Tiredofaimlesslyscrollingintheformatpanetofindwhatyou’relookingfor
Unsureifyou’vetrulyrevertedallthesettingstodefault
Whataboutthosedarndoublescrollbars!
We’veheardyourfeedbackandwouldliketointroduceyoutotheredesignedformatpane!Belowyou’llfindthebiggestchangeswe’vemadetoimprovetheusabilityandconsistencyacrossvisualsandnon-visualelements.
Newpivoticons
We’veupdatedtheformattabiconandaddedadescriptivesub-titletohelpnewusersbetterlocatetheformatpane.Previously,itwashardtofindtheformatpagesettings,nowwe’veaddedanewformatpageiconthatreflectswhennovisualsareselected,thecanvasisreadyforformatting.
Movingthevisualizationtypesgallery:
Toaddressthelimitedverticalspaceontheformatpane,we’vemovedthevisualizationtypesgallerytobepresentonlyonthe“Build”tab.
Redesignedcompacttoggle:
Wecondensedthetoggledesigntoreducetruncationandimprovereadabilityofthesettings.
Splittingvisualspecificvs.generalsettings:
Wehavenowsplitthelonglistofformattingcardsintotwocategories:visualspecificvs.generalsettings.Thegeneralsettingscontaincardsthataffectthevisualcontainerandareconsistentacrossallvisualtypes.Thevisualspecificsettingscontaincardsthatpertainonlytothevisualtypeyou’recurrentlyworkingwith.Thischangeallowsforeasieradjustmentofgeneralsettingswhenclickingacrossvisuals,betterscanabilityanddiscoveryofvisualspecificcards,andhelpsnewuserslearnwheretofindwhat.
Newglobalreverttodefault:
We’venowaddedanew“…”menuthatallowsyoutorevertallsettingsbacktodefault.Previouslythiswasapainstakingprocessofopeningeachcardandclickingreverttodefault.Thisisespeciallyhelpfulwhenyouwantyourvisualtoreflectyourthemestyling.
Sub-categories:
You’llalsonoticewithinthecardswehavebrokenupthesettingsfurtherintosubcategories.Thisimprovesreadabilityandallowsyoutofocusonspecificpartsofacardatime.We’vealsoaddedanewcontextmenufornavigatingthesenewsubcategories.Nowyoucanrightclickwithinacardtoexpandallthesub-categoriesatonceorcollapseforquickscanningandscrolling.
Forcustomvisuals,wewillexposeanAPIfordeveloperstooptionallycreatesub-categoriesfortheirformatpanesettings.Otherwise,theywillappearjustastheydotoday,inoneflatlistwithinacard.
Nomoredoublescrollbars!
Thisabigusabilityimprovement.Previously,whenscrollingwithinalongcardtheformatpanewouldhavetwoscrollbars!Nowwhenyouexpandcardsandsubcategories,wehaveonescrollbarthatadaptstothelengthofthecontents.
Hiddendynamiccardsexposed:
Previously,somecardswereonlyshownwhenyouaddedcertainfieldsinthebuildtab.Fornewusers,thiscanbehardtounderstandwhenandwhysomecardswereavailableorunavailable.Withournewlyaddedverticalspace,wecanexposethesehiddendynamiccardswithhelpfultooltipsonwhatactionstotaketoenablethecards.
Mergedfontsettings:
Acrosstheformatpane,we’venowmergedfontfamilyandfontsizetobeononeline.Again,thiswasinanefforttoreduceverticalspaceandbettertoalignwithOffice.
Customizeseriesmechanism:
Previously,theoldformatpanewouldrepeatthesamelistofsettingsaftertogglingthe“customizeseries”toggleon.Wehavenowconsolidatedthisintoan“applysettingsto”dropdownthatletsyoueasilyswitchbetweenupdatingthesettingsforallseriesoraparticularserieswithouthavingtoscroll.
Buttonstatesmechanism:
Similartocustomizeseries,we’vealsoconsolidatedthebuttonstylecards.Thisallowsustouseone“applysettingsto”dropdowntoeasilytogglebetweenbuttonstatestoupdatevariousaspectsofthestyle.
Highlightingmatchinsearch:
Smallbutmightychange,we’veaddedthesameyellowhighlightyouseeintheFieldslistandFilterpanetotheFormatpanesearchresults.Note,wheninsearchmode,resultswillreflectcontentsfromboththevisualandgeneralpivots.
Order,namingconventions,andinformationhierarchy:
Throughouttheyears,theformatpanehasreceivedmanynewadditionsbutnotalwayshavetheseadditionsbeenaddedinaconsistentfashion.It’sespeciallyhardfornewuserstolearnwherethingsarewhencardsandsettingsconstantlyjumparound.Orthenameofthesamesettinginonevisualiscalledsomethingentirelydifferentinanother.We’venowrearranged,renamed,addedmissingunits,andconsolidatedcards/settingstobehaveconsistentacrossvisuals.
Bonus!Analyticspaneupdatedstyling:
Tomatchthenewformatpanestyle,we’vealsoupdatedtheAnalyticspanelookandfeel.
Knownissueswithopt-inpreviewthatwillbeaddressedinDecemberrelease:
PowerBI是商務分析工具套件，可用來分析資料及共用見解。透過各式各樣的儀表板，您立刻就能掌握您的業務狀況，從中獲得您所需要的答案。