Formatting is often overlooked when creating Power BI reports, yet it is something that really elevates a report. I highly recommend spending the time to format or set up a style of formatting reports when you start using Power BI.

To help you on your journey I am doing a Power BI Formatting blog series where we are going to look at different ways you can format Power BI reports.

In today’s example we are going to look at page formatting.

All these formatting options are available when you select the paint roller icon from the visualization tab with NO visuals selected.

If you have a visual selected it will access the formatting options for that individual visual versus the page itself.

Page Size

There are a few different size options available. If you are viewing reports on the Power BI desktop or Power BI online there is no need to switch sizes, but if you plan to export reports different sizes could be beneficial.

• 16:9
  • This is the default size.
• 4:3
  • A smaller canvas size that fits less visuals.
• Letter
  • Switches the report canvas to a portrait orientation versus the default landscape orientation. This would help if you intend to export to a PDF that you would want to print.
• Tooltip
  • Allows a set of visuals to be placed on a page that will appear as a tooltip on other pages of the report. We will look more into tooltips in a future blog post.
• Custom
  • Set a custom canvas size.

I usually use the default 16:9 and tooltip sizes when creating reports.

Here are examples of the 16:9, 4:3 and letter size canvases.

Report canvas backgrounds can be customized with a specific color or image and transparency level. Use a higher transparency level to either fade a color or create a watermark effect with an image. Colors can be chosen from the default set or customized using the HEX color or RGB definition.

When working with a page background remember that visuals also have a default background, to see through to the page background individual visuals must have their background turned off or set to 100% transparent.

In the below example we have given our report a 50% transparent grey background. The top two visuals also have their backgrounds set to allow the background to show.

Page Alignment

Choose between top or middle alignment to determine how the report canvas is aligned on the screen.

Wallpaper

The options are the same as setting a page background, but this affects the entire visible screen versus just the canvas portion where visuals are placed. It is extremely helpful if you want to layer an image and color on your background.

In the below example a picture was added to the page background and set at 75% transparency and a grey was set as a color wallpaper. The grey is lighter where the visuals appear because the background of the picture was white and it combined the two colors to make a lighter grey

Filter Pane and Filter Cards

With these formatting options the filter pane appearance in both color and font can be customized. Here is an example of a report with a filter pane that has been customized.

I have not run across a lot of desire to custom this pane as it seems a bit extra, but it is a cool option if you want to give the whole report a streamlined look.

-Jerica Coleman, CRM and Power BI Consultant