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Create a (new) card visualization in Power BI Desktop (preview)

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APPLIES TO: Power BI Desktop  Power BI service

The (new) card is a helpful visual that presents important metrics such as total sales, profit growth, count of opportunities, and performance status. You can create cards for the metrics that align with your objectives and key results (OKRs) and display them grouped in a single visual container.

Screenshot that shows card visualization.

Important

The (new) card visual is currently in preview and only available for Power BI Desktop. This information relates to a prerelease product that may be substantially modified before it's released. Microsoft makes no warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

Prerequisites

To share your report with a Power BI colleague, you must both have individual Power BI Pro licenses, or you must save the report in Premium capacity. The card visual applies only to Desktop and isn’t available in Power BI service.

Considerations and limitations (preview)

  • The new card visual is currently being developed and updated over several releases. Once it reaches its final stage, it replaces the existing Card, Multi-row card, and KPI card. However, reports that continue to use these older visuals will still be supported.

  • Certain settings only take effect if the Apply settings to option is set to All. Other settings can only be configured by selecting an independent measure series.

  • By design, the shadow and glow effect can cause the size of all cards to change unexpectedly.

  • Edit interactions and Filters in this visual influence all cards within the container.

  • You can't pin individual cards to a dashboard. Instead, all cards in the new card visual are pinned together.

  • There are no limits to the number of cards that you can add to the new card visual. However, adding a large number of cards might cause the report to experience latency and slow data loading.

  • The new card visual currently doesn't support scrolling or pagination. As a result, if the container is small and you add multiple cards, they might appear in a reduced size.

  • The new card visual is a preview feature turned on by default. If you prefer to disable the preview, or control when you see it:

    1. In the Fabric Admin settings, go to Options.
    2. Then select Preview features.
    3. Turn off New card visual.

    This change doesn’t influence existing card visuals.

Get the sample

The following procedure uses the Retail Analysis Sample.

  1. Download the Retail Analysis Sample PBIX file to your desktop.

  2. In Power BI Desktop, select File, then select Open report.

  3. Search for and select the Retail Analysis Sample PBIX file, then select Open.

  4. The Retail Analysis Sample PBIX file opens in report view.

  5. At the bottom, select the green plus symbol to add a new page to the report.

Build a new card visualization

The first way to create a new card is to use the ribbon in Power BI Desktop.

  1. In the Insert ribbon, select Visual gallery, then select the Card (new) visual icon. When the visual placeholder appears, a dialogue box that says Suggest a visual is automatically displayed. You can close this dialogue box before moving to the next step.

    Screenshot that shows the Insert menu with the visual gallery ribbon expanded to show the Card (new) visual selected, and the dialogue box ‘Suggest a visual’ is displayed.

  2. To add fields or measures, select fields in the Data pane. Add the StoreCount and TotalSalesTY data fields. Each data field you add is displayed as its own card.

    Screenshot that shows the Data panel open with two data fields selected and afterwards added to the visual, creating two distinct cards.

Format the new card visual

The new card visual provides a wide range of options for customization. To better understand these options, create a new card visual with multiple values and explore the Format pane. This way you can experiment with various formatting options and discover the full range of features available.

  1. Select the new card and choose the paint brush icon to open the Format pane.

    Screenshot that shows a Format pane icon that opens up all available formatting settings for a card (new).

  2. To change all cards at the same time, first, expand the Callout values and the Values sections.

  3. Under Apply settings to section, select Series All.

  4. Then you can select and change Font family, then Font size, Color, Transparency, and Horizontal alignment. This changes all the cards at the same time. Apply the following settings for this exercise:

    1. Change the Font to Segoe UI Bold.
    2. Change the size to 18.
    3. Set the Color to blue.
    4. Set the Transparency to 0%.
    5. Change the Horizontal Alignment to left.

    Screenshot that shows the formatting settings available to personalize the Callout of a card. These settings include font, color, and transparency, which can be applied to all cards.

  5. To change a single card, under the Apply settings to section, select a single Series and then you can change Font type and size, Color, Transparency, Horizontal alignment, Display units, and Value decimal places. Apply the following settings for this exercise:

    1. Under Apply settings to select Total Sales.
    2. Change the Font to Segoe UI Bold.
    3. Change the size to 18.
    4. Set the Color to green.
    5. Set the Transparency to 0%.
    6. If you need a specific value format, under the Display units, select **Custom, and enter your desired format code in the text field. For example, typing $#,###M, as the format code changes the data type to currency format.

    The screen shows formatting settings for the Callout values of a single card, including font color, transparency, horizontal alignment, display units, and value decimal places.

  6. To format labels, in Apply settings to, select series All You can also select an individual series, but for this exercise set it to All.

  7. Expand the Label section where you can then change Font type and size, Color, Transparency, Position, Space between label and value, turn on Text wrap, and Match value alignment After you expand the Label section, apply the following settings for this exercise:

    1. Change the Font to Segoe UI Regular.
    2. Change the size to 18.
    3. Set the Color to dark gray color.
    4. Set the Transparency to 0%.
    5. Under Position, select Below Value from the dropdown menu.
    6. Set the Space between label and value to 8
    7. Turn off the text wrap.
    8. Turn Match value alignment on.
    9. Then, turn on Align baselines.

    Note

    The Align baselines toggle is only available when All series is selected.

    Screenshot that shows the two cards with labels shown in Segoe UI Regular font, dark gray color and 0% transparency. The labels are positioned below the values, with text wrap turned off and both value and baseline alignment turned on.

  8. Adjust the space between the value and label by using Vertical spacing.

    Important

    This setting only works when applied to All series.

    1. Make sure the series is set to All.
    2. Under Spacing got to Vertical Spacing
    3. Change the Vertical spacing to 4.

    Screenshot that shows the two cards with a vertical spacing of four pixels between them.

  9. Expand the Layout section and apply the following changes to the settings. You can also change Callout size if you're using Reference labels, otherwise this option is turned off:

    1. Change the Vertical alignment to top.
    2. Callout size is off because you didn't use a reference label.

    Screenshot that shows the two cards with vertical alignment set to top, and the Callout size is turned off.

Change all cards

There might be a time when you want to format all of the cards at once. Use the following procedure to learn how to apply changes to all of your cards at one time:

  1. Expand the Cards section.

  2. Under Apply settings to, select All from the Series dropdown.

  3. Then, apply the following settings:

    1. Expand Shape and select Rounded Rectangle for the shape and set to 25 px.
    2. Set the Background to the color blue.
    3. Set the Transparency to 90%.
    4. Turn on the Border toggle.
    5. Turn Shadow, **Glow, and Accent bar off.

    Screenshot that shows Series All selected, and displays the two cards with a Rounded Rectangle, Rounded Corners set to 25 pixels, a blue Background with 90% Transparency, and the Border toggle is on.

Change a single Card

There might be a time when you want to format only one of the cards in your visual. Use the following procedure to learn how to apply changes to only a single card:

  1. Keep the Cards section expanded.

  2. Under Apply settings to set the series to Total Sales.

  3. Turn on Background:

    1. Expand the Background section.
    2. Change the background Color to lime green.
    3. Change the Transparency to 90%.

  4. Turn on Border:

    1. Expand the Border section.
    2. Change the border Color to green.
    3. Then change the border Width to 2 px
    4. Set the Transparency to 0%.

    Screenshot that shows the visual with the Total Sales series selected, but the lower card is now displayed with a green Background color, 90% Transparency, and a 2-pixel darker green Border.

New card’s reference labels

Reference labels are a new feature that allows you to add custom labels to your new cards. These labels provide additional information and comparisons and helps you to highlight key metrics, benchmarks, and goals. In the following procedure, you learn how to use reference labels:

  1. First, make sure you already created and formatted a (new) card visual.

  2. To add reference labels, select the visual you created and select the edit icon.

  3. Then, choose the More options button, and expand the Reference labels section.

    Screenshot that shows the edit icon selected, and the More options button selected, with the Reference labels section expanded.

  4. In the Select series dropdown, choose the Total Sales card.

  5. Then, in the Add label field, select a data field or measure to add reference labels to. For this how-to exercise, select Total Sales LY and Total Sales Variance.

    Note

    You can include multiple data fields when you add reference labels.

    Screenshot that shows the Total Sales series selected and highlights two Callouts just added to the Total Sales card as selected under the Add label field of Reference labels section.

    Reference labels are composed of three fully customizable key elements. The Title displays the content Field name. Value showcases the assigned data field value. And Detail adds extra context to showcase extra information from a single data field. Each element is fully customizable including Font, Color, and Transparency.

  6. Under Apply settings to select Series all

  7. Turn on the Title toggle and expand the Title Section:

    1. Change the Font to Segoe UI Semibold.
    2. Change the size to 12.
    3. Change the Color to green.
    4. Change the Transparency to 0%.

    Screenshot that shows formatting settings for the Title and Value sections of the two recently added Reference labels on a single card, including font, color, and transparency

  8. Turn on the Value toggle and expand the Value Section:

    1. Change the Font to Segoe UI Bold.
    2. Change the size to 12.
    3. Change the Color to green.
    4. Change the Transparency to 0%.

    Reference labels also include multiple options to include an Accent bar, Background color, and even Layout options to specify whether the Reference label is either below or to the right of the callout. Layout options also can include Rows or Columns, and either a Sentence or Tabular style to maximize the ability to customize the visual.

  9. Turn on the Background toggle and expand the Background Section:

    1. Change the Color to light green.
    2. Change the Transparency to 0%.

    Screenshot that shows the two cards with reference labels shown background set light green color and 0% transparency. The labels also have an accent bar positioned left of the values, with a green color and 0% transparency.

  10. Turn on the Accent bar toggle and expand the Accent bar Section:

    1. Change the position to Left from the Position dropdown options.
    2. Change the Color to green.
    3. Change the Transparency to 0%.
    4. Change the Width to 10 px.

  11. When you're finished formatting your cards, click your mouse anywhere on the canvas to close the visual elements editor.

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