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maurcoll's avatar
maurcoll
Icon for Helper IV rankHelper IV
8 days ago
Solved

Aligning multiple visuals

Good Morning 1. I have 3 matrix visuals on a page with date and hour on the columns with the drill down on the columns. Is there a way to clearly define the difference between the dates either addin...
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  • ShahRukhSameer's avatar
    ShahRukhSameer
    8 days ago

    Hi maurcoll​,

    For the first point, you can try adding vertical gridlines in the matrix formatting, but Power BI doesn't natively let you apply a separator only between date groups while ignoring the hour-level columns.

    A couple of workarounds:

    • Use conditional formatting or a separate header measure to make the date groups more distinguishable.
    • If you need a clear gap or separator after the last hour of each date, you may need a custom visual or a different layout, as the native matrix has limited control over column-group borders.

    For the second point, Power BI doesn't support one scrollbar controlling multiple matrix visuals natively. Each matrix manages its own scrolling independently.

    If all three matrices need to stay aligned, the best option is usually to combine them into a single matrix where possible, using measures to display the different values. That way, the columns and scrolling remain synchronized.

jubinsoni's avatar
jubinsoni
Icon for Skilled Sharer rankSkilled Sharer
8 days ago

Hi maurcoll​,

Two practical tricks for point 1 that work in the native matrix today:

a) Band the columns by date with a background-colour measure. Every other date gets a light shade, so each day reads as a block even though the gridlines stay uniform:

Date Band Colour =
VAR d = SELECTEDVALUE ( 'Date'[Date] )
RETURN
    IF ( MOD ( INT ( d ), 2 ) = 0, "#F2F5F9", "#FFFFFF" )
Format -> Cell elements -> Background color -> fx
  -> Format style: Field value -> based on [Date Band Colour]
(apply to each value field; optional: same measure on the column headers)

b) Use the date subtotal as the separator. Turn on column subtotals at the date level only (Format → Column subtotals → Per column level → Date on, Hour off). Give the subtotal a narrow width, a slightly darker background and a blank label. The result is a visible "gap" after each day's hours, and it doubles as a daily total if that's useful.

Point 2: agreed, there's no shared scrollbar between visuals. Two ways around it:

one matrix instead of three
  -> add a "Section" column (ABC/DEF/GHI groups) as the first row field,
     so all three blocks scroll together
reduce the need to scroll
  -> a date slicer / relative-date filter limiting the matrix to 1-2 days,
     or bookmarks / buttons that page through days

So my overall approach would be:

banding measure for alternating date shading
-> date-level subtotal styled as a separator
-> merge the three matrices into one so the scrolling stays in sync

AI-assisted drafting: AI was used to help structure and phrase this response. I reviewed and validated the technical content before posting.