Open In App

Power BI – Format Clustered Bar Chart

Improve
Improve
Like Article
Like
Save
Share
Report

A clustered bar chart is a horizontal chart, which could present multiple bars in the form of a cluster. The horizontal bars basically group together, as they are under the same, y values. We have various options to format clustered bar charts, we can change the value of the x-axis, y-axis, its title, etc. In this article, we will learn how to format a clustered bar chart in Power BI and explore its various options. 

Formatting a Clustered Bar Chart In Power BI 

After the successful, creation of a clustered bar chart in Power BI. We have multiple options to format it. For example, adding the title to the chart, changing the color, and position of the chart, and adding tooltips, bar colors, and data labels to the chart. We have been given a dataset, name, Employee, and we have created the clustered bar chart, by adding Employee name in the y-axis, and salary, and bonus in the x-axis. Using this chart, we will explore every option of clustered bar chart in Power BI. There are two types of Formatting in visualizations i.e. visual formatting and general formatting. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Visual Formatting 

Visual formatting comprises eight options i.e. Y-axis, X-axis, Legend, grid line, zoom slider, bars, and data labels.

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Y-Axis 

The Y-axis is the vertical text of the chart. 

The following are the steps: 

Step 1: Click on the Y-axis option. A drop-down appears. We have multiple options available here i.e. Values and Title. Click on the Values option, and a drop-down appears. For example, the values are Arushi, Gautam, etc. A font is an option used to select the type of text we want to show on the y-axis in the chart, we can also set the size of the text, etc. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Step 2: Similarly, click on the title option. For example, the title is Employee Name. To change the color of the title of the y-axis, click on the color option. Select the required color. For example, we have selected orange color, and the Employee Name is changed to orange color. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

X-Axis 

The X-axis is the horizontal text of the chart. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

The following are the steps: 

Step 1: Click on the X-axis option. A drop-down appears. We have multiple options available here i.e. Range, Values, and Title. Click on the range option, and a drop-down appears. Minimum and Maximum values can be set by the range option. By default, the minimum value is 0 and the maximum value is the maximum value of the dataset. We can also make the same chart, in a log scale, and can also invert the range of the x-axis. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Step 2: Click on the Values option, and a drop-down appears. For example, the values are 0K, 20K, 60K, etc. A font is an option used to select the type of text we want to show on the x-axis in the chart, we can also set the size of the text, etc. The units can also be customized, to million, thousand, etc. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Step 3: Similarly, click on the title option. For example, the title is Sum of Salary and Sum of Bonus. To change the color of the title of the x-axis, click on the color option. Select the required color. For example, we have selected orange color, and the Sum of Salary and Sum of Bonus is changed to orange color. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Legends 

Legends are the property that is used to sub-categorize the data for better analytics. It divides the data into different sub-groups

Note: We have removed, bonus from the chart shown, and added, the department column for the legends

The following are the steps: 

Step 1: Click on the Legend option. A drop-down appears. We have multiple options available here i.e. Options, Text, and Title. We can set the position of the legends. Using the Text property, we can change the color and font size of the legends i.e. Department. Click on the Title, to customize the title i.e. Department

 

Step 2: Click on the Options property, and a drop-down appears. We can set the position of the legends accordingly. For example, to Top Center, Bottom left, etc. By default, the Top left is the position. 

 

Gridlines

Gridlines are the background lines, which are by default dotted in nature, and are very light and thin. 

The following are the steps:

Step 1: Click on the Gridlines option. A drop-down appears. We have an option available i.e. Vertical.  Click on the Vertical option, and a drop-down appears. By default, in clustered bar charts only vertical gridlines are available. We can edit the style of the line. Also, one can set the color and change the thickness of the gridlines. 

Power BI - Format Clustered Bar Chart

 

Step 2: Under the Style option, click on the drop-down option. A list appears. We can change the style of the vertical gridlines to solid, dashed, etc. 

 

Step 3: If we close the slider of the Vertical gridlines, then the vertical lines would disappear, as seen in the image below. 

 

Zoom Slider 

The zoom slider is used to increase or decrease the range of the numeric values on the x-axis. 

The following are the steps: 

Step 1: Click on the Zoom slider option. A drop-down appears. We have multiple options available here i.e. X-axis, Slider labels, and slider tooltips. A slider will appear on the x-axis of the clustered bar chart. Slider labels, enable the values on the slider as a mark strip. Slider tooltips is used whenever we are sliding the zoom slider, the numeric value will appear on it. 

 

Step 2: The below gif shows how the bars change with the slider. 

 

Bars

Bars refer to the rectangular columns, which show the dataset value corresponding to each y-axis value in clustered bar chart. Click on the Bars option. A drop-down appears. We have two options i.e. Color and Spacing. We can customize the color of the bars accordingly, and can also add padding between the bars. 

 

Data Labels 

Data labels provide additional information on the bars. For example, Arushi has a salary of 50K, and she wants to display that on the bar. Click on the Data labels option. The salary data label will be added to the entire chart. Also, a drop-down appears. We have four options i.e. apply settings to, options, values, and background. Values and background have the same property as discussed above i.e. font, size, and color. Apply settings to, is a filter on the basis of legends, we can apply the property to specific groups only. The options property is used to set the position of the data labels. 

 

General Formatting 

There are multiple options in general formatting. For a clustered bar chart, we have options like Title, tooltip, effects, alt text, etc. We will look at each of the options in detail. 

 

Property 

The property option is generally present in every visualization. It contains three options, Size, position, and Advance options. We, generally do not use these properties, because all are easily accessible with mouse clicks. The size property helps to resize the visualization created. The position property changes the position of the visualization, in the report. The Advance option comprises adding a layer order, which is rarely used. 

 

Title 

The title formatting is present in every visualization. As the name suggests, it adds a heading to the visualization. Click on the slider to enable the title. 

The following are the steps:

Step 1: Click on the Title option. A drop-down list appears. Add the title, under the Text section. For example, Sum of Salary by Employee Name and Department. We can view in the image a title is added to the chart. As done previously we can customize the size, font type of the chart, etc. 

 

Step 2: We can also change the color of the title. Under the text color, select the required color. For example, yellow in this case. The title color changes to yellow

 

Effects 

The effects section comprises three features i.e. Background, Visual Border, and Shadow. All works according to their names. The background adds a background color to the visualization, the Visual border adds a border around the visualization, and the shadow option creates a shadow on the outskirts of the visualization. 

 

The following are the steps:

Step 1: Click on the Background option. Select the color of the background accordingly. For example, Pink. We can view in the below image that the background of the chart changed to pink. 

 

Header Icons

Header-icons are the options, present on the top of the visualization. For a clustered bar chart, there are two options, filter on visuals and more options. Click on the header-icons option, we will get various options, like Background, Border, and Icons. One can set its colors as per choice. 

 

Tooltips

If we hover over a visualization, then we cannot view any information related to the chart. Consider a situation, where we want to display the fields added on hovering over the chart, then this task can be achieved by the Tooltips option. Tooltips have three properties i.e. Options, Text, and Background. Click on the tooltips option. Now, for example, we hover over the bar, then we can view that the employee Name Arushi, Department IT, and Salary 50K is displayed. We can set text and background color according to our needs. 

 

Alt Text

Alt text is a property present in each visualization. People generally misinterpret, alt text by its name, they think that alt text will be displayed when they hover over the visualization. Alt text is for the persons, who cannot see the visuals, images, etc. This option is only available if you are using a narrator in your system. When your narrator is active, then this alt text will be spoken by the system. Click on the Alt text, and type the required text. 

 



Last Updated : 16 Jan, 2023
Like Article
Save Article
Previous
Next
Share your thoughts in the comments
Similar Reads