Colouring column headers by hierarchy

[elinevans1]

Hello, 

I've got a matrix with 3 different values which are repeated per category. I know I can colour the columns by column headers Caseload, % of ES...,% of Clinics..., but I would like to colour them by Community Early Support Plan, Targeted Early Support - Family Help. Is this possible? Image below to illustrate what I'm trying to do 

Thank you

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @elinevans1 ,

Could you please confirm if you've submitted this as an idea in the Ideas Forum? If so, sharing the link here would be helpful for other community members who may have similar feedback.

If we don’t hear back, we’ll go ahead and close this thread. For any further discussions or questions, please start a new thread in the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum  we’ll be happy to assist.

Thank you for being part of the Microsoft Fabric Community.

[v-tsaipranay · Accepted solution]

Hi @elinevans1 ,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft fabric community forum.

As @burakkaragoz  rightly explained, Power BI doesn’t currently allow us to color matrix headers based on the top-level category (such as "Community Early Support Plan" or "Targeted Early Support – Family Help"). Currently, formatting is only possible on specific values like “Caseload” or “% of ES Reviews”.

The suggestions shared, like using custom visuals, adding colored shapes, or creating combined fields, are excellent workarounds that many users find helpful.

We understand this is a feature many users are requesting, so we recommend creating an idea or voting for it on the Fabric Ideas - Microsoft Fabric Community

Hope this helps. Please reach out for further assistance.

If this post helps, then please consider to Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly and a kudos would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @elinevans1 ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If my response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.

Thank you.

[burakkaragoz]

Hi @elinevans1 ,

Great question! In Power BI, you can apply conditional formatting to matrix column headers, but unfortunately, as of now, you cannot directly colour matrix column headers by hierarchy levels (e.g., Community Early Support Plan, Targeted Early Support, Family Help) out-of-the-box. The built-in header formatting only allows you to set a single color for all column headers, or to use rules based on the header value (not on the parent hierarchy).

Current Options:

1. Manual Formatting:
   You can manually set the header background color for each value in the matrix, but this won’t dynamically change by hierarchy—it will apply the color to all columns with the same value.

2. Field Formatting (Conditional):
   Conditional formatting on field values and headers is possible, but it’s limited to the value or field name, not the hierarchy parent.

3. Workarounds:

   • You can create a custom field in your model that concatenates your hierarchy (e.g., "Community Early Support Plan - Caseload") and then apply conditional formatting rules to that field.
   • Alternatively, you can use shapes or text boxes above your matrix to visually separate and color-code the hierarchy groups as a visual aid (not dynamic, but helps users visually).

4. Custom Visuals:
   Some third-party visuals from AppSource (like Zebra BI Tables or other matrix alternatives) offer more advanced header formatting options, including by hierarchy.

References:

• Conditional formatting in Power BI matrices
• Power BI Ideas: Matrix header formatting by hierarchy

Summary:
What you want isn’t natively supported yet, but you can vote for this feature in the Power BI Ideas forum (link above). For now, manual workarounds or custom visuals are the best options.

Let me know if you’d like guidance on setting up any of these workarounds!

If this helps, please consider giving kudos and marking as a solution to help others in the community.

Thank you!
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