Edit

Share via

Customize Power BI visualization titles

APPLIES TO: Power BI Desktop Power BI service

Learn how to customize Power BI visualization titles, backgrounds, labels, and legends. This tutorial explains formatting options in the Format pane.

You can't customize all visualizations. See the complete list of visualizations for details.

Prerequisites

  • The Power BI service or Power BI Desktop
  • Retail Analysis Sample report

Note

Sharing your report with a Power BI colleague requires that you both have individual Power BI Pro licenses or that the report is saved in Premium capacity. See sharing reports.

Customize visualization titles in reports

To follow along, sign into Power BI Desktop and open the Retail Analysis Sample report. To follow along in the Power BI service, open the report and select Edit.

Note

When you pin a visualization to a dashboard, it becomes a dashboard tile. You can also customize the tiles themselves with new titles and subtitles, hyperlinks, and resizing.

  1. Go to the New Stores page of the Retail Analysis Sample report.

  2. Select the Open Store Count by Open Month and Chain clustered column chart.

  3. In the Visualizations pane, select the paint brush icon, then General to reveal the format options.

  4. Select Title to expand that section.

    Screenshot of the Format pane with the paint brush icon and the Title drop-down called out.

  5. To change the title, enter Store count by month opened in the Text field.

    Screenshot of the Format pane with the Title text entered.

  6. Change Text color to white and Background color to blue.

    a. Select the drop-down and choose a color from Theme colors, Recent colors, or More colors.

    Screenshot of the Font color and Background color options.

    b. Select the drop-down to close the color window.

  7. Increase the text size to 16 pt.

  8. The final chart title customization is aligning the title to the center of the visualization.

    Screenshot of the Alignment controls with the Center option selected.

    At this point in the tutorial, the clustered column chart title looks something like this:

    Screenshot of the newly configured clustered column chart.

Save the changes, and continue to the next section.

If you ever need to revert all of the changes, select Reset to default, at the bottom of the Title customization pane.

Screenshot of the Reset to default option.

Customize visualization backgrounds

With the same clustered column chart selected, expand the Effects > Background options.

  1. Toggle the Background switch to On.
  2. Select the drop-down and choose a grey color.
  3. Change Transparency to 74%.

At this point in the tutorial, the clustered column chart background looks something like this:

Screenshot of the clustered column chart with background color updated.

Save the changes, and continue to the next section.

If you ever need to revert all of the changes, select Reset to default, at the bottom of the Background customization pane.

Customize visualization legends

  1. Open the Overview report page and select the Total Sales Variance by FiscalMonth and District Manager chart.

  2. In the Visualization tab, select the paint brush icon to open the Format pane.

  3. Expand the Legend options. The toggles for Legend and Title are both On by default.

  4. Use the Position field to move the legend to the left side of the visualization.

    Screenshot of the Legend card.

  5. Enter Manager in the Title text field.

  6. Change Color to black.

Save the changes, and continue to the next section.

If you ever need to revert all of the changes, select Reset to default, at the bottom of the Legend customization pane.

Customize total labels for stacked visuals

Stacked visuals can display data labels and total labels. On a stacked column chart, data labels identify the value for each portion of a column. Total labels display the total value for the entire aggregated column.

Data labels don't display on some visuals, depending on their size. If data labels don't display, make the visual larger or view it in full-screen mode.

The steps described here show how to add total labels to a stacked chart and apply the technique.

  1. Open the District Monthly Sales report page and select the Last Year Sales and This Year Sales by FiscalMonth area chart.

    Screenshot of the 'Last Year Sales and This Year Sales by FiscalMonth' area chart.

  2. From the Visualization pane, choose the Build visual tab, and select to convert this area chart to a stacked bar chart.

    Screenshot of the new stacked bar chart.

  3. In the Visualization pane, select the Format visual icon to open the Format controls on the Visual tab.

  4. Toggle On the Data labels switch.

  5. Toggle On the Total labels switch.

    Screenshot showing Total labels switch and Data labels switch set to On.

  6. Optionally, we can format the Total labels. This example uses black text, a bold font style, a larger font size, and values displayed as millions with one decimal place.

    Screenshot of the new stacked bar chart with total labels.

Customize layer order

Change the layering order of visuals and shapes in your reports. Layer order determines which objects appear in front when selected. When you select an object on the report canvas, that object becomes active and moves to the top layer. This behavior makes visuals easier to interact with. Place shapes and backgrounds on the bottom layer to avoid selecting them by accident.

Layering controls are available in the Power BI service, Power BI Desktop, mobile, and Report server. This article shows you how to change layer order behavior in the Power BI Service.

The steps described here show how to change the layering order of visuals and shapes in a report.

  1. Add a new report page by selecting the + icon on the page tabs menu.

    Screenshot of the New page '+' icon highlighted.

  2. From the Insert ribbon, select Shapes, and add a rectangle shape to the canvas. In this example, the canvas displays a blue rectangle.

    Screenshot of the new report page with a blue rectangle shape.

  3. Select and copy the "This Year Sales by Chain" visual from the Overview tab. Return to the new Page 1 we created, select the blue rectangle, and from the Home ribbon, select Paste to place the copied visual in front of the blue rectangle.

    Screenshot of the new report page with a blue rectangle and a pie chart in front of the rectangle.

    Now that you have two layers, try selecting the pie chart and then the background.

    • When you select the pie chart, Power BI makes that object active and displays its header menu.
    • When you select the rectangle, Power BI makes that object active and brings it to the front where it obscures the pie chart.

    You can change this default behavior with the following steps.

  4. Select the pie chart and open the Visualizations pane. Select Format visual and then, from the General tab, select Properties > Advanced options and switch On the Maintain layer order toggle.

    Screenshot of the new report page showing the Maintain layer order toggle.

  5. From the View ribbon, open the Selection pane. The Layer order tab in the Selection pane lets you view and set the layer order.

    Screenshot showing the View menu with the Selection Pane option toggled to On.

  6. Select the pie chart, hold down the CTRL key, and select the rectangle. Then, from the Format ribbon, open the Group control, and select Group. This action allows us to group both items together.

    Screenshot showing the visual and shape selected, Group control selected from the Format ribbon and the Group option selected.

  7. Expand the Selection pane. The Layer order should look like this:

    Screenshot showing the Layer order tab in the Selection pane.

  8. Save the report changes and switch to Reading view.

Now that the visual and the shape are grouped, you can select the shape and it remains in the background. If you leave the Selection pane open, you can see which layer has focus. Notice, that by selecting the canvas in between selecting layers, it activates the Group layer and maintains the layer order. For more information on this behavior, see Selecting visuals within a group.

Customize colors using a theme

You can apply design changes to your entire report by using report themes. For example, change the color scheme to use corporate colors, change icon sets, or apply new default visual formatting. When you apply a report theme, all visuals in your report use the colors and formatting from your selected theme.

To apply a theme to your report, select the View menu and open the Themes dropdown. Choose a theme. The report shown here uses the Solar theme.

Screenshot of report using Solar theme of yellows, oranges, and reds.

Visualization types that you can customize

Here's a list of the customization options that are available for each visualization type:

Visualization Title Background Legend Data labels Totals / Subtotals
Area Yes Yes Yes Yes Conditional
Bar Yes Yes Yes Yes Conditional
Column Yes Yes Yes Yes Conditional
Line Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Combo Yes Yes Yes Yes Conditional
Scatter Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Pie Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Donut Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Treemap Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Waterfall Yes Yes Yes Yes Conditional
Funnel Yes Yes No Yes No
Map Yes Yes Yes Conditional No
Map: Azure Maps Yes Yes Yes Conditional No
Filled map Yes Yes Yes Conditional No
Table Yes Yes No No Yes
Matrix Yes Yes No No Yes
Card Yes Yes No Value only No
Multi-row Card Yes Yes No Value only No
KPI Yes Yes No Value only No
Gauge Yes Yes No Value only No
Key Influencer Yes Yes No Automatic No
Q&A Yes Yes No Automatic No
Slicer Yes Yes No No No
Shape No Yes No No No
Textbox No Yes No No No

Related content

More questions? Ask the Power BI Community

  • Last updated on