Add a "snap to grid" like functionality to Power BI Desktop
Creating a clean, consistent layout in reports is very difficult in the Power BI desktop tool. Please consider adding a customizable layout grid that objects can snap to like PowerPoint. Thanks!
Anonymous
shared this idea
The October release of Power BI Desktop has a preview of gridlines and snap to grid! Try it out by downloading the latest version of Power BI Desktop and enabling the preview feature in the settings dialog. For more info on this feature, check out this article: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/documentation/powerbi-desktop-gridlines-snap-to-grid/
61 comments
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Jared Knutzen
commented
Love this feature, but really need the ability to change the size of the grid to make it more/less dense depending on my scenario. I haven't really used the feature because the default spacing is not useful for me.
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Joost ten Kattelaar
commented
I love that this feature has been added, but it's too constrained right now. The fact that you cannot edit the grid-size is really weird. Also, the fact that the top-bar of the visual is outside the bounds of the visual, means that you don't see it when you have Visuals that are right above eachother.
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Dominic Locas
commented
Love the improvement in October release, however there's one little detail missing.
When moving objects around, I need to see the borders of the other objects, otherwise it's not clear if I'm overlapping.
Couple ways this could be done:
1- Prevent overlapping
2- When "Show gridlines" is checked, the borders of all objects are visible
3- When dragging an object all the borders of all objects are visible -
Ryan Beesley
commented
@Kim Glad to see Snap-to-grid implemented. My only gripe is that the default visualization placement is a 280x280 tile with a 10px x-axis margin and a 20px y-axis margin. The default is therefore out of sync with the experimental feature. I created an Excel calculator to help me understand what the original defaults were and to help me with alignment (so I could place 3 tiles at 150% and 2 at 100% and have everything align, as an example).
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geerap
commented
Templates with titles and snap to grid.
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Melissa Bonds commented
Thank You!
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Nirav Shah
commented
Yaaay
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Pedro Figueiredo commented
This is a "must have!" feature...
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Anonymous
commented
I would recommend also adding:
1) Save Grid Templates
2) Page Option for Margins -
Mike
commented
Agreed, I can't emphasize enough how important a grid is. This is my #1 change request.
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Anonymous
commented
Definitely a must. Would result in a much more "professional" looking product.
Also something akin to format painter would really be useful for standardising charts and tables. -
Jay Killeen
commented
Hey Kim, thanks for the update. Probably a good thing would be able to toggle to 'see the grid' if you need to aswell.
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Michael Hawker
commented
This behavior should act like most other office products where things can snap to the other existing objects in the report (and you can get hints when you're centered between two other objects).
It's also not just about moving the object but resizing it too. So, if I'm dragging a border, it should snap to other borders of objects and a buffer away from them. The tool should help people layout great reports.
Another key to this is that the default headers for the controls have a lot of lines, but they don't all line up if you align the bounding boxes...
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Martha
commented
Actually, this is more needed in the reports than in the cloud version (can we call it Cloudia from now on. Power BI desktop or Power BI Cloudia.
Anyways.. focus in the desktop version, this will help my customers a lot - thanks :) -
Anonymous
commented
Like this idea. Very much needed. It would be nice when a Visual is selected that the Format tab on the Ribbon had Width/Height sizing option that is in Microsoft Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
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martin simpson
commented
Yes, such a good idea. Lining up and re-sizing graphs is a real pain in the rear.
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Anonymous
commented
Beside the "Snap to Grid" function which is planned in order to produce clean and consisent layout, another related and important feature would be an update to the FORMAT PAINTER. Currently the format painter ONLY copies the FONT, BACKGROUND COLOR etc. It would be very helpful if the format painter could also copy the TILE SIZE. This would make it very easy to make all tiles of the same size, shape etc. Also, Unlike Excel or Word, the Format painter does not have a Double Click feature, which would retain the Format Painter until the escape key is pressed. Without this feature, one cannot apply the Format Painter to multiple tiles. Thanks.
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Martha
commented
Ok.. where could we find a transparent grid to get into our reports as guide lines?
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Martha
commented
Yes.. I am watching Miguel Mayers seminar.. he is telling about the grid lines, but there are no grid lines available.. (Miguel.. (?))
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Jesse Gorter
commented
in my opinion this is a must for a good and clean design