match (AND)** or **Any rule must match (OR)**. It stays hidden while there is only one rule, because there is nothing to combine.

## What can a rule test?

Ten built-in fields, plus every custom field your organisation has defined.

| Field | Operators offered |
|---|---|
| **Name**, **Purpose** | Equals, Not Equals, Contains, Does Not Contain, Starts With, Ends With, Is Filled, Is Empty |
| **Domains**, **Accountabilities** | Contains, Does Not Contain |
| **Created at**, **Updated at** | After, Before |
| **Is hiring**, **Is main role**, **Is cross-circle role** (roles only) | Equals True or False |
| **Is vacant** | Equals True or False |

**Is main role** is the flag behind the **Core** badge on a role. **Is cross-circle role** is set on a role that has been invited into another circle.

Your own custom fields join the same list, so a select field such as "Site" or "Cost centre" can drive a highlight as soon as you have created it. See [Managing Custom Fields for Roles and Circles](/structure-governance/manage-custom-fields-for-roles-and-circles).

Two limits are worth knowing. Date fields accept only **After** and **Before**, because the stored value is a precise timestamp that an exact date could never equal. And the field list is filtered by the **Target** you chose, so a highlight aimed at circles will not offer you the role-only flags.

## How do I make members see a highlight?

A highlight sits in a catalogue until you put it in a view. A view is a named selection of highlights, and it is the view that a member applies to the chart.

1. Open **Explore organisation**.
2. Click **Highlight** at the top right of the chart.
3. Click the **+** button beside the search box.
4. Fill in **Template name**. This is the name members will pick from.
5. Turn on **Share with everyone in the organisation**.
6. Turn on **Set as the organisation default view** if this should be the view your organisation starts from.
7. Under **Chart legends**, click **Add highlight** and choose the highlights this view carries. At least one is required.
8. Click **Create**.

![The Create view dialog with sharing turned on, revealing the Organisation default view switch](/images/structure-governance/manage-highlights-as-an-admin/03-create-view-share-and-default.png)

Those two switches are the administrator's part. Any member may build a view for themselves, but only an administrator can share one with the organisation or mark one as the organisation default, and the switches simply do not appear for anyone else.

Set expectations carefully on the default. The dialog says the default view is selected automatically for new members, and today it is not: the chart opens with no view applied and no legend, whichever view is marked as the default. Members choose a view once from the **Highlight** menu, and Talkspirit then remembers their choice in that browser. So tell colleagues the view exists rather than assuming they will find it coloured in.

## How do I edit or delete a highlight?

On the **Highlight** tab, click a highlight to reopen it, or use the three-dot menu at the right of its row for **Edit** and **Delete**. Editing reopens the same dialog, and **Save** replaces **Create**.

Deleting cannot be undone. If the highlight is used in any views, the confirmation names them and warns that it will be removed from all of them. The views themselves survive, minus that colour.

Highlights cannot be reordered on this page.

## Which highlights come ready-made?

Every organisation already has a built-in set that needs no setup. You will not find these on the **Highlight** tab, which lists only what your organisation has built. They appear in the **Add highlight** picker while you are assembling a view, grouped by category:

- **My roles** and **My circles**, which paint whatever the member reading the chart holds.
- **Status**: **Vacant**, **Hiring**, **Core**, **Transversal**.
- **Activity**: active in the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or in the last year.
- **Full time equivalent**: four bands, from any recorded time upwards.

**Transversal** here is one of those built-in highlights, not a role type. It paints roles invited into another circle, which the English interface calls cross-circle roles. See [Cross-circle roles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/cross-circle-roles-overview).

Built-in highlights cannot be renamed, re-ruled or deleted. If you want a variation, build your own alongside them.

## What's Next?

- [Role and Circle Highlights in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/understanding-highlights)
- [Managing chart custom views](/structure-governance/how-to-manage-chart-custom-views)
- [Managing chart settings in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/managing-chart-settings)
- [Managing Custom Fields for Roles and Circles](/structure-governance/manage-custom-fields-for-roles-and-circles)