Slicer with search from multiple fields

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Hi gurus,

I've got a table of objects each with a name and description.  I'm trying to create a slicer that shows all the names, but allow a user to search by name or description column.

Example:

Name = Fast Car

Description = A Ferrari is a fast car.

If a user starts typing 'ferrari' in the search box, I want the slicer to filter to 'Fast Car'.

I've tried lots of things so far:

- Concatenate Name and Description into a new column and use that in the slicer.  The problem here is the descriptions are long, and it means the slicer now shows 'Fast Car A Ferrari is a fast car' - which makes it really hard to read and work with.

- Add both name and description fields to the slicer - the search works here, but now I have a hierarchy which I don't want.

- Use the Text Filter visualisation with a concatenated field, and set this to filter the slicer.  This works, but its not a 'real-time' search.  You have to enter a term and click search.  I'm after the built in search that auto-filters as typing.

- Concatenate Name and Description with a whole bunch of non-breaking spaces between them using UNICHAR(160).  This makes the entries very long and results in the description part getting chopped off by the slicer and replaced with 3 dots, which is visually and functionally okish.  However, the slicer is now really slow to scroll up and down.  Also - yuk, why would you need to do this?!

Any better ideas?

[Anonymous]

Since you are using a slicer visual, you need to be very specific and explicit, there's no way you can achieve this without considering the hierarchy. Synonyms and descriptions only work for Q&A visuals.

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Thanks Raymundo.

There isn't a hierarchy though, I have a single table with two columns, Name and Description.  I guess there just isn't a way to achieve what I want to do without the hacky solutions I mentioned above!

[Anonymous]

Still you can create the hierarchy. Right click on Name field > New hierarchy and drag the description field onto the Name. Then use that hierarchy in the slicer.

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Thanks Raymundo - but using a hierarchy this way just doesn't achieve the experience I want for my users.

See the screenshot below.  Using the hierarchy makes it look messy and confusing, unless there is a way to turn off the chevron and hide the description field from the slicer.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, hierarchies are not appealing and not user friendly in slicers. You can change the chevron though on Format > Items > Expand/collapse icon. You have as options Chevron,  Plus/minus, and Caret.

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Thanks Raymundo - your post gave me some more inspiration.  I've used the old 'invisible rectangle' trick to solve this.

I've set the slicer to use a hierarchy and then put a white rectangle that is always in front over the column of chevrons.

This gives the look and feel that I was after.  Hopefully in the future we'll just have a feature to use one set of fields for items, and a different set of fields for search.  But in the meantime, this is pretty close...