Power BI Custom Visuals - Bullet Chart

In this module, you will learn how to use the Bullet Chart Power BI Custom Visual. The Bullet Chart serves as a replacement for poorly designed dashboard gauges and meters you might be using now. Typical gauges do not show very much information and require a lot of space on a dashboard. The Bullet Chart overcomes these flaws by allowing you to split into multiple categories (show more information) and orient the chart to fit your needs (requires less space).

Module 12 – Bullet Chart

Downloads

• Power BI Custom Visual – Bullet Chart
• Dataset – Computer Hardware Sales.xlsx
• Completed Example – Module 12 – Bullet Chart.pbix

Key Takeaways

• The bullet chart is a variation of a bar graph but designed to address some of the problems that gauges have:
  • Allows you to split chart by categories
  • Visuals can be vertical or horizontal

This shows a Bullet Chart with multiple categories and varying targets.

• Under the Format paintbrush, there are several options for customizing the appearance of the Bullet Chart.
• The Data values section allows you to manually overwrite what the data thresholds are. Ideally you would have these properties driven by the data source but if needed use these properties manually to set these values.

• With the Category label property, you can change text size or color of the category label or just turn on or off the the labels.

• The Orientation property has four options you can select from (Horizontal Left, Horizontal Right, Vertical Top or Vertical Bottom). These options simply change how the chart is oriented on the report design surface.

• The Colors settings allow you to adjust the colors that are used for each threshold of the Bullet Chart. Pretty straightforward but it’s nice that you have the flexibility to change these thresholds.

• The Axis section allows you to turn on or off the value labels, change the color of those labels and add a value label using the Measure units property.

• In addition to these properties, you have a set of settings that appears on every visual to adjust the background color, add a border around the visual and lock the aspect ratio.

Find Out More

You will always be able to find this video module and advanced viewing of future modules on the Pragmatic Works On-Demand Training platform or view my previous blog posts.