After spending a little time working with Power View, let’s assume that you have analyzed your data. In fact, I imagine that you have been able to tease out a few extremely interesting trends and telling facts from your deep dive into the figures—and you have created the tables and charts to prove your point. To finish the job, you now want to add the final touches to the look and feel of your work so that it will come across to your audience as polished and professional.

Fortunately Power View is on hand to help you here, too. It can propel your effort onto a higher level of presentation—without you needing to be a graphic artist—so that your audience is captivated. With a few clicks you can

• Add and format a report title.
• Apply a report background.
• Change the color scheme and fonts used in a report (which, taken together, are called the theme of a report).
• Alter the font used in a report.
• Add free-form text and annotations (or text boxes in Power View speak).
• Add images (which Power View calls pictures) to a report.
• Use images in tables.
• Use image-based slicers.
• Apply images to tiles.

This chapter will take you through these various techniques and explain how to use them to add real pizzazz to your analysis. We will use the CarSales.xlsx file as the source data and also the image files, which you can download to the folder C:HighImpactDataVisualizationWithPowerBIImages from the Apress web site, as described in Appendix A.

Titles

Let’s begin at the start. You have spent quite a while digging into data and have found effective ways of drawing your audience’s attention to the valuable information that it contains. However, you need the one, final, cherry on the cake—a title for the report.

The Text Ribbon

As its name suggests, the text ribbon allows you to modify text display in Power View. It is specifically used with text boxes, such as the title box that we just saw, or free-form text boxes that are explained in the next section.

The buttons available in the text ribbon are described in Figure 7-2.

Note that you cannot enter a font size; you have to select a size from those available in the font size popup list. You also cannot change the color of the title. The options available for text modification are described in Table 7-1.

Adding Text Boxes to Annotate a Report

Now that we have seen how to add and modify a title, it is probably a good time to extend the knowledge acquired to the close relative of the title—the text box. A text box is a floating text entity that you can place anywhere inside a Power View report. They are especially useful for annotating specific parts of a presentation. To add a text box

1. Switch to the Power View ribbon, unless it is already active.
2. Click on the Text Box button. A new text box is added to the report, and the text cursor will flash inside this box.
3. Type in the text you want to add. I entered Clear Market Leader in this example.
4. Click outside the text box, preferably in an empty part of the report canvas, to finish.
5. Move and resize the text box to produce the effect you are looking for.

Figure 7-3 shows a text box added to a chart visualization.

A text box can be moved and resized exactly as a title can. Consequently, I will not explain this again; just go back a couple of pages to the section called “Moving and Resizing Titles.”

The text inside a text box can be formatted as well. Here, too, the steps to take are identical to those you follow when formatting a title. So once again, just flip back a couple of pages, and it is all explained.

The Context Menu

Although we have not mentioned it so far, there is a context menu available when you use Power View. This menu is particularly useful when you are adding the final tweaks to a report, so now is probably a good time to look at what it can do. Right clicking on any visualization, text or image, in a Power View report will display the menu shown in Figure 7-4.

If you click on the canvas of a Power View report (that is outside any existing visualization), you will see a slightly different context menu. This is shown in Figure 7-5.

The two available context menus are largely similar. The available options in the context menus are outlined in Table 7-2.

Altering the Font Used in a Report

If you work in a corporate environment, then you probably have to follow enterprise guidelines on presentation. Even if this is not the case, you may have preferences when it comes to the choice of fonts that you use. In any case, Power View will let you choose the font used in a presentation. The things that you can change are

• Font Family
• Font Size

Altering the Theme of a Report

Power View understands that you may not have a lot of time to spend on the presentation of your report. Consequently, many of the visual aspects of a report work using a few simple, yet sophisticated, preset values. Central to these is the notion of the report theme. Basically, what you do is choose a set of colors and fonts from a palette that Power View offers, and the software does the rest.

Rather than discuss the theory, I propose seeing themes in action. So, to apply a theme to a Power View report, whether it is a blank report or an existing one, this is what you do:

1. Click on the Themes button in the Power View ribbon, the available themes will appear in a scrollable list, as shown in Figure 7-6.

   

   Figure 7-6. The available themes in Power View

2. Select a theme by clicking on it.

Yes, it really is as simple as it sounds. However, as the changes can be very subtle, you may not see much change to begin with. What you have probably noticed (assuming that your Power View report has a table, a couple of charts, and a slicer, like the Power View sheet StylesExample in the example workbook entitled PVPresentation.Xlsx) is that the following have changed:

• The font used in the entire report—tables, charts, titles, slicers—everything!
• The color used as a principal highlight. You will see it change in the line under table titles and above totals as well as in the bullets to the left of slicer items, for instance.
• The palette of colors used by charts. This is the basis for bars, columns, pie slices, bubbles, and lines.
• The report background.

As an example, Figure 7-7 shows the Power View sheet StylesExample from the sample workbook with the Concourse theme applied.

Although the color change is not immediately obvious in a book printed in black and white, the change of font family is clear, as is the modification of the font size. In fact, I had to resize the matrix and pie chart very slightly, as well as the column widths in the matrix and table, to achieve an optimum presentation. So, to avoid lots of last-minute retweaking of your reports, I advise you to to decide on a theme earlier rather than later in your creative cycle.

Applying a Report Background

Power View does not condemn you to presenting every report with a white background. To avoid monotony you can choose from a predefined set of 12 report backgrounds that you can add to every report in a presentation with a couple of clicks.

To apply a background to a report, all you have to do is

1. On the Power View menu, click the popup triangle for Background (in the Themes section). The choice of available backgrounds will appear as shown in Figure 7-11.

   

   Figure 7-11. The Background popup menu

2. Select the background that you want to apply. The sample report that we have been using so far looks like Figure 7-12, if you apply the Dark 1 Solid background (the image on the top right of the set of choices).

There are three families of background available:

• Solid
• Vertical gradient
• Central gradient

One of each of these is essentially light in tone—it is based on predominantly white coloring. Another set is based on black, so it is consequently dark in tone. The two other sets are based on the two background colors defined in the report theme, one light, the other dark. The actual colors are displayed as the two tiny color triangles at the top right of each theme image in the Theme popup menu.

To explain how the backgrounds are set out, take a look at Figure 7-13.

If you apply any of the dark backgrounds, then Power View will automatically switch the text to white or a light color. Applying a light background will switch all the text in a presentation to black, or a dark color.

If you want a color-based background, then you will have to choose one of the options available in the two central columns in the Background popup menu. However, to choose a color, you must apply a theme to the presentation. As you will discover, there are only a limited set of background colors available.

You can always see which background has been applied by looking at the images in the Background popup menu. The current background has a subtly thicker line around it. The default background is always the top left hand background called Light 1 Solid, which is, in effect, a clear background.

Images

We all know what a picture is worth. Well, so does Power View. Consequently you can add pictures, or images, as they are generically known, to a Power View report to replace words and enhance your presentation. The images that you insert into a Power View report can come from the web or from a file on a disk—either local or on an available network share. Once an image has been inserted it is not linked to the source file. So if the source image changes, you will have to reinsert it to keep it up to date. So, although you can have images from databases appear in tables via PowerPivot, you cannot place these same images outside a table in Power View.

Some of the uses for images in Power View are

• As a background Image for a report.
• Images in tables instead of text. An example could be to use product images.
• Images in slicers. These could be flags of countries, for instance.
• Images in tiles. These could be flags or products.
• Independent images— a logo, for instance, or a complement to draw the viewer’s attention to a specific point.

Once we have looked at the types of image formats available, we will see how images can be used in all these contexts.

Layering Visualizations

As a report gets more complex, you will inevitably  need to arrange the elements that it contains not only side by side, but also one on top of the other. Power View lets you do this simply and efficiently.

As an example of this, let’s create a chart with another chart superposed on it.

1. Create a bar chart using the following two fields:
   1. Make
   2. RatioCostToSales
2. Order the bar chart by RatioCostToSales, in ascending order.
3. Create a pie chart using the following two fields:
   1. SaleCosts
   2. CountryName
4. Reduce the size of the font in the pie chart, and set the legend to appear on the right.
5. Place the pie chart in the top right-hand corner of the bar chart.
6. With the pie chart selected, choose Arrange Bring To Front from the Power View ribbon.

Your composite chart should look like Figure 7-23. If you had not set the pie chart to be at the front (in the topmost layer), the vertical lines of the bar chart would have overlaid the pie chart, making it harder to appreciate.

This technique is particularly useful when you are adding independent images as was described in the previous section. It is also handy when you are combining elements such as images and text boxes, as you will see in the next section.

Some Uses for Independent Images

The limits of what images can do to a report are only those of your imagination, so it is impossible to give a comprehensive list of suggestions. Nonetheless, a few uses that I have found for free-form images include these:

• Company logos, as we have just seen.
• Images added for a purely decorative effect. I would hesitate, however, before doing this at all, as it can distract from the analysis rather than enhance it. Nonetheless, at times, this may be precisely what you want to do (to turn attention away from some catastrophic sales figures, for instance). So add decoration if you must, but please use sparingly!
• To enhance the text in a text box by providing shading that is in clear relief to the underlying image or background.
• As a background to a specific column in a table. Be warned, however, that the image cannot be made to move with a column if it is resized.
• Pullout arrows.

Several of these techniques are shown in Figure 7-24. This example will hopefully clearly indicate the limits of such techniques, as they detract (considerably, in my opinion) from the simplicity and style of an uncluttered Power View report, as well as make it extremely laborious to make any modifications. Nonetheless, it is possible to achieve certain presentation effects using images. So if your boss insists, you can push the boundaries between added effects and visual overload.

Preparing Images

As I stressed earlier, it is easy to try to use images to produce effects that Power View does not provide out of the box. So, even if this may take a disproportionate amount of time compared to producing your analysis, at times, you simply have to add some visual effects. In other words, here are a few suggestions for those moments when the boss can’t spell “overkill.”

• For backgrounds, especially if you want a good shading effect, take a look at one of the free graphic design programs that are around. I have a weakness for Pixlr, which I used for many of the sample images that accompany this book.
• If you need to resize an image, remember that there is a Resize option in Paint, and that Pixlr (or several other web sites and free products) can do this too.
• Take a look at the many, many web sites that offer royalty-free stock images. There are so many that I suggest using your favorite search engine for this. Then you can convert them to .png or .jpg as described previously (if this is necessary).
• As you are using Excel, then you could well be a PowerPoint user. Remember that PowerPoint has a vast image library, and that you can export selected images in .png format.
• If your company uses Microsoft Visio, then you may find lots of images to use from among the shapes that come with the product. To export a shape as a .png file, just select it, choose File Save As, and select Save As Type Portable Network Graphics. You may recognize one or two of the images used in this chapter as coming from Visio, if you look carefully!

Conclusion

In this chapter you have seen how to push the envelope when using Power View to deliver especially compelling presentations. This covers not only the general aspect of a report, such as its background and color scheme, but also the enhancements that you can add by tweaking the font attributes for individual elements.

Finally, you saw how adding images can turbo charge the impression that your analysis can give when you add graphic elements to tables, slicers, and tiles. And, used sparingly, images and free-form text elements can draw your audience’s attention to the most salient features of your presentation. So now it is up to you to use these powerful Power View features to deliver some really compelling interactive analyses to your audience.