Power BI – How to Format Bar Chart?

A bar chart is a horizontal chart, which could present a bar in the form of a stack.  We have various options to format 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 bar chart in Power BI and explore its various options.

Formatting a Bar Chart In Power BI

After the successful, creation of a 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 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 a bar chart in Power BI. There are two types of Formatting in visualizations i.e. visual formatting and general formatting.

Visual Formatting

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

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.

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.

X-Axis

The X-axis is the horizontal text of the 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.

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.

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.

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 the bar chart, 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.

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 bar chart. Slider labels, enable the values on the slider as a mark strip. Slider tooltips are 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 a 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 and Gautam have a salary of 50K and 40K, and they want 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. 

Note: The data labels in the case of bar charts, can only be set inside the bars, and not outside. It means that position has only inside options in data labels. To set data labels outside use the option, total labels which is discussed below. 

Total Labels

Total labels are the same as data labels. Total labels display the data labels outside the bars. Click on the Total Labels option. We have two options Values and Background. The values option is used to set the font, size of the labels, units, etc. The background option is used to set the background color to the labels.

The following are the steps:

Step 1: If we want to change the units of the labels, then click on the Display units under Values. We have multiple units, for example, thousands, millions, etc. 

General Formatting

There are multiple options in general formatting. For a 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 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.