As an end-user of a Power BI report, a chart that looked great at first might look not so great once you start applying filters or using slicers. Very large values in the data might throw off the scales and now your line chart might be suddenly all squeezed at the top or the bottom. Does any of the above sound familiar?
EDIT: There is a newer version of this custom visual chart, which is now called CHARTURO and is published to the Power BI AppSource Marketplace, you can read about it here and get it from the Marketplace here
Usually it’s the report designer who has all the power, this article is about giving more power to Power BI end users…
End users’ ability to change the scale, appearance or formatting of that chart is limited. That’s why I started creating the Mi4 Line Chart Power BI custom visual that lets you switch scales on the fly, and eventually have more overall control of the visual without having to edit the report.
Here at Mi4 we agree that the end user should have the ability to manipulate the chart on the fly, this is what initially led my colleague @Blake to write the article titled “Power BI Switching between Logarithmic and Linear Scales”, allowing the end users to change the scale using a slicer, albeit after a nontrivial amount of effort by the report designer to create this workaround.
While looking for a simpler solution, I came across JavaScript examples that showed how to use simple buttons inside the chart to switch the axis scale to logarithmic or linear at run-time, by the end user.
I had some free time on my hands recently, so I started building a line chart visual and this page will be updated to reflect each new version and feature I add to it.
I intend to publish the line chart visual on the Power BI App Source marketplace when it has enough features to be useful. In the meantime for those of you who would like to get their hands on the beta version to try it out contact me using the form below, your feedback and feature suggestions are always appreciated.
This is what a sample chart looks like, it’s best viewed in full-screen (bottom right button) and then you can use the three text buttons on the top left to switch axis scale between Linear, Power and Logarithmic:
Mi4 Line Chart v 0.1. showing data from this Power BI tutorial from Microsoft.
EDIT: This chart is now called CHARTURO and is published to the Power BI AppSource Marketplace, you can read about it here and get it from the Marketplace here
If you are interested in this chart and would like to receive updates please fill out the form below.