For example, I am trying to highlight records that are active versus inactive in my record list. Does Appian allow for this functionality?
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No, you cannot color the rows, however you can add styling to any of the data columns in the grid using richTextDisplay fields. Would recommend just adding a status column and maybe placing Green Active and Red inactive text in each row to highlight this, or use an icon with coloring.
One idea is to add a column (first column) to your record listing. Leave the column header blank. Use the Tag component / tag item https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/20.2/Tag_Component.html to give a visual queue for Active.