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Lab 3 - Data Visualization.md

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Microsoft Power Platform.

Lab 3 - Data Visualization

Contents

Introduction

This document is lab three out of five total labs.

Please continue to use your file after completing Lab 2. If you are joining the DIAD at this point or were unable to complete previous labs, please start this lab with the provided Lab 2 solution.pbix file found in the Reports folder.

At the end of this lab, you will have completed a full report that is ready to be published to the Power BI Service. In the report, you will have learned how to do conditional formatting, add a logo to the manufacturer filter, import a custom visual, and apply a custom theme to the report. By the end of this lab, you will have also learned how to add bookmarks to tell a story about the report.

The flow of this document includes screenshots to provide a visual aid for the users and a text description of the steps the user needs to follow. In the screenshots, sections are highlighted with red or orange boxes to indicate the action or area on which a user needs to focus.

NOTE: This lab uses real, anonymized data provided by ObviEnce, LLC. Visit their site to learn about their services: www.obvience.co[m](http://www.obvience.com/)[.](http://www.obvience.com/)[ ](http://www.obvience.com/)This data is the property of ObviEnce, LLC and has been shared to demonstrate Power BI functionality with industry sample data. Any use of this data must include this attribution to ObviEnce, LLC.

Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop – Data Visualization

Now that we’ve completed data exploration and visualization in labs one and two, you have good insights to share with your team. In this section, you create a professional report for the benefit of you and your entire team.

At the end of this section, you will build a report like the one shown in the screenshot below.

Now let’s get started, we will pick up where we left off at the end of Lab 2.

  1. With the Matrix visual selected, navigate to the Values section and click the arrow next to % Growth.

  2. Click Conditional Formatting and then click Background color. The Background color dialog box opens. This dialog provides options to format the report background color using either rules or diverging colors.

  3. Click on the Add a middle color checkbox.

  4. Click OK.

Note: Conditional formatting can also be based on another column using the Color based on the drop-down menu.

Initially, we added a filter to load three years of data. Let’s load the complete data now.

  1. From the ribbon, click Home and then click Transform Data. The Power Query Editor window opens.

  2. Click the filter button on the Date column.

  3. Click Clear filter to remove the 3-year filter.

  4. Click Home and then click Close & Apply to load the data.

This time all the data will be loaded. It might take a couple of minutes as we are loading approximately seven million rows.

Make sure the report is filtered by VanArsdel using the Manufacturer slicer. Remove all other filters.

  1. Enable drill down mode on the Revenue by Country visual

  2. Click Australia to drill down to State.

  3. Disable drill mode on the Revenue by Country and State visual

At this point, your report page should look like the screenshot below.

Once data is loaded, notice Revenue by Year visual. You will see columns for years 2014 through 2021.

  1. Hover over Manufacturer slicer visual.

  2. On the top right corner, click the arrow.

  3. Click List.

  4. In the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon. This opens the formatting options available for a visual.

  5. To expand the General section, click Horizontal in the Orientation drop-down menu.

  6. Notice the Slicer visual is updated. You can resize the visual, so all the manufacturers are listed horizontally.

Note: There are other options to change the outline color, weight, and more.

  1. Click VanArsdel.

  2. Now, collapse the General section.

Note: Notice there is an option to enable the Select All option in the visual. There is also an option to make the slicer multi-select. Feel free to explore other formatting options.

Now it would be nice to add logos of the manufacturer to the slicer. Let’s do it.

  1. From the Fields section, click the Logo field in the Manufacturer table

  2. From the ribbon, click Column tools, click Data Category and then click Image URL. Setting the data category to Image URL helps Power BI understand that it is a URL so it can access the data.

  3. From the canvas, click the Manufacturer slicer.

  4. From the Fields section, drag and drop the Logo from the Manufacturer table to the Field box replacing the Manufacturer column.

  5. Resize the slicer visual as needed.

  6. Click the VanArsdel logo to filter all the other visuals.

  7. Click the Revenue by Year visual.

  8. From Visualizations panel, click the Line and clustered column chart to change the visual type.

  9. From the Fields section, drag and drop the % Growth field from the Sales table to the Line values.

This provides a representation of the revenue and growth over time.

  1. Now let’s click the Revenue Card visual so we can change it to a Gauge visual.

  2. From the Visualizations panel, click the Gauge visual.

  3. From the Fields section, drag and drop the PY Sales field to the Target value.

  4. Resize the visual as needed. Now we can compare Revenue with the target.

Now let’s take time to select the colors of the visuals.

  1. Click the Gauge visual.

  2. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  3. Expand the Data Colors section.

  4. Click the arrow next to Fill color.

  5. Notice you can pick a color from the default color palette or pick More colors.

Let’s check out some of the themes available.

  1. From the ribbon, click View, click Themes, and then click Temperature.

Notice that the colors on all the visuals are updated. Feel free to try the other out-of-the-box themes.

In our scenario, the Marketing department has provided standard color themes to be used across reports. We can use the Report Theme feature in Power BI by uploading a theme. The Report Theme requires a JSON file where the data colors, background, foreground, and a table of accent colors are defined. The JSON file can be used across all the reports.

  1. From the ribbon, click View, click Themes, and then click Browse for themes.

  2. A file browser dialog box opens. Navigate to the Data folder then the Theme folder (/Data/Theme).

  3. Click the DIADTheme2 file and then click Open.

  4. Once the theme is imported, a success dialog box opens. Click Close.

Notice colors on all the visuals are updated. Your report should look like the screenshot at this point. This theme looks good. Now, most of the visuals are blue, so let’s add some contrast.

Note: Here you can save and add your custom themes.

  1. Click the Gauge visual.

  2. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  3. Expand the Data colors section.

  4. Click the drop-down menu next to Target. Notice the color palette is different now.

  5. Click the black color. Notice how it changes in the visual.

  6. Collapse the Data colors section.

  7. Expand the Data Labels section.

  8. Change the Text size to 10.

  9. Expand the Target section.

  10. Change the Text size to 10.

  11. Click the Matrix visual.

  12. Drill up to the Segment level.

  13. Click the Revenue by Country and State visual.

  14. Drill up to the Country level.

  15. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  16. Expand the Data colors section.

  17. Select a light shade of gray as the Default color.

  18. Enable and expand the Data labels.

  19. Change the Display units to Millions.

Notice that there a lot of formatting options. For example, a visual title can be changed and formatted, or you can add a border and background to the visual. Feel free to explore the options.

  1. Let’s move to another visual, click the Revenue and % Growth by Year visual.

  2. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  3. Expand the Data colors section.

  4. Select the black color for % Growth.

  5. Select a light shade of gray as the Default color.

Now let’s add a report title.

  1. From the ribbon, click Home and then click Text box. Notice a text box visual is added.

  2. Resize the visual as needed.

  3. Enter Manufacturer Analysis in the text box.

  4. Highlight Manufacturer Analysis to format the text.

  5. Select Segoe (Bold) as the font.

  6. Select 36 as the font size.

  7. Resize the text box as needed.

  8. Notice the additional formatting option that have been added highlighted in black (superscript, subscript, and bulleted lists)

  9. From the ribbon, click View.

  10. Click the checkbox next to Show Gridlines and Snap to Grid. This will help with aligning the visuals.

  11. Uncheck the Show Gridlines and Snap to Grid options to disable these features.

  12. Right-click the page name in the lower-left corner and then click Rename Page.

  13. Rename the page to Manufacturer.

We can also use a background image to format the reports. Let’s try it.

  1. Click the white space in the canvas.

  2. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  3. Expand the Page Background section.

  4. Click the Add Image button.

  5. A File browser dialog box opens. Browse to the DIAD folder then the Data folder (/DIAD/Data).

  6. Click the Background file.

  7. Click Open.

  8. From Image Fit drop-down, click Fit.

  9. Slide Transparency slider to 0%.

Notice we have a template which has a place for header and slots for images.

  1. Resize and arrange the visuals as shown in the screenshot

Now let’s add a logo.

  1. From the ribbon, click Insert and then click Image

  2. The File browser dialog opens. Browse to the DIAD folder then the Data folder (/DIAD/Data).

  3. Change the file type to All files(*).

  4. Click the VanArsdel_Logo file.

  5. Click Open.

  6. Resize the visual as needed.

  7. Drag the visual to the top left corner of the page.

Note: The logo is transparent. You need to place it on the blue background to see it.

Now let’s change the font color of the report title.

  1. Highlight Manufacturer Analysis.

  2. Click the arrow next to the A for the font color. Select the white color.

  3. Change the size of the font to 24

  4. Click on Background in the Visualizations pane and select the blue color shown below.

Now let’s add a smart narrative visual to our report.

  1. First resize the Revenue by Year visual

  2. Add a smart narrative visual to the canvas

Out of the box, Power BI has a large selection of visuals. However, there may be a use-case when you need a custom visual. To meet this requirement, the visualization engine is open-sourced. The Power BI community contributes visuals in the marketplace. You can add and use these visuals in your reports.

There is also an option to create your own visual and import it into Power BI Desktop.

Now let’s add a custom visual.

  1. From Visualizations section, click the ellipse in the last row of visuals.

  2. Click Get more visuals.

  3. Type play axis in the search box and click the Search icon.

  4. Click the Add next to the Play Axis (Dynamic Slicer).

Note: Notice the checkmark in the blue star. This image is used to identify certified custom visuals. Custom visuals that meet Power BI teams coding requirements are certified. Certified custom visuals support features like export to PowerPoint and the ability to display in subscription emails which are not supported by non-certified custom visuals.

  1. The import custom visual dialog opens. Click Get it now

  2. Notice a new visual is added to the list of available visuals.

  3. Click on the white space in the canvas.

  4. From the Visualizations section, click the newly imported Play Axis visual.

  5. From the Fields section, click the checkbox next to the Date field in the Date table.

  6. From the Visualizations panel, click the paint roller icon.

  7. Expand the Colors section.

  8. Enable the Show all option.

  9. Resize and position the visual as shown in the screenshot below.

Now that we have a report ready, let’s use Bookmarks to tell the story we discovered. Bookmarks capture the currently configured view of a report page, including filtering and the state of visuals which helps to make it easier to present the story.

  1. From the ribbon, click View.

  2. Click the Bookmarks button to enable Bookmarks. The Bookmarks pane opens.

  3. Click on Add in the Bookmarks pane. This will add the current state of the visual to the bookmark.

  4. Click the ellipse next to the newly created Bookmark 1.

  5. Click Rename and change the name to Initial State.

  6. In the Revenue by Country visual, click the USA column.

  7. Hover over the Revenue by Country visual and click the ellipse on the top right corner.

  8. Click Spotlight.

  9. In the Bookmarks pane, click Add. This will add a new bookmark with the current state of the report.

  10. Change the bookmark name to USA Revenue

  11. Click on the canvas.

  12. Click Australia in the Revenue by Country visual.

  13. In the Bookmarks pane, click Add. This will add a new bookmark with the current state of the report.

  14. Change the bookmark name to Australia Revenue

  15. From the Bookmarks pane, click View. You are now in Bookmarks slide show mode. You will be in the first bookmark, which we called Initial State. Notice on the bottom of the report pane there is an option to navigate between bookmarks.

  16. You can use the arrows to navigate between bookmarks and tell your story.

  17. From the Bookmarks pane, click Exit to exit the Bookmarks slide show mode.

If time permits, feel free to explore other options available with Bookmarks, such as Selected Visuals, as you continue to build your story.

  1. From the ribbon, click View.

  2. Uncheck the Bookmarks Pane.

  3. Collapse the Visualizations and Filters pane by clicking on the arrows

Now let’s add bookmark navigator buttons to the canvas

  1. From the ribbon, click the Insert ribbon.

  2. Click on Button and select Navigator -> Bookmark navigator

  3. Arrange the Bookmark navigator to fit on the page as shown below

  4. Click on the heading Fill and change the Fill color to a light blue and set Transparency to 40

  5. Click on the heading Shape, there is a long list of shapes to choose from, let’s pick Rounded Rectangle

Feel free to test out the new functionality.

Your report should look as shown in the figure below. Now let’s finish up by saving the file.

  1. Click File and then click Save.

You have built your first report!

You have successfully completed the hands-on lab by creating a report to share to your team. The nextlab covers creating a dashboard from this report to share with your team. You have seen an overview of the functionality in Power BI Desktop. There are many more features for you to explore with your data!

References

Dashboard in a Day introduces you to some of the key functions available in Power BI. In the ribbon of the Power BI Desktop, the Help section has links to some great resources.

Here are a few more resources that will help you with your next steps with Power BI.