INTRODUCING CHARTICULATOR FOR POWER BI : design vibrant and customized visual representations... of data

Create stunning and complex visualizations using the amazing Charticulator custom visuals in Power BI. Charticulator offers users immense power to generate visuals and graphics. To a beginner, there are myriad settings and options that can be combined in what feels like an unlimited number of combinations, giving it the unfair label, "the DAX of the charting world". This is not true. This book is your start-to-finish guide to using Charticulator, a custom visualization software that Microsoft integrated into Power BI Desktop so that Power BI users can create incredibly powerful, customized charts and graphs. You will learn the concepts that underpin the software, journeying through every building block of chart design, enabling you to combine these parts to create spectacular visuals that represent the story of your data. Unlike other custom Power BI visuals, Charticulator runs in a separate application window within Power BI with its own interface and requires a different set of interactions and associated knowledge. This book covers the ins and outs of all of them. What You Will Learn Generate inspirational and technically competent visuals with no programming or other specialist technical knowledge Create charts that are not restricted to conventional chart types such as bar, line, or pie Limit the use of diverse Power BI custom visuals to one Charticulator custom visual Alleviate frustrations with the limitations of default chart types in Power BI, such as being able to plot data on only one categorical axis Use a much richer set of options to compare different sets of data Re-use your favorite or most often used chart designs with Charticulator templates Who This Book Is For The average Power BI user. It assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader other than being able to open Power BI desktop, import data, and create a simple Power BI visual. User experiences may vary, from people attending a Power BI training course to those with varying skills and abilities, from SQL developers and advanced Excel users to people with limited data analysis experience and technical skills. Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Acknowledgments Introduction Visual Index to Chart Types Chapter 1: Introduction to Charticulator Importing Charticulator in Power BI Create a Charticulator Chart Selecting the Data Opening Charticulator Designing the Chart Saving the Chart in Power BI Tour of the Charticulator Screen The Chart Canvas The Fields Pane Glyphs and the Glyph Pane The Layers Pane The Attributes Panes The Scales Pane Chapter 2: Marks, Symbols, and Lines Marks Lines Symbols Text Marks Icons The Height, Length, and Size Attributes The Fill, Color, and Stroke Attributes Using Composite Glyphs Column Chart with Symbols and Lines Lollipop Chart Creating the “Stick” Creating the “Lollipop” Chapter 3: Binding Data How to Bind Data Binding Categorical Fields Editing a Categorical Color Scale Binding Numerical Fields Binding Numerical Fields to Numerical Attributes Binding Numerical Fields to Nonnumerical Attributes Editing a Gradient Color Scale Adding a Legend for a Gradient Color Scale Binding Data to Axes Binding Data to Icons Chapter 4: Using Symbols The Numerical Legend The Numerical Axis Creating a Line Chart Create a Scatter or Bubble Chart Chapter 5: 2D Region Plot Segments Creating 2D Region Plot Segments Using Plot Segment Sub-layouts Stack X Stack X with a Categorical X-Axis Stack X with a Categorical Y-Axis Stack Y Stack Y with a Categorical Y-Axis Adding an X-Axis Numerical Legend Stack Y with a Categorical X-Axis Stack X and Stack Y with One Category Grid Packing Jitter Overlap Sorting Glyphs and Labels Sorting a Power BI Chart Sorting in a Charticulator Chart Sorting the Glyphs Sorting the Axis Labels Spacing Glyphs and Labels Spacing in a Power BI Chart Spacing in a Charticulator Chart Spacing the Glyphs Spacing the Axis Labels Aligning the Glyphs Axis Visibility and Position Formatting Axis Labels and Tick Lines Gridlines Hands-On with Plot Segment Attributes Chapter 6: Using Two Categorical Axes Designing “Matrix” Style Charts Hiding Elements Conditioned By Small Multiple Type Charts Chapter 7: Using Numerical Axes Designing a Glyph for the Numerical Axis Editing the Range Format the Tick Numbers Formatting the Tick Font and Tick Lines Tick Data Chapter 8: Charticulator Expressions Referencing Field Names Using Charticulator’s Aggregate Functions Expressions Using Categorical Data Expressions Using Numerical Data Expressions Using Grouped Data Formatting Numerical Expressions Formatting Tick Labels Using the DAX FORMAT Function Chapter 9: Scales and Legends Charticulator Scales Properties of the Scale Color Scales Editing Color Scales Numerical Scales Editing Numerical Scales Creating Additional Scales When Mapping Data Reusing Scales Charticulator Legends Creating Legends Column Values Legends Column Names Legends Formatting and Moving Legends Editing the Scale of a Numerical Legend Chapter 10: Guides and Anchoring Default Guides Creating Your Own Guides Creating Guide Coordinators Anchoring to Guides Chapter 11: Working with Multiple 2D Region Plot Segments Using a Second 2D Region Plot Segment Using Additional Glyphs Using Group By... 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Hands-On with Plot Segments and Glyphs Chapter 12: Horizontal and Vertical Line Scaffolds Applying Scaffolds Combining Categorical Axes Combining Numerical Axes Chapter 13: Polar Scaffolds Applying a Polar Scaffold Reshaping the Polar Chart Creating a Pie Chart Using a Polar Guide Binding Fields to Polar Axes Using Polar Plot Segment Sub-layouts Rose Chart (Angular Axis and Stack Angular) Peacock Chart (Angular Axis and Stack Angular) Nightingale Chart (Angular Axis and Stack Radial) Radial Chart #1 (Radial Axis and Stack Angular) Radial Chart #2 (Radial Axis and Stack Radial) Height to Area Numerical Radial Axis – The Radar Chart The Custom Curve Scaffold Applying the Custom Curve Creating a Spiral Chapter 14: Plotting Multiple Measures Data Schemas Narrow Data Wide Data Using Separate Scales Using the Same Scale Creating a Clustered Column Chart Creating the Stacked Column Chart Using a Data Axis Cartesian Bullet Chart Polar Bullet Chart Dumbbell Chart Box and Whisker Tornado Chart Creating a Legend for Multiple Measures Chapter 15: Links and Data Linking Anchoring Links Linking Categories Ribbon Chart Area Chart Linking Plot Segments Vertical Ribbon Chart Proportion Plot Linking Categories Within Plot Segments Linking Data Co-occurrence Chart Chord Chart Sankey Chart Chapter 16: The Line Plot Segment Creating a Line Plot Segment Using a Categorical Line Axis Using a Numerical Line Axis Plotting Glyphs on a Numerical Line Axis Multiple Numerical Line Axes Combining Categorical and Numerical Line Axes Chapter 17: Templates and Nested Charts Saving the Chart As a Template Nested Charts Chapter 18: Integrating with Power BI Charticulator’s Interactivity Options Tooltips Context Menu Selection Interactivity Interactions onto Charticulator Charts Filtering a Charticulator Visual Highlighting a Charticulator Visual Chapter 19: Taking It to the Next Level Matrix and Card Combination Visual Highlighted Line Chart Categorized Line Chart Jitter Plot Arrow Chart Index Create stunning and complex visualizations using the amazing new Charticulator custom visuals in Power BI. Charticulator offers users immense power to generate visuals and graphics. To a beginner, there are myriad settings and options that can be combined in what feels like an unlimited number of combinations, giving it the unfair label, "the DAX of the charting world". This is not true. This book is your start-to-finish guide to using Charticulator, a custom visual software that Microsoft integrated into Power BI Desktop so that Power BI users can create incredibly powerful, customized charts and graphs. You will learn the concepts that underpin the software, journeying through every building block of chart design, enabling you to combine these parts to create spectacular visuals that represent the story of your data. Unlike other custom Power BI visuals, Charticulator runs in a separate application window within Power BI with its own interface and requires a different set of interactions and associated knowledge. This book covers the ins and outs of all of them. What You Will Learn Generate inspirational and technically competent visuals with no programming or other specialist technical knowledge Create charts that are not restricted to conventional chart types such as bar, line, or pie Limit the use of diverse Power BI custom visuals to one Charticulator custom visual Alleviate frustrations with the limitations of default chart types in Power BI, such as being able to plot data on only one categorical axis Use a much richer set of options to compare different sets of data Re-use your favorite or most often used chart designs with Charticulator templates This book is for the average Power BI user. It assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader other than being able to open Power BI desktop, import data, and create a simple Power BI visual. User experiences may vary, from people attending a Power BI training course to those with varying skills and abilities, from SQL developers and advanced Excel users to people with limited data analysis experience and technical skills. Alison Box is a director of Burningsuit Ltd and also is an IT trainer and consultant with over 30 years of experience delivering computer application training to people at all skill levels, from basic users to advanced technical experts. Currently, she specializes in delivering training in Microsoft Power BI Service and Desktop, Data Modeling, DAX (Data Analysis Expressions), and Excel. Alison also works with organizations as a DAX and Data Analysis consultant. Part of her job entails promoting Burningsuit as a knowledge base for Power BI and includes writing regular blog posts on all aspects of Power BI that are published on her website. When Charticulator was incorporated into Power BI in April 2021, she felt there was a need for more detailed documentation that takes the learner from no knowledge to being able to design complex and challenging visuals