Visual Formatting in Format Column Chart

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

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: 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. Like, Top Center, Bottom left, etc. By default, the Top left is the position. 

Gridlines

The Gridlines are the background lines, which are by default dotted in nature, and are very light and thin. Let’s understand by following steps:

Step 1: Click on the Gridlines option. Click on the Horizontal option, and a drop-down will appears. By default, in column charts only horizontal 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 a list appears. We can change the style of the horizontal gridlines to solid, dashed, etc. 

Step 3: If we close the slider of the Horizontal gridlines, then the horizontal 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 y-axis. Let’s understand by following steps:

Step 1: Click on the Zoom slider option. We have multiple options available here i.e. Y-axis, Slider labels, and slider tooltips. A slider will appear on the y-axis of the column 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 X-axis value in the column chart. On Clicking 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. Let’s understand by 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 three 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 column 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. 

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. 

A column chart is a vertical chart, which could present a single bar with multiple stacks in it. We have various options to format column 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 column chart in Power BI and explore its various options.

Formatting a Column Chart In Power BI

After the successful, creation of a column chart in Power BI. There are several ways we may format it. Adding a title, modifying the chart’s color and position, and adding tooltips, bar colors, and data labels are a few examples. We were provided a dataset, a name, and an employee. To make the column chart, we added the employee’s name to the x-axis and added the employee’s pay and bonus to the y-axis. We will examine every Power BI column chart option using this chart. In visualizations, there are two forms of formatting:

• Format X-xis
• Format Y-axis
• Visual formatting and
• General formatting, we will discuss all in this article.