Documentation
Variance Chart
Variance Chart is a Power BI chart visual. Create professional column charts with colored variance based on International Business Communication Standards (IBCS).
You can obtain Variance Chart conveniently by using the "Get more visuals" function in Power BI Desktop or the Power BI Service.
A dialog box will appear, showing a gallery of popular visuals and a search field. Use the search function to find "Variance Chart". A page will give you general information as well as details on plans and pricing and ratings and reviews. A blue "Add"-button will trigger the inclusion of the visual in your current Power BI report, enabling you to use it.
Data
First, you have to map the data you would like to visualize. Without data mapped to it the visual looks like this:
At least a measure has to be assigned to the "Value" field on the "Build visual" space. The measure will show as a single chart and the formatting area will be populated with the visuals formatting options.
All data fields explained:
Category - Categories to be shown on the x-axis. Can be either text or a number. Images are not supported at the moment.
Value - Measure to be represented by the height of the columns.
Target value - A second measure to compare the first measure (value) to. If no target value field is assigned, a normal column chart will be shown.
Formatting
Once at least a measure has been assigned to the visual's "Value" data property, the formatting pane with the visual specific formatting options will be visible.
There are five main formatting panes:
General - the visuals general formatting options
Axis - axis formatting, e.g. title and axis labels
Columns - column formatting, e.g. column width and color
Labels - data label formatting
Indicator - indicator settings, e.g. indicator colors
General
Chart padding - inner margins of the visual, i.e. the space between the chart and the edges of the visual. Useful to create more white space on the page, or to create a colored area around the chart - which itself has always a white background - by using the effects->background settings
Box rounded corners - if you create a differently colored space around the visual (see above "chart padding") you can here opt to give the so created background box of the chart roundes corners.
Axis - axis settings
Labels
Font - Font settings to be used for axis labels
Text color - Text color of axis label texts
Title
on/off - toggle to turn axis title on and off
Text - Text to be used as axis title
Font - Text properties of axis title
Text color - Color of axis title
Columns - column settings
Width - column width in pixels
Gap - distance between two columns
Color - column border/stroke color
Fill - fill style, choose between solid and three sizes of stripes
Fill color - column fill color (if solid fill style selected)
Selection opacity - opacity level (0 to 100) applied when whitening out not selected parts of the chart (columns, labels).
Labels - data label settings
Measures
Value text - text to be used when labeling the value data (e.g. in tooltips)
Target text - text to be used when labeling the target value data (e.g. in tooltips)
Delta text - text to be used when labeling the delta between "Value" and "Target value" (e.g. in tooltips)
Font
Font - text properties
Color
Values text color - text color to be used for value label
Values textbox color - text color of the box around the value label
Number format
Decimal places - number of decimal places to be applied to data labels
Display unit - display unit to be used for data labels
Indicator
Positive color - color of rectangle indicating a positive variance
Negative color - color of rectangle indicating a negative variance
Reverse indicator - toggle to apply indicator reversal (i.e. positive values red and negative values green)