What’s New with Analytics+: Chart wizard, Flexible KPI containers, Tornado, Parallel coordinates, Ribbon charts & more  

Your favourite data visualization tool just got better! Access a range of new visualization, collaboration, and analytics features when you upgrade to our latest version. The new Chart Wizard streamlines the process of chart selection, configuration, and setting up analytics, sorting, and ranking into just three simple steps. The latest version ships with exciting new charts like the Tornado, Histogram, Parallel Coordinates, and Ribbon charts to help you step up your multi-variate analysis and trend visualizations. Leverage the Flex feature and KPI customization options to effortlessly create captivating KPI dashboards with images, insight charts, text, and metrics.  

Discover the new features and innovations in version 4.2 that make Analytics+ the most powerful data visualization platform in Power BI.    

1. New versatile chart types 

2.  Chart wizard: Simplified chart selection and configuration   

3. KPI enhancements  

3.1 Advanced KPI customizations  

3.2. New KPI templates and import/export capability 

3.3. Flex container for KPI elements 

3.4. Neutral variances and accent bars 

4. Analytics & CAGR 

5. Dynamic ranking 

6. Legend enhancements  

7. Filter context – axis categories  

8. Scenario-based chart selection 

1. New versatile chart types 

Analytics+ is loaded with a wide range of sophisticated and highly customizable visualization options. In the 4.2 release, we are broadening our diverse repository with fresh charting options: 

• Ribbon chart: An engaging and visually appealing visualization tool, the Ribbon chart facilitates comparative analysis. It allows you to compare multiple series/segments and analyze proportional differences within a single chart, making it ideal for dashboards. 

• Tornado chart: Best suited for side-by-side analysis, Tornado charts help stakeholders instantly identify the categories that contribute to the overall outcome. Their unique shape makes them a definite eye-catcher. 

• Parallel coordinates: A powerful solution for plotting multi-variate data, parallel coordinate charts are applied in data exploration, pattern recognition, and outlier detection. 
  
  
• Histogram:  Histograms are powerful tools used to visualize data distribution. With Analytics+, you can configure the number of bins (intervals) to explore the data at different granularities, as shown in the example. 
  
  • Analytics+ offers a range of options for configuring bins:  
  • Define the number of bins and the interval type (closed/semi-closed/fully closed)  
  • Define the size or range for each bin  
  • Plot underflow and overflow bins to group a range of values below or above a specific limit 
    
    
• Packed bubble: Compare proportions across categories with the packed bubble. Packed bubble charts use space efficiently by tightly packing the bubbles, making them ideal for dashboards. If your data is hierarchical, you can enable the cluster option to render the parent and child categories into different groups.  
  
  
• Linear Gauge/Progress bar: Linear gauges offer a minimalistic solution for showing progress toward a goal, such as tracking KPIs or completion percentages. Since they are vertically oriented, they can easily be accommodated in dashboards.   
  
  
• Tip: In this example, we’ve used conditional formatting comparison bands/color scales to emphasize the range within which both the actual and target values lie.  

2. Chart wizard: Simplified chart selection and configuration 

Looking for the right chart? The Chart Wizard is your all-in-one solution! It helps you find the right chart, configure display properties, and set ranking, sorting in one seamless onboarding screen. 

Navigate to the Chart Type dropdown and select the last tab to open the Chart wizard. 

Selection based on chart family 

If you're familiar with different chart types and their use cases, use the Select Chart option to search by family. You can add your go-to chart types to the Favorites section for quick access.  

Once you've selected a chart, you can toggle chart elements (KPIs, axes, data labels, deviation, etc) on or off. You can also adjust the theme, font, color, and fill style—all without navigating through separate settings.

Selection based on function 

For more advanced recommendations, choose Function. This option helps you narrow down chart types based on the axis data (time series or categorical), use case (comparison, deviation, multivariate), visualization type (bars, points, lines) and number of measures.  

Set up analytics, sorting, and ranking all at once from the advanced tab, without needing to configure each individually. 

3. KPI enhancements 

3.1. Advanced KPI customizations 

In card mode, you will see that the toolbar has been upgraded. The options to add KPI containers and choose images/text/insight charts are right at your fingertips.   

• Add new containers to the left/right/top/bottom. You can easily re-size and re-arrange containers by dragging/dropping within the KPI section.  

• Each element type (text, insight chart, and image) also has dedicated customization settings. Hover over the container and click on the pencil icon to open the customization side pane.  

• Use layer tab, to arrange the X, Y position and structure of KPI. Easily move the order of elements where top is foreground and bottom are background layer. 

3.2. New KPI templates and import/export capability 

With Analytics+, you can create custom KPI card templates and reuse them across reports instead of building them from scratch.  

Select the Export Card Preset option to create a JSON config file that can later be imported to use the same layout.  

Note: Export card preset only persists the structure of KPI and not the chart properties. To restore layout + all properties use “Export Settings”.  

We have also added a range of single-click presets to capture simple and variance KPIs. 

3.3. Flex positioning for KPI elements 

Creating composite multi-element KPI cards has never been easier. You can choose between the Flex and Group options to organize your images, inline charts, text data, and metrics. When you work with Flex positioning, you only need to choose the direction (horizontal or vertical), and Analytics+ will automatically handle the alignment and positioning with consistent gap and fill options. 

3.4. Neutral variances and accent bars 

Accent bars help users assess metrics in an instant without having to analyze the numbers. You can enable accent bars from the KPI Appearance menu.  

You can also choose to display neutral variances with a different icon and color. To customize variances, open the Variance icon menu. 

4. Analytics & CAGR 

Draw more insights from stacked charts in the latest version. You can plot reference lines, reference bars, total and average bars, and trend lines based on the chart type. 

Plotting the CAGR in charts helps gauge the growth of an investment or business over a year or over a period of time without being distracted by individual fluctuations. You’ll notice a new dedicated tab for CAGR customizations in the Deviation side pane. 

5. Dynamic ranking 

When your report has a numeric field parameter assigned to Tooltip-Text categories, users can quickly rank their data by adjusting the slider.   

Select the numeric field parameter from the Measure dropdown in the TopN interface.  

Dynamic ranking for axis categories in action:  

6. Legend enhancements  

• Data selection  

Legend-based data selection now provides options for including or excluding categories/measures. Navigate to Legend settings > Data selection to set the selection type. When you choose the Include option, Analytics+ plots only the selected data categories. The reverse happens when you choose Exclude.

• Show totals, set background  & alignment 

Show total: Display aggregated contribution in the legend. 

Show background: Display category colors as background for legend. This gives a button view for legend. 

Alignment: You will also notice that the vertical and horizontal alignment options have been changed from dropdowns to user-friendly icons.  

7. Filter context – axis categories  

You can now display filter selections in your axis categories. Remember to enable the Axis label toggle while setting up context awareness.  

In the example, we’ve used a measure breakdown waterfall. From the new Filter Context settings pane, you can select a particular measure and tag it to a filter context dimension. We’ve tagged the Sales measure to the Segment dimension.  

Notice how the Segment selection from the slicer is displayed along with the Sales measure in the axis label.  

8. Scenario-based chart selection 

Exploring our vast repository of charts to find the one best suited for your business case can seem overwhelming. We've simplified navigability with scenario-based chart selection. Analytics+ can suggest the charts best aligned for specific scenarios like ranking, distribution, or comparison. 

Please refer to the release notes for a comprehensive list of requirements, features, and bug fixes.  

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