A sample Wise Owl Power BI Desktop theme

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A sample Wise Owl Power BI Desktop theme
We thought it might be useful to share the theme that we use for some of our reports, with some annoations, to give you an idea of what's possible when setting default Power BI formatting

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 June 2024

In this blog

Loading a theme
Exploring the theme file

Using themes in Power BI can save you a LOT of time!

Two identical visuals, but for the fact the one on the right has this theme attached to it.

Loading a theme

You can apply any .json theme file to a report using this menu option in Power BI Desktop:

Choose Browse for themes from the View ribbon as shown.

Exploring the theme file

The theme which you can download from the link above works as follows.

Note that this doesn't remotely claim to be a tutorial on themes in Power BI; the intention is just to give you ideas, as well as a head start in creating your own corporate theme.

The JSON theme file starts with some colours:

These are - more or less - the Wise Owl corporate colours.

Not only do these change colours for existing visuals in the report, but they also change the colour palette offered for any format property:

These weren't the original default colours.

The next bit of the theme sets overall defaults for a report:

This will change the size and colour of the font for any visual.

The theme then sets how specific formatting cards will be filled in:

By default visiual titles and borders will appear (with the formatting shown), and any chart legend will appear bottom centre without the irritating title.

Finally the theme sets some formatting specific to pie charts and slicers:

Pie charts will have data labels showing data for each slice as a percentage of the total, and slicers won't have headers.

You have to be very careful to follow the correct JSON file structure when editing a theme, but as the example above shows, the rewards of getting it right are considerable. Not only will you save a lot of time formatting reports, but you'll also be able to impose a consistent corporate look-and-feel.

Some other pages relevant to the above blog include:

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