Power BI Custom Visuals - Timeline

In this module, you will learn how to use the Timeline Power BI Custom Visual.  The Timeline is a great tool for filtering date values on a report.

Module 26 – Timeline

Downloads

• Power BI Custom Visual – Timeline
• Dataset – Gold Prices.xlsx
• Completed Example – Module 26 – Timeline.pbix

Key Takeaways

• The Timeline is similar to the native slicer in Power BI, but has several more customizations available.
• Not surprising, this visual can only accept date values.
• If you need to adjust the start date of the Timeline based on your Fiscal Calendar, that is possible in the format settings.

This Timeline provides a filter for gold prices at the month level.

• Under the Format paintbrush, there are options available for customizing the Timeline.
• Under the Fiscal Year Start section, you will find how to adjust what is considered the first day of the year by setting the Month and Day properties to the beginning of your Fiscal Calendar.

• Next, you will find the First Day of the Week section which allows you to modify which day of the week is considered the first day.

• Making changes to the Range Header section will modify how the user sees which date range is selected.

This shows what happens on the Timeline when the settings are modified as they appear above.

• Changing the properties in the Cell section will change the appearance of the Timeline cells that are selected or unselected.

• Changing the Granularity section will adjust the slider that appears in the top left corner of the visual. Here you can modify the color and the level that is currently displayed.

Using the settings above will result in the Granularity Slider appearing like this.

• Under the Labels section you can adjust the appearance of any labels on the Timeline. This includes the label color and text size.

• 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.