Reverting renamed (field) names on visuals back to original field name

[2win2mac]

Is there any way to revert back to the original name (field name), if I changed manually the name that the visual is showing/using for a field? I know you can hover over the renamed name on the visual, but would like to do this revert without having to re-write anything manually...

It would be great if this could be undone in a similar way as you just remove the step that renames your field in a query.

Is there a metadata mapping table that can be accessed somewhere that keeps tabs on the names of the visuals vs respective field names?

[Jurgen_GXO]

When you hover over the renamed field from the Visualizations pane in Power BI desktop, the original table and column name will pop up.

[2win2mac]

I just tried out and noticed that if you empty the new name from the visual and press enter, it will revert back to the field name. Hope that helps anyone who may be looking to do simply this.

But I don't want to do the changes one name at a time - I am looking for a solution that would let me do this for all fields at once, or even by creating a script that goes through the metadata and does a find and replace (with a lookup table) of some sorts.

I found a way to have a look at and edit the DataSchema in a (json) text file, but the visual level names for the field names are nowhere to be found there. I am convinced that they must be stored somewhere, I just don't have a clue now where to look for them. (For instructions visit this article: https://www.kasperonbi.com/how-to-change-the-dataset-script-in-power-bi-desktop/)

What I am ultimately trying to achieve is change these (renamed) visual level names (not the field names!) from one language to another. We are working on a low budget (for a non-profit) and can't afford to pay for embedded/premium capacity on a monthly basis, where it would be possible to create multi-lingual reports. So just trying to find an easy way to rename the visual level names of the fields into different languages, and hoping that this would not need to be done to each report and each visual manually. That will create a lot of extra maintenance in the long run.

[AlexisOlson · Accepted solution]

I was going to mention you can potentially text edit the file itself but this is not straightforward.

If you want to attempt it, the relevant component lives in the Report folder and is a file named Layout formatted as JSON (see here).

[2win2mac]

Thank you @AlexisOlson! 

I can indeed find the exact locations of the values I would need to change, but creating an automated script to find each of the spots to make the changes looks a little bit...mmm...challenging 🙂 I guess I'll just have to do every change manually...

[AlexisOlson]

Other than removing and re-adding the field, I don't think there's a way to do this in Power BI desktop.

[2win2mac]

Actually there is, and the solution is really easy - just remove all text from the visual level name, press enter, and it will revert back to the field name! But I am looking for a more automated way to do this (see my other comment)...

[cpearson]

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible, sorry.

If you had edited the field names in the Field list (instead of in the visuals), you could quickly undo that by going to the Edit Query option and removing the Renamed Column steps at the end of your Power Query settings Applied Steps.

[2win2mac]

Hi @cpearson Tx I was aware that you can change the field names back by removing the edit query steps... But I was asking about the names changed for the visuals specifically. I just found out that if I remove the changed name from the visual, it reverts back to the field name. But I want to do this holistically, not one by one.