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Waffle Charts: Power BI Custom Visualization

by | Power BI

Waffle Charts in Power BI are advanced chart types that are commonly used to show parts of a whole. In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to use the Enlighten Waffle chart which is another custom visual in Power BI. It provides an easy and simple way to visualize a percentage of values on a 10×10 dot grid.

These are the Waffle charts that we can use instead of the Card visuals. These visuals tell the same story as the Card visuals. One of the differences between the Card and the Waffle chart visual is that the latter adds a bit of layer on our report. Some limitations of this visual is that we can only compare between two categories, and we can only add static texts.

Waffle Charts

So, if you want to create a dynamic text, use a blank text button, then add a measure on that button to create a dynamic text. We can also use the Card visual to add some text on this visual. 

Adding Waffle Charts In Power BI

Let’s now add this custom visual by going to the marketplace. Click the 3 dots, then click “Get more visuals”. 

Search for “waffle chart”, then add the Enlighten Waffle Chart.

Waffle Charts in Power BI

Add this visual on the report page. 

For this example, let’s place the Project lead on the Group field, and the Count of Tickets on the Value field. As I have mentioned earlier, we can only compare between 2 categories

The output will look like this.

Waffle Charts in Power BI

Let’s add a Table visual for us to understand what’s inside the Waffle chart right now. 

Let’s also add the Project lead and Count of Tickets on the Values field of this Table visual.

As we can see in this table visual, it only shows two categories as well. The assigned project lead in this example is Richard Hendricks who has 537 total number of tickets. Hence, 34% of the total number of tickets issued were displayed in our Waffle chart visual.

Waffle Charts in Power BI

On the formatting tab, we can invert this logic by turning on the Invert logic setting.

After enabling the Invert logic, it now displays 66%, which is the percentage of Nelson Bighetti’s tickets.

Waffle Charts in Power BI

Customizing Waffle Charts

Let’s now change the colors. The Text colour is for the percentage number, while the Primary and Secondary colour are for the dots inside the Waffle chart.  For this example, let’s use a light gray for the text color, light red for the primary color, and light yellow for the secondary color.

Let’s also turn off the Title and Background.

To make this more uniform, it would be better if we change the color of our percentage number to light yellow as well.

To add static text, just type in the text that we want in the Blurb field. For this example, let’s add “of the total tickets belong to Richard Hendricks“.

This is the output we should have right now. It will work if our visual is static and we won’t use any slicers on our report.

Waffle Charts in Power BI

However, if you really want a dynamic text, you can add a blank text button

Waffle Charts in Power BI

Adding A Dynamic Text

After adding a blank text button, I added a measure on the Button Text field.

Then, I placed my measure under the Based on field. As you can see, I used a measure which I named as Project Tickets Assigned.

I used a complex measure to make this more dynamic. 

Waffle Charts in Power BI

After that, I used a slicer and changed the year from 2020 to 2019.

After changing the year, we’ll see that the Project Lead was also changed (From Nelson Bighetti to Richard Hendricks).

Waffle Charts in Power BI

***** Related Links *****
New Enterprise DNA Course: Advanced Visualization Techniques
Visualization Technique – Power BI Column Charts & Filters
Utilizing Measures And Visualizations In Power BI

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to creatively use waffle charts and add dynamic texts to these type of charts. This is a very simple custom visual, yet essential for effectively displaying percentage data to your audience. 

Until next time,

Mudassir

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