Real-time dashboards are perfect for tracking what's happening and allowing users to react when action is needed.
But how can you ensure that users know when it's time to act? One approach is to send alerts, such as emails or Teams messages (using Activator). Another effective method is to highlight critical data points directly on the dashboard, and this is where conditional formatting comes into play. Conditional formatting helps emphasize the most important information, allowing users to identify and respond to key issues quickly.
Conditional formatting example in a Real-time Dashboard in Fabric
Where can I implement conditional formatting?
Conditional formatting can be used on 3 visuals:
- A table: you can choose to format the entire row, the column (background), or the text color in the row and/or column
- A stat (card visual): you can choose to format the background color or the text color
- A multi stat (a card visual with multiple cards): you can choose to format the background color or the text color
How do you implement conditional formatting in a real-time dashboard?
So now we know where we can use conditional formatting, let's have a look into the how.
Open your real-time dashboard:
- Go to "Edit" (top right of the screen)
- Click on the edit button of the visual (the pen symbol).
For this tutorial, I will show you the conditional formatting of a table.
- Once you click on edit, the format pane on the right side of the screen opens, and you can activate conditional formatting. This option is only available in tables and (multi)stat visuals!
Conditional Formatting in a real-time dashboard
- You can add rules or edit existing rules. Click on "Add rule" + the edit symbol (pen), and a pop-up opens with the conditional formatting options. We can choose between color by condition and by value.
Conditional formatting options - color by condition or by value
- First, I show you "color by condition" (for example, Sum of Bikes < 400). We can associate a color with the condition. There are four color options: red, green, blue, and yellow.
Color choices for conditional formatting
- We can also choose how we want the columns/rows to be colored, and we can add a symbol (like a warning sign or a smiley)
- Bold = Background color
- Light = Font color
Example of a table with light conditional formatting + a symbol (first row) and bold conditonal formatting without symbol (second row)
- Next to coloring by condition, we can also choose to color by value.
Here, you can see that we have more options color-wise (several color themes) and can also provide (optional) a min and max value. This can be very handy, for example, when you want to color all rows (or columns) where a certain value gets worse and worse. For example, when picking the "wam" theme, I could color everything from 450 down to 0, from orange to dark red, indicating the need to take action.
The result of conditional formatting
Implementing conditional formatting takes a few clicks but can make your real-time dashboard much easier to read and interpret. Especially when the dashboard is designed to provide the end-user with crucial information fast, conditional formatting can make a huge difference.
Want to learn more about the topic? Make sure to read the Microsoft documentation.
Do you prefer watching videos over reading? I recorded a video about implementing conditional formatting in real-time dashboards.