Data Colors Advanced Controls, November 2018 release

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

In the November 2018 release at - https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-november-2018-feature-summary/#conditional... - MS have introduced an Advanced Control for Data Colors, for conditional formatting. It's supposed to be a link on the Data colors dropdown section in the Formatting area.

It currently only appears on Scatter Chart, Tree Map, Map, Filled Map and Funnel. However Amanda Cofsky says in her blog that it would be available for all variants of column and bar charts.

Has it been held back or have I misunderstood something?

I have checked that I've on the very latest version! I don't think I need to set one of the Preview checkboxes....?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

There is NO option for Advanced controls on my Power BI Desktop 

[TomMartens]

Hey,

since the expression based formatting is implemented you will find the option to color filled maps here:

I created a mesure to highlight the state Washington:

fill red if washington = 
var isWashington = SELECTEDVALUE('Dimension City'[State Province] , BLANK())
return
IF(isWashington = "Washington" , "Darkred" , "lightgrey")

I assigned this measure like so:

of course all the previously available color settings are still there, but now integrated into the feature conditional formatting, but nevertheless, this is how filled map will look like with the measure applied:

Hopefully this answers your question.

Regards,

Tom

[Aleksandra_K]

No advanced controls button in Filled map view, how do I get it to appear ?

[TomMartens · Accepted solution]

Hey,

please excuse, but I do not fully understand what you are asking for.

If you wonder how to activate this advanced control for a simple column chart, this may help:

The next screenshot shows a column chart, without any conditional formatting

1. Mark the column chart
2. From the formatting section, activate the Advanced control from the Data colors band
    
3. Select a formatting "rule", in my example I select "Format by: Field value ..." and select a measure that returns the name of a color:
   
   

This leads to this column chart:

This is the DAX for the measure:

vis aid - fill color - mark category b = 
IF(HASONEVALUE(Table1[A])
    ,IF(FIRSTNONBLANK('Table1'[A],0) = "B"
        ,"darkred"
        ,"darkgrey"
    )
    ,BLANK()
)

If this does not answer your question, please excuse, and please rephrase your question, that I will be able to provide more guidance if not an answer.

Regards,

Tom 

[Anonymous]

Hi @TomMartens

Thanks for your comments. Alas, I'm still not seeing it for column or bar charts:

Column chart next to About popupColumn chart - Data colors

Scatter plot with Advanced Controls

But I am for Scatter Charts.

Note that I have installed Power BI Desktop November 2018 version from scratch and the above is new data and a new visual. 

It's very odd that you can see it and I can't for column charts. I'm mystified!

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have found one answer: 

If you don't put anything on the X-axis then you don't get the Advanced Controls! Once I do, it magically appears!

Sadly however if I put a Legend on, it disappears!

Houston, we have a problem....

[TomMartens]

Hey,

color saturation wasn't available in column charts, in this cases

• more than one measure has been selected
• a column has been assigned to the legend band

If you want to check this out, here you will find all the previous versions of Power BI Desktop:

https://zenatti.net/2017/07/04/power-bi-previous-versions/

Regards,

Tom

[Anonymous]

Thanks @TomMartens - your points are right. When you add a column to the Legend it switches off the Data Colors control. Then if you take the column out, the Data Colors control is active again. Although this feature is an improvement, it does not provide enough colour control for me.

I was really hoping that MS was announcing a way for me to control colours using DAX and data values held in a column. I can see that you have that for the simple chart (with no Legend). But my charts nearly always use the Legend to show an extra dimension.

Instead, I will have to continue using manually assigned colours for each value of the Legend. Very painful, especially when the Legend value changes when a different client connects via RLS. Each client has to be tested and manually assigned a value before going live.

Anyway, thanks for your help! It clarifies this area of column/bar charts and colours - so I've marked it as Solution.

[Anonymous]

Hi @TomMartens - thanks for your help. 

That's what I was expecting to see!

This could be a problem of Power BI Desktop versions. My laptop had November 2018 installed but my desktop was still on September 2018 (when I opened it from the EXE and not from a PBIX). When I opened my data-filled PBIX that had been saved using November 2018, it says on the Help/About/ page that the version is November 2018. However it doesn't show the Advanced Controls - perhaps because the underlying software is still September 2018??

So I then tried to upgrade the desktop to November 2018, It uses Microsoft Store and tells me "This product is installed." This is where it went wrong a while back - because I assumed when I got that message that it had already upgraded. When I click on Launch it shows November 2018. Great. However, when I go back and double click my icon in my Start Menu it launches September 2018. Sigh...  

Avoiding the dreaded Microsoft Store and using Advanced Download Options, I installed the latest November 2018 on the desktop. Then I opened my data-filled PBIX expecting now to see the Advanced Controls - but they are not there. When I open Power BI Desktop from the EXE (without any data) and create a new connection and visual, the Advanced Controls still don't show! And yet you clearly can see it.... have you got a secret version??? 

I then turned on all the preview features and tried again. Still nothing.

However, if I turn my Column chart into a Scatter chart, it appears.

Here are some pictures below.

Thanks.