The global style gives every visual the same look. Real reports need exceptions: a table without a shadow, KPI cards with a bold value, slicers that stand out, buttons that react on hover. Advanced mode styles each visual type on its own, and the theme carries it for the whole report.
Switch to Advanced
In Visuals of Report Design Studio, switch the mode to Advanced. The global style (Global style (all visuals)) still applies; what you set per visual goes on top of it.
Pick a visual
The visuals are grouped the way Power BI groups them:
| Group | Visuals |
|---|---|
| Axis charts | Column, bar, line, area and combo charts, clustered and stacked |
| Pie & donut | Pie chart, donut chart |
| Cards & KPIs | Card, multi-row card, KPI, gauge |
| Tables | Table, matrix |
| Maps | Map (bubble), filled map |
| Other | Scatter chart, funnel, treemap, waterfall chart, slicer |
| Elements | Button, shape, image, text box |
The two maps are Power BI's Bing map visuals, which Power BI plans to replace with Azure Maps; an Azure Maps visual takes its own settings, not these.
Pick one. Its settings open in a side panel as cards, and the live preview switches to show that visual, so you see exactly what you change.
Override only what differs
Each setting can be left on Inherit, which keeps the global style. Change only what should be different for this visual. That keeps the theme small and the report consistent: when you change the global style later, every inherited setting follows.
Good candidates for overrides:
- Tables and matrices: no shadow, tighter padding, a clear header
- Cards and KPIs: a larger value, no border
- Text boxes and images: no container at all
Style the interaction states
Buttons and shapes have states, and for those two Advanced mode shows a State row above the settings:
- default: how it looks at rest
- hover: when the mouse is over it
- selected: when it is the chosen one, like the active button in a row of page navigators
- pressed: while it is being clicked
- disabled: when it cannot be used
Pick a state, then set its background, border and title. Each state is exported as its own entry in the theme. Other visuals do not get the row on purpose: Power BI ignores state entries on them, and a theme that has them can lose the whole card.
A visible selected state is one of the most useful things a theme can add. People must see at a glance which page or option is on.
Style the page and filter pane
Report & filter pane styles what is around the visuals:
- Page wallpaper: the colour behind the report page. Transparency needs a wallpaper colour, and is only exported alongside one
- Filter pane and Filter cards: the colours of the pane on the right of a report and the cards inside it
Both show in the live preview. Reset report & filter-pane styling? puts them back, after asking.
Test like a reader
Pick each state in the State row and look at the live preview: if you cannot tell a selected button from the others across the room, make its selected state stronger, and give the slicer a clearer selection colour in its own settings. After you import the theme, click through the report in Power BI as a reader would: hover a button, pick a slicer value.
The next lesson checks that your colours work for everyone: contrast and colour blindness.