Build a Slicer Panel in Power BI Like a PRO

Summary

The video demonstrates how to create a clean, organized filter pane for a customer churn dashboard in a bank. The presenter shows how to hide filters behind a button and arrange them in a pop-up window to avoid overcrowding the dashboard. Steps include reformatting the filter pane, adjusting slicer alignment, and customizing the appearance of filters and buttons. Additionally, the video covers creating bookmarks and actions to show or hide the filter pane and clear all slicers efficiently. The guide aims to improve dashboard usability and aesthetics while maintaining functionality.

Takeaways

• 😀 Having filters directly on the dashboard is often fine, but to avoid overcrowding, they can be hidden behind a button as a popup.
• 💡 The video demonstrates how to create a popup filter pane for a customer churn dashboard of a bank.
• 📊 The filter pane needs reformatting, including rearranging filters into three columns with three rows each.
• 🛠️ To align filters, adjust their size, add borders temporarily for alignment, and distribute them horizontally and vertically.
• 🔍 Changing slicer values from numerical to textual improves user understanding (e.g., 'true/false' to 'active/inactive').
• 🎨 Formatting includes adjusting font sizes, colors, and adding a transparent background to the filter pane for better alignment.
• 🔘 Add buttons for actions like opening/closing the filter pane, and reset or clear all slicers.
• 📁 Use bookmarks to save the current state of the dashboard, affecting only selected visuals without altering data.
• 🔄 Add a close button at the bottom of the filter pane for user convenience.
• ⚠️ Consider limitations of 'clear all slicers' actions, such as unintended effects on slicers outside the filter pane.

Q & A

Why might it not be an option to have filters directly on the dashboard?

In some cases, having filters directly on the dashboard is not an option because it could overcrowd the dashboard or there might not be enough space.

What solution is proposed for managing filters without overcrowding the dashboard?

The proposed solution is to hide the filters behind a button and have them appear as a popup to maintain a clean look on the dashboard.

What are the initial steps to create a popup filter pane?

The initial steps include copying the filter pane from another page, reformatting it by making the background shape larger, and rearranging the filters into three columns with three rows each.

How can you format multiple slicers at the same time?

You can select all slicers by holding down shift, then go to visualizations, formatting, General properties, and adjust the height and width uniformly.

What adjustments can be made to improve the readability of slicer labels in one column?

To improve readability, you can increase the gap between the slicers, format them with borders temporarily for better alignment, and ensure proper alignment using the align and distribute functions.

How can slicers with true/false values be made more user-friendly?

Slicers with true/false values can be converted into textual values (e.g., active/inactive) and displayed as a vertical list to make them easier for the user to understand and select.

What styling changes can be made to slicer headers and values for a cleaner look?

Slicer headers can be styled by changing the font to Segoe UI SemiBold, reducing the size to 9 pixels, and changing the color to dark gray. Values can have their font size set to 10 and font color to dark gray as well.

How can a button be styled to fit the overall design of the dashboard?

A button can be styled by setting a rounded corner, enabling text with a specific font and size, setting a color that matches the design, and adjusting the border and fill properties for different states (default, on hover, and on press).

How do you create actions for buttons to show and hide the filter pane?

Actions are created by using bookmarks. You create two bookmarks (show filter pane and hide filter pane), configure them to affect only the display of selected visuals, and then assign these bookmarks as actions to the respective buttons.

How can you ensure that a 'clear filters' button only affects certain slicers?

You can create a bookmark that affects the data of selected slicers without affecting their display. Group all the relevant slicers, update the bookmark to save the state with all slicers deselected, and assign this bookmark to the 'clear filters' button.

What is a potential improvement to indicate active filters when the filter pane is closed?

A potential improvement is to dynamically color the filter button when something is selected and to provide a filter counter that shows the number of active filters.

Outlines

00:00

📊 Managing Dashboard Space with Pop-Up Filters

This paragraph discusses the issue of limited space on dashboards, which can be resolved by hiding filters behind a button and using a pop-up format. The example given is a customer churn dashboard for a bank, where filters are overcrowding the dashboard. The solution involves copying and reformatting the filter pane, adjusting the layout to fit three columns with three rows each. The filters are formatted for better alignment and visibility, with detailed steps on resizing, rearranging, and formatting the slicers for a cleaner look.

05:03

🔧 Adjusting Slicer Headers and Filter Pane Title

This section focuses on further refining the appearance of the filter pane. The slicer headers are adjusted to a smaller font size and a dark gray color for a less prominent look. The values are also resized for better visibility. The filter pane title is aligned using buttons instead of text boxes for more formatting flexibility. The background shape is resized and made temporarily transparent for better alignment. Additional buttons are added for interaction, including a filter button and a close button, with specific formatting for hover and press states.

10:06

🔘 Adding Interactive Buttons and Aligning Elements

This paragraph continues the process of adding and formatting interactive buttons. A rounded filter button is created with specific colors and transparency settings for different states (default, hover, and press). A close button is also added, using a copied filter button with an 'X' symbol, and formatted similarly. Both buttons are resized and aligned for consistency. Another close button is added at the bottom for user convenience. A clear button is introduced to reset all slicers, with specific formatting to indicate a clearing action. An apply filters button is suggested but left out due to functionality limitations.

15:06

🔖 Creating Bookmarks for Filter Pane Actions

This section explains how to create bookmarks to toggle the visibility of the filter pane. Two bookmarks are created: one to show the filter pane and one to hide it. The bookmarks save the current state of the dashboard, affecting only the display of selected visuals. The steps include hiding and showing the filter pane, updating the bookmarks, and ensuring that the buttons are included in the slicer base for consistent visibility toggling. The bookmarks are then assigned as actions to the filter and close buttons, and a clear button action is configured to reset all slicers.

20:07

🔄 Enhancing User Experience with Dynamic Indicators

The final paragraph addresses potential improvements for the filter pane. It suggests dynamically coloring the filter button and adding a counter to show the number of active filters, providing users with better feedback when filters are applied. A reference is made to another video that will cover these enhancements in detail, offering step-by-step instructions to implement these dynamic indicators for a more user-friendly dashboard.

Keywords

💡Dashboard

A dashboard is a visual interface displaying various data metrics and KPIs. In the context of the video, it shows customer churn metrics for a bank. The dashboard's layout and available space are crucial considerations when adding features like filters.

💡Filter Pane

The filter pane is a section of the dashboard that allows users to apply various filters to the data displayed. The video explains how to create a pop-up filter pane to avoid overcrowding the main dashboard area.

💡Popup

A popup is an on-screen element that appears temporarily to display additional information or options. The video demonstrates how to use a popup to house the filter pane, keeping the main dashboard clean and uncluttered.

💡Slicers

Slicers are visual controls used to filter data in a dashboard. The video covers how to arrange and format multiple slicers within the filter pane to enhance usability and appearance.

💡Alignment

Alignment refers to the positioning of elements in a visually consistent manner. The video details steps to align slicers and other components within the filter pane to improve readability and aesthetic appeal.

💡Formatting

Formatting involves adjusting the visual style of dashboard elements, such as size, color, and borders. The video emphasizes the importance of formatting slicers and buttons to ensure a clean and professional look.

💡Bookmarks

Bookmarks in this context are saved states of the dashboard that can be quickly recalled. The video shows how to create bookmarks for showing and hiding the filter pane, enabling dynamic interaction within the dashboard.

💡Button Actions

Button actions are interactive features assigned to buttons that perform specific tasks, such as showing or hiding the filter pane. The video guides how to set up button actions to improve user experience.

💡User Interaction

User interaction refers to how users engage with the dashboard elements. The video discusses optimizing user interaction by adding buttons for filtering, clearing filters, and closing the filter pane.

💡Visual Properties

Visual properties include attributes like size, color, and border style of dashboard elements. The video details how to adjust these properties to maintain a consistent and user-friendly design across the dashboard.

Highlights

Having filters directly on the dashboard often works well, but sometimes it's necessary to hide them to avoid overcrowding.

Creating a popup filter pane can help maintain a clean dashboard look.

To build a popup filter pane, copy the filter pane to another page and reformat it.

Rearrange the filters into three columns with three rows each for better organization.

Use larger gaps between slicers to distinguish labels more clearly.

Uniformly format slicers by adjusting height, width, and adding borders for easier alignment.

Replace true/false slicer values with more user-friendly textual values.

Switch to a vertical list style for two-value slicers to save space.

Change slicer headers to a smaller, less prominent font to reduce visual clutter.

Add interactive buttons for opening and closing the filter pane, formatted for clear user interaction.

Create an 'Apply Filters' button for user convenience, though it can't close the filter pane simultaneously.

Use bookmarks to manage the visibility of the filter pane effectively.

Ensure that buttons are grouped with the filter pane so they are affected by the same bookmarks.

Incorporate a 'Clear All Slicers' button for resetting filters, keeping in mind it affects all slicers on the page.

Consider adding dynamic indicators on buttons to show active filters, enhancing user experience.

Transcripts

in a lot of cases having the filters

directly on the dashboard works just

fine but sometimes it's not really an

option because we don't want to

overcrowd the dashboard or we just

simply don't have enough space in this

case we could hide the filters behind

the button and have them as a popup I

show you in this video how to build such

a popup and have a clean look to

it this is a customer turn dashboard of

a bank showing how many customers are

leaving the bank across different

dimensions and as you can see there is

really not much room to play with we

have a lot of filters if you go to page

one you can see this filter Pane and we

can copy it on page two and this is

going to be the basis of our filter pain

here as well but we are going to

reformat it first of all select the

background shape by double clicking on

it we can make it larger and after that

we can rearrange our filters we can have

three columns with them three rows in

each column I'm just going to put them

side by

side if you look at one column it's a

bit hard to distinguish which label

belongs to which one so we can have a

larger gap between the slicers we can

format them at the same time if we

select them all we can open the

selection pane open the slicer base and

select all the slicers here holding down

shift and then we can go to

visualizations formatting General

properties and let's make the height 80

and the vid also to unify them

172 then temporarily we can add some

borders to it to be able to align them

better easier and then we can just

rearrange the First Column I select the

second slicer here and move it below the

previous one so the lines are simply

touching and we can also move it it

doesn't work sometimes when they are

grouped and yeah this way simply then we

also want to align the first row so how

I like to do it is to have a base line

which is going to be the first slicer

here and make sure that you move the

other two slicers to a lower position

then select the first one first then the

other two and then go to formatting

alignment and align top it's going to

align them to the top of the highest

slicer after that we can select the last

top slicer here and we want to have

smaller gaps between the columns so

holding down shift and pushing the left

Arrow we can move it to the side and

then select all three of the top slicers

format a line and distribute them

horizontally after that we can align the

second column properly select all the

free slicers align line and align them

to the left then you can select the

second Slicer in both columns align them

to the

bottom and do the same with age group

and seller range Aline bottom with the

last two slicers before aligning them

let's look into them what kind of values

do they have so has credit card and is

active member it's like the two true

false value so showing zero for false

and for

true we can do it little bit better and

changing them into textual values I

already created some columns for it go

to CH modeling and is active member we

can replace it with is active member

label now you can see it's either active

or inactive it's easier to the user to

actually see what they select and we do

the same for the credit card we have

this H credit card label here replace

the measures or the columns holding not

holding and since we have only two

values instead of a drop down we could

actually use a vertical list and showing

the values directly so select them both

holding down shift go to formatting SL

of settings and style vertical list and

since they are taking up more space we

can go to General properties change the

he

204 and then simply we can select the

second one and move it below the first

slicer we can also change the titles so

has credit card label that could be

going to slicer header let's call it

credit card

holders and is active member is going to

be active members now we can select all

of our slicers again going here on the

section pain this is the easiest way

then go to formatting General we can

remove move the visual borders

effects and then go back to

visual we can also change the slicer

headers because they are a little bit

too black and a little bit too big so we

want to deemphasize them a little bit

let's go to slicer headers we can change

the font to seg UI semibold let's change

the size to 9 pixels only and the font

color is going to be this dark gray the

second Row in the second column then we

can go to

values and we change the font size also

to 10 and the font color is going to be

dark gray again and we have to make sure

that all the values are visible so none

of them are like cut off we have the

longest values I think in credit score

or seller range and also let's check if

we select multiple values that this

multiple selection text is visible I'm

going to remove here the selection and

you can already see that it has a less

heavy feeling it's more clean it's more

organized next we can move the filter

pane title to the left I like to use

buttons in a lot of cases instead of

text boxes because we have more

flexibility with the formatting and also

on selection you don't activate this

text editing Fields then we can go to

style and we can change the font color

to the same gray and then left align the

text and we can make sure to align it

above this geography text so on this

side they are aligned on the same line

then we carry size the background shape

and double click on it and this filter

background we can make it transparent

temporarily so we see how it fits the

slicers change the transparent see and

then we can move it around what we want

is to have kind of like the same Gap

what we have between the slicers around

the slicers as well also above the

filter paint text and on the right side

we want to leave a little bit more space

because we will have a button there and

also in the bottom we will have two

buttons so let's leave a little bit room

for that then we can remove the transer

curency and then deselecting it and

selecting it again we can just align it

on the top of this visuals below and

maybe you have to change the corner

radius as well as you see here they

don't align properly and let's go to

shavee and let's change it to maybe 8

pixel or 8% so now we can add some

buttons to be able to interact with it

let's go to insert

buttons and and we are going to add a

blank button then go to button shape and

we are going to give it around the

corner completely rounded corner so we

can just max it out then go to style

enable text and add filter as text the

font is going to be sway UI semi bold

and 12 pixel then we are going to give a

color a blue color to it to fit the

overall color of the design I already

selected a color so we can just go to

more colors and you can add this blue to

it then we can disable the icon and

enable The Fill but in the default State

it's going to be 100 person transparent

then go to border we add the same blue

color to it and make the WID two pixels

after that we go to the state and change

it to onover in this case the font color

is going to be white The Fill is going

to be blue and we add 70%

transparency and the Border color can

stay the same you can see up on Hover

how it changes then we can go and change

the state to on press text color white

again the F color is blue with 50%

transparency the Border color stays the

same again and now when you click it you

have a slight effect indicating the

click this is going to open our filter

pane but we also need buttons to be able

to close it so let's copy the filter

button and for this filter I searched

for a cancel symbol like an x on Google

but I already copied it in this XXX

value measure here you can just select

this and copy it into the button

style make sure that you change the

state to default and replace the text

with this we can also make it larger

let's make it 18 pixel and in this case

we are going to change the color to dark

gray it matches the text colors on the

filter Pane and we can remove the fill

and also the Border then go to the on

Hover State and we just make it a

lighter

gray and then on press is going to be

dark ray again so then we have this

interaction when we are clicking on it

and we can go to General properties and

make the anti but smaller 40 by 40 and

then we will move it to the side and the

close button and the filter Paine should

be also aligned it seems like the text

is lower so we can select them both then

go to formatting align align to the top

and you can see how often we were and

now this seems a little bit too large

here this gap on the left side so we can

just make the background shape by double

clicking on it a little bit smaller

something like this so now also this

distance on the side and on the top

seems like the

same so this button is going to close

the filter Paine but to make it more

user friendly we can add another close

button in the bottom to make the life of

the user easier so we are going to copy

the filter button one more time move it

to the bottom of the filter panel and go

to style change the state to default the

text is going to be close the font color

dark gray we will remove the border and

then in the field for the default white

is okay the state on

Hover we make the font color white

that's okay we can keep it like that and

in this case the fill is going to be

this second gray in the First Column and

I would also change the transparency

here to zero on the FI so when we are

clicking it it's actually getting darker

the same way like the filter button

here if we select multiple slicers

multiple values in different

slicers and then we want to remove them

it can be a lot of work work to do that

so to make it easier we can add another

button to reset or clear all the slicers

at the same time for that we are going

to copy the close

button align it with the other close

button and when they are touching I just

move it four pixel to the left to have

some gap between them and then go to

style select the state default the text

is going to be

clear and in this case the font color is

going to be red this middle red the

third row this indicates that if you

click on this clear it's going to

execute like a negative action it's not

really negative but still removing

something so it's like kind of like a

warning color for that then go to fill

the white is okay for the default then

we can go to un

hover font color white is fine and the

fear color in this case is going to be

the first threed then go to the state on

press here we have to change the text to

clear again and the Feld color is going

to be the second red so when we click on

it it also going to be a bit

darker then one more thing if you double

check here the distances between the

bottom Edge and the right Edge it's also

different so I would just move both of

the buttons a little bit up another

thing which would be cool tool is to add

an apply filters button because we have

the option actually if you open the

actions in one of the buttons there is

this apply or slicers option available

but we cannot use it in a way that when

we click on the button it applies the

filters and also closes the filter pane

so we are going to leave it out okay

next we are going to create the actions

the bookmarks for these buttons we can

go to view view open the bookmark

pane I'm going to hide the data here we

don't need it for now and let's add two

bookmarks let's call them show filter

pain and hide filter name so how the

bookmark works it saves a Current stand

of the dashboard if you right click on

one of them you can see what is affected

the data being shown that could be for

example select in a slicer and whenever

going back to this bookmark the same

slicer is selected the display whether a

visual is visible or not and only on the

current page or not in this case we can

leave it on and whether we want to

affect all the visuals on the dashboard

or on the page or only the selected

visuals in this case we want to hide the

filter pane so we only want to affect

the selected visual the right click

again

and we don't want to affect the data

only the display so that's select the

data then we can select the slicer base

and hide it when you hide it then make

sure that it's selected again and the

right click on the filter Pane and it's

going to affect only the selected

visuals click

update then we can show the slicer base

again the filter pane select it one more

time

and now this time we're going to change

the show filter pane effect only

selected visuals don't affer data and

then click on

update now when you switch between the

two

views you see that it shows and hides

the filter

Paine you see that the buttons are not

affected by it it's because they are not

in this group this button is the filter

button

we are going to leave it as it is but we

will move the other fre buttons within

the slicer

base now all the visuals are affected by

the

bookmarks then we can add these

bookmarks as actions to the buttons

select the filter button enable the

action on the formatting pane type

bookmark and show filter pan then we

select the two close buttons enable the

action and here is going to be also a

bookmark and hide filter

pain now when we click on the buttons

they are going to execute the

actions for the clear button if we go

select it and go to the action we have

this clear all slices

option then select some

slicers and now when we click on clear

it removes all the filters this is good

for us here but you might have scenarios

where it's not a very good option for

example if you have a slicer for example

we have a date slicer outside of this

filter Pane and you don't want it to be

affected by this clear oil slicers

that's not going to work because that

affects every single slicer on the page

without exception and you can't control

it that's one thing to keep in mind and

another thing thing to keep in mind that

it doesn't affect the selections on this

default filter pane that could be also a

thing what you want to influence but

it's not going to be influenced by this

clear all slicers

action so instead of that we could also

create a bookmark let's add a new

bookmark and call it clear filter P it's

going to affect also the sected visuals

and in this case it's going to affect

the data but not going to affect the

display so disable the display and now

we can group all our

slicers by holding down shift and

selecting the top and bottom slicers

then you can press contrl G or you can

just right click and group

them going to call it

slicers and select the group then right

click on the clear filter Pane and

update it

then go to the clear button actions type

bookmark and add the clear filter

pane oh yeah one thing if you save or

update this clear filter pane make sure

that all the slicers are dis selected so

nothing is selected because that's the

state how it's going to be saved if

something is selected and then you

update this clear filter pane whenever

you activate that bookmark it's going to

go back to the current selection so make

sure that nothing is selected then

select the slicers group and then update

this clear filter pane but for us

everything is all right now so we can

just select some

filters and text the clear

button you can click on it by holding

down control and you see that everything

is removed so this is how to build it up

I think it's pretty clean looking but

there are some improvements we could

make for example when we close the

filter pane we select something and

close it we have no indicator that a

filter is selected we don't see anything

we could make some formatting changes

for example dynamically coloring the

button when something is selected and we

could also give a counter a filter

counter show how many filters are

filtered if you want to see how to do it

you can click on this video we are going

to build these indicators step by step

take care