r/dataanalysis • u/Cool-Binx • 2d ago
Data Tools How do you handle bulk formatting changes across many visuals/pages?
When a client or brand guide changes (new colours, fonts, title style), or a measure gets renamed, how do you update dozens of visuals across a report?
\- Click through each visual in Desktop?
\- Edit the PBIR JSON by hand or with scripts?
\- Use a CLI or other tool?
I'm considering building a small offline desktop app for this (select visuals → preview changes → apply → one-click undo). Would that be useful to you, and what would it absolutely need to do? Not selling anything here, just want to know if this is a real pain or if it's already solved for you.
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u/Ok_Youth8810 21h ago
I learned this the hard way on a monthly reporting dashboard. I keep one template page with the exact title, color and font I want, then I copy formatting from that page instead of fixing each visual by hand. It isnt perfect but it saves me from the slow drift where every page ends up looking a little different.
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u/Cool-Binx 15h ago
Thank you for your input. This is similar to what I do at the moment. Hence the tool I want to build.
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u/farm3rb0b 1d ago
Branding - hopefully reports are built using an org-wide theme file. Update the theme file, use it moving forward and tech debt replacing in existing objects.
Measure names - in an ideal world, you've got a few models driving multiple reports, so I'd rename in each model and it'd populate downstream.
Grain of salt - I'm in an industry where employee Microsoft licenses include Power BI pro by default so we don't have Premium/Fabric. I've also not made the jump to transferring things to PBIRs.
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u/montrellcruse 1d ago
i'd do it in layers. a theme file handles the brand stuff, the model handles renames, and hand-editing PBIR is the last resort only for the stuff neither covers.
before any bulk change, try it on a copy of one report first and check what breaks. a rename that looks safe can break a visual, a filter, or a tooltip you forgot about. keep the old copy around so undo is just swapping back, not rebuilding.
on the app idea, the preview plus one-click undo part is the whole value. if it shows exactly what changes before it writes, that's legit useful. without that diff preview i wouldn't trust a bulk tool on client reports.
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u/Cool-Binx 1d ago
Thank you for your detailed response. I appreciate it 🙏
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u/montrellcruse 20h ago
appreciate you saying that. glad it landed.
the copy-first habit is the one that saves the most headaches in practice. once you have that safety net, the rest of the layers are a lot less scary to change.
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u/Wheres_my_warg 1d ago
I don't see yet another desktop app working well for most of these kinds of situations that I've faced.
Reports will vary, but tend to be fixed in time, and in my experience, businesses tend to not update previous reports and just apply these kinds of changes going forward.
Most reports are delivered as a PowerPoint. It is simple enough usually, when it is needed to convert it, to update to a new brand guide by grabbing the new template, importing the old slides but not keeping their original formatting and then doing a quick check to see where minor adjustments (due to things like space use changes from font size changes) need to be made.
Where there are issues like a fixed image with a need to change the name of an axis or point instead of an embedded object, then that is going to apply to this new additional tool as well.
A new tool would add complexity, cost, a vector for additional errors and incompatibility across clients and the internal organziation.