Similar to the Filled Map, the Shape Map visual uses shading/saturation to show the geographic data. One thing that does make the Shape Map unique is that it allows users to upload their own maps to be illustrated. In order to accomplish this, you must have a JSON file which contains all the necessary information required by Power BI. By default, the visual does offer some standard maps but currently does not have an option to show the entire world. Let's take a look at the Shape Map visual.

Let's look at , setting up the visual:

1. Select the Shape Map visual and move it to take up a quarter of the report page.
2. This map does not allow for multiple fields to be placed in the Location section, so we cannot use the Region Drilldown as before. For this example, we will use the StateProvinceName. Do not be alarmed if nothing appears initially, as we still have to tell Power BI which map we want to use.
3. Before we go into the Format Area to choose a map, lets add the Profit measure, which will control the shading/saturation.
4. Now, we can look at the Format Area and expand the Shape option, where there will be a dropdown selection for the Map category. For our example, we will want to choose USA: states.
5. This is another example where taking control of what colors will be used for the shading can be helpful, so lets apply the same changes that we did for the Filled Map under the Data Colors section.