Visual Filters (Text boxes or similar) in Power BI

[h0hesc]

Hello,

I am looking for a way to use visual filters rather than a slicer:

Let's say I have a company with four departments (Sales, Marketing, Production, HR). I show different data for the departments over time on a bar chart. This works fine. Now I want to filter the bar chart depending on the department. I could insert a Slicer and by klicking on "Sales" I only see the Sales data in the chart. But I would like a visual filter, like creating a text box with "Sales" and by klicking on it the graph adjust. Is there a way to do this or a workaround?

This is a simplified version of my problem. I have a lot of different filter options, this is why a slicer gets unclear and a visualization in different boxes would help alot.

Best,

Daniel

[Anonymous]

Hi @h0hesc,

Try downloading the chiclet slicer custom filter from the marketplace in PBI Desktop - it should do the trick.

Br,

T

[h0hesc]

@Anonymous: Thank you! It gets me closer to what i want but not quiet close enough 🙂 I like the picture option and the different columns that can be selected. However, the number of columns is always the same, which doesn't work for my case. Example:

I have a Sales department with 8 sub-departments that are included in my filter list (which should be shown in one row)

Next, I have the Markting department which has only 3 sub-departments that are included in my filter list (which again should be shown in one row) and so one. Is there a way to do this?

Edit: Maybe something easier that would also help me: Is there a way to manually change the order of the filtered items, i.e. instead of ascending alphabetical order rather manually change the order?

[Anonymous]

@h0hesc,

Im not sure about the order, but if you have lots of "boxes" you could try having several chiclet slicers in one report - one for every department. This doesn't completely solve your issue but gets you a bit closer!

Br,

T

[h0hesc]

@Anonymous several chiclet slicers would also work. However, in the end I have one bar chart, that gets adjusted according to what is filtered. Does it work if I have several chiclet slicers that all refer to the one bar chart? And if yes, how do I set up these different slicers if I have only one column "departments" where all the departments are listed, but the slicer should only show let say the sales departments. 

[Anonymous]

@h0hesc,

To fuly understand your situation, can you send me a pic of what you are working with and what you would like to get done?

I'm pretty sure this could be done with chiclet slicers, buttons and bookmarks.

For instance, I use several chiclets when I want to filter years->quarters->months. I have a separate slicer for each and e.g. if I select year 2018 it doesn't show all months/quarters in the other chiclets because they are in the future. All of these chiclets do however filter a line chart that I have.

Br,

T

[h0hesc]

@Anonymous thank you for your answer. I made a simplified version of my problem:

This is what the dashboard should look like:

 

Here I would like to filter by clicking on the subdepartments like Sales Soccer and by this the bar chart on the right hand side would only show "Incremental" as 100% as Current and Last would show 100% in "Incremental" as well.

This is what the input looks like:

The bar chart works fine. But so far I only have one large Chiclet Slicer that includes all the 14 subdepartments in alphabetical order. But I would like to split the Slicer into several that only include the subdepartments of one department just to make it easier to understand and filter.

Is there any way to do this?

Best

[Anonymous]

@h0hesc

I came up with a quick mockup, however, could you clarify are you going to filter based on subdepartments or just departments?

I made two mockups (separated by a cyan line). The top most filter filters the bar charts for both mockups

In the first one you have a chiclet slicer with departments and then another one with subdepartments that get filtered when a department is chosen.

In the second one I have all subdepartments on their own. The extra filters in the second mockup are just to get the contenct of the subdepartment slicers cprrect - they do not filter anything else and can be hidden from users.

I would recommend having the sub-departments as a table e.g. beneath the chiclet slicer, but separate chiclets just showing the subdepartments work fine as well, just make sure end users aren't tempted to try and filter with these subdepartments.

Recommendationmockups filter2 mockups

I did need to unpivot your data in order to create the bar chart (columns current and last) but other than that, this isn't anything more than playing around with filters and interactions between visuals.

Hope this helped a little!

Br,

T

[h0hesc]

@Anonymous: Thank you that looks great. The recommended version is was i am looking for. My priority is only filtering subdepartments (if filtering by departments is also possible, that would be even better). 

But how can I create this filter of yours, with departments on as ChicletSlicer on top with departments and then a list with the subdepartments below it? I don't quite understand how to do these independent filters. If I create multiple filters and try to prefilter them (like showing only controlling subdepartments in one filter and only marketing subdepartments in another filter) that doesn't work.

Is it possible to upload this power bi document?

*Edit: and one more question: Is it possible to seperate the slicer as well? In my original file I have more than 3 departments (I have 10) and with 10 I can put all of them in one row and list the subdepartments below

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@h0hesc,

I'll see what I can do! I'll make another more detailed mockup and try to share it with you

*Edit; A quick and dirty example report

mockup found here: https://file.io/FLG5z3

Here are some basics:

I've highlighted/colored the important bits

Chiclet slicer interaction:
Chiclet interactions

Table interactions:

table interactions

Bar chart interactions:

Bar chart interactions

Creating "lists" with certain subdepartments using visual level filter in the visualization filters:

visual level filters

You could also use the bar chart to filter what subdepartments use what kind of budgeting method by clikcing on the bar (second page of the mockup report):

filter with bar chart

Br,

T

[h0hesc]

@Anonymous: Perfect, thank you very much. It worked like I want it to 😄