Share your thoughts on the new On-Object Interaction feature (preview)

[RosieL]

Hit Reply to tell us what you think about the new On-Object Interaction feature so we can continue to improve.

For example:

• What changes would you like to see?
• If you turned off the preview switch, why?
• Any suggestions for addititional settings or capabilities?

Thanks,

-Power BI team

To read more about the feature, see the announcement in the Power BI Product Blog or our documentation on how to Use on-object interaction

FAQs:

• Q: How can I open multiple panes at once?
  • A: You can CTRL + click or right click on the unselected pane you wish to open and choose "Open in new pane"
• Q: Where did aggregations move to?
  • A: It's still on right click of a field, or you can use the new flyout aggregations dropdown while choosing or swapping a field.
• Q: Where did drillthrough and tooltip page setup move to?
  • A: Drillthrough is now in the page settings of the format pane under Page Information > Page type > Drillthrough or Tooltip.

[aedward5]

Strongly, strongly dislike this feature. It has made creating visuals so much harder and I find it very distracting to have to flip around in panes to pull my data in / format /revise the visual.

[EwanT]

Hi aedward5,

Thanks for the feedback. We do have some upcoming features to help with the flipping. You'll be able to keep the panes you would like open to always show instead flipping

[JonasArnout2]

Hi

I have been working Power Bi since the beginning and earlier with Excel Power Pivot and such.

We have come a long way and in general new features are improvements.

However the new way of building a visual is much more complex than it needs to be.

Having the option to dock "build a visual" to the side pane is already an improvement.

But now I have to chose between seeing the Data pane and the Build a visual pane.

While it could be good for new users to be able to select fields from the fieldwells directly,

some visual require a lot of columns or measures to be added and to each time click Add Data and then selecting the fields is very frustrating because earlier I could just drop them in there from one side pane (data) to the fieldwells that were in the side pane left of the data pane (the clasic experience)

The new feature is such a productivity killer for more advanced users.

Please include a way to either show multiple side panes at once or to keep the classic experience longer until you have found another solution to make this workable again.

I have often felt like an unpaid beta tester before and i never minded it for the advancement of the product.

I needed to create a new account for this and I never was too vocal on your forums anyways, but this time i feel i need to provide you with this feedback or i might be stuck with the way you designed it now...

Please fix this!

[RosieL]

Hi @JonasArnout2 thanks for taking the time to write this feedback. We have 2 features for pinning panes and a setting for always "open in new pane" on it's way!

In the interim, you can open multiple panes side by side by CTRL + Click or right click "open in new pane."

Have you had a chance to use the new on-object formatting capabilities? Would love your thoughts on that as a long time user of Power BI, we hope the formatting is easier with the point and click.

[mint-510]

I am having a great deal of trouble seeing the option not to aggregate fields.

[RosieL]

Hello, aggregations are still available on right click of a field, or you can use the flyout menu that contains the aggregations dropdown when choosing or swapping a field:

[ctappan]

Power BI should be accessible and useful to "citizen developers" as "self-service BI" for people who only spend a limited portion of their time working in Power BI. When you require right clicks and the Ctrl key and hide menu items, etc, it severely increases the learning curve and discourages use of the product by non-developers.

[stimplee]

Not a fan of this feature, It seems like you're messing with a good thing. If you do go forward with this, will you please leave it as a optional feature so that I don't have to use it in desktop if I dont want to?

[GaryC]

I agree! Keep the new feature optional. Leave us a choice of layouts to accomplish our work as we prefer.

[BugmanJ]

Have tried this for a few months but its just horrible, the on object box gets in the way of other visuals/selection areas, doesnt always stick, is bad for interaction and the "format" select tool no longer sticks as noted here https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Format-Button-not-sticking/m-p/3334364#M1112624

Have reverted back to the original, so much better, easier to use and quicker

[proteantecs]

I really tried. Really. I gave it a third and then a forth try. In May, Jun and July.

And I just hate the experience. I am clicking all over the place. It is sooo confusing.

Please, RETURN OUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE.

Not because we are used to it, but because the new SUCKS.

We want a data pane and next to it ONE pane that has both: formatting options AND field places for a visual.

If you want to add other stuff to visuals - do it, but don't hurt what is working excellent.

I turn the feature off. Again

[EwanT]

Hi proteantecs,

Thanks for trying out the preview. Apologies that it is making it harder for you to use the product. It is taking some time to finish the work so there is flexibility when using the menus and their placement. You may want to wait a few releases to try the preview again. Each incremental update is building to make the feature better, but it is taking time to implement. 

I know you have taken a lot of time with this preview already, but if I can ask a favor of you to check this out again in Oct. There should be more options for you at that time. Please feel free to try out any of the releases until then if you would like though. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks,

Ewan

[Severofm]

I completely agree.

[wangfeng9988333]

I have turned on this feature four times; then, I must turn it off. Please give us the same so we can work on the side, like data or before. 

[EwanT]

Hi wangfeng9988333,

Thanks for trying out the preview. We're trying to get the updates out as quickly as possible, though there is more work to be done. The Sept and Oct releases will give you more flexibility on the size and placement of the menus. Hopefully you will continue to try this out in a later release to let us know if these solutions work for you. 

Thanks,

Ewan

[SenWJS]

It does not appear possible to quickly add mutiple drillthrough parameters. 

[EwanT]

Hi SenWJS,

Thanks for the feedback. We are working to make the menus easier to use. Until all the menu features are complete you can add multiple drill-through parameters by using the pane switcher. With the Data pane open you can right-click on the Format icon and select open in new pane or you can Ctrl+click the Format icon. This will open the panes next to each other.

If you don't have both the Data and Format panes in the pane switcher you can select both of them from the View tab of the ribbon here

We will be making the menus easier to use in our Sept and Oct releases. I hope you will continue to try the preview and let us know your feedback.

Thanks,

Ewan

[raymondpocher]

First of all thanks for your constant great job.

But I am not a big fan of the current version of that feature and I switched it off after working a week with it. 

The feature ultimately increased the time for me setting up data. It decreased time while styling visuals. Overall it lead to more clicks, more time, and didnt impact my workflow in a significantly positive way. But it doesnt mean the feature is generally bad.  

You may wonder why that is.

I love the to have multiple panes next to each other. It provides a great overview without clicking between several settings. Even while working at the big screen it is no trouble. Especially the data pane right next to the visualization pane is great. I can simply drag and drop data into the visual. The new version feels more restrictive. I have to click between settings. I loose the overall overview. There are little search areas. I have to remember data fields more often etc. It is just less convenient. 

I noticed a similar structure on other products (power point for instance) and it just gives you LESS overview because a user has to click between settings. I have to constantly click between visualization and data pane. This makes me crazy. 

What I like about the new on-object interaction

It makes editing simple and a little more intuitive. BUT setting up a visual feels more complicated...way more complicated. 

What would be my preferred solution

A mixture of would be cool. I want to have the option to have the panes next to each other but also want to be able adjust settings while double clicking in a chart etc. 

So please, really do something about it.

[EwanT]

Hi raymondpocher,

Thank you for the feedback. We will be adding my flexibility in the menus in the upcoming Sept and Oct releases. You'll also be able keep the panes you would like to open, so the next time you come to Power BI you won't have to open the menus again. For the time being if you want to work with panes next to each other you can use the open in new pane option or Ctrl+click on the pane you would like to open next to each other

I hope you will continue to try the later releases and let us know if the improvements are helping.

Thanks,

Ewan

[Severofm]

I agree with you raymondpocher, I also always end up turning on the feature to analyze the news and in a short time of use I disable it and go back to the previous default, because my work needs to render and the new feature only delays the progress of the work a lot with so many additional clicks. I liked several things about this new feature that can be added to the current standard, such as the "Visualizations" tab being able to collapse the "Buid visual" panel to expand the values detailing area, and others like editing the title directly in the visual, but I reiterate that these features should be additional to the standard and not replacing it.

[D_M]

Hello,

Tested again today with the latest release and very quickly reverted back to the 'old' interaction due to time lost, but there has been some positive progress (thank you!), however what I now refer to as the 'main issue' (for myself and many other users as mentioned below) still remains.

Updated feedback (in more detail) follows:

The new updates as of this month (July 20th at time of writing) do improve the situation, but the same fundamental issue remains, as stated above.

To summarise the main (remaining) requirement:

• We should have the option to setup our PBI desktop instance so that ALL panes on the right of the screen in PBI desktop should simply/exactly mimic the Filters pane behaviour in EVERY aspect by DEFAULT (and by extension, mimic the current/old behaviour exactly).
  To break this down further, this means that:
  • Once opened, each pane REMAINS open until we explictly close it.
  • The pane selected should REMAIN SELECTED/OPEN when clicking on different visuals, regardless of which part of the visual is clicked (or double-clicked) on.
    • This is important since I'm often navigating between several visuals in quick succesion, with a view to comparing the same (context specific) formatting values between them [for example their X vertical position]. Therefore having to respecify which pane I need for that comparison as I move from one visual to another adds clicks to each interaction and noticeably slows down the process overall. This is especially troublesome when navigating grouped items quickly, where double-clicks [or more] are a necessity (I'm aware the selection pane can be used as a workaround for this, but it's not always the most intuitive/quickest option depending on the complexity of the layout).
  • Each pane should be TRULY collapsible (again, as per the Filter pane), so that it still appears as a collapsed pane next to the Filters pane etc. Currently this is not the case, instead collpsing to the pane switcher, and in effect closing the pane in proper UX/UI terms. This is inconsistent with the Filter pane, which still behaves as expected.
  • In turn, Collapsing the pane should require clicking on the pane title (or the double chevron arrow, which is currently missing from the other panes), in which case it 'folds closed'/collapses, but remains available to open again with a SINGLE CLICK as a collapsed pane, as per the Filters pane.
  • Removing/closing the pane from the selected 'set' should be treated as a different, higher level action and require clicking in the top ribbon/'Customize pane switcher' menu/'X' icon explictly (as per the Fields pane).
  • Also as a suggestion (but not a requirement), in this 'classic' mode the pane icons on the far right might be removed, since they are not required?

With these changes (or a single change if simplified as: make all right-hand pane behaviour consistent with the Filter pane behaviour), those of us who require the current pane behaviour on the right to remain as it is/was will be able to leverage the best of both worlds, or at least maintain the current behaviour if preferable.

As mentioned before, I understand the drive to make all Microsoft apps behave the same, but in this instance there's a very purposeful reason (or set of reasons) behind the difference of experience in Power BI. The 'single pane' concept is simply not useful or appropriate for many users of Power BI, and for those that do find it to be useful/an improvement, both sets of users can be accounted for by simply providing the choice between the old/new experience.

The on-object interaction itself is a nice feature to have available, but the current Filter pane style behaviour for many users is a necessity for all panes (and thanks again for all of the positive changes so far, I look forward to hopefully being given the [permanent] choice to disable the 'new pane behaviour' in the near future).