The report pages that are developed in Power BI can also be optimized to view on mobile devices by using PBI mobile layout view. But it took some effort and time to create the layout. With the recent PBI update, there comes the “auto-create” option that allows us to easily create mobile optimized layouts for any new or existing reports. The auto-create engine understands the desktop layout of our report and builds a mobile layout that considers the position, size, type, and order of the visuals that the report contains. It places both visible and hidden visuals, so if we have bookmarks that change a visual’s visibility, they will work in the automatically created mobile layout as well.
To enable the preview feature File > Options and settings > Options > Preview features > enable auto – create mobile layout.
The mobile layout option can be found either at the bottom of the page or select View menu then mobile layout.
The mobile layout pane will open as below. Now we can see the Auto-create mobile layout option which was introduced recently.
1. Mobile Layout Canvas
We can create a mobile optimized layout on this interactive mobile layout canvas. This canvas offers a precise grid system to assist in arranging our visuals effectively. The grid seamlessly adjusts across various phone screen sizes, ensuring our report’s aesthetics remain consistent on both small and large screens. This interactive canvas helps us to preview the behavior of buttons, slicers, and visuals before finalizing and publishing the report.
2. Page Visuals Pane
The page visuals pane lists all of the visuals that are included on our original report page. To craft our mobile-optimized layout, just simply drag and drop visuals from the page visuals pane onto the layout canvas.
3. Selection Pane
The Selection pane provides the functionality to adjust the stacking order of visuals within the canvas. Once we have arranged visuals on the Mobile layout canvas, utilize the Selection pane to modify their layering if needed. Visuals are listed in the pane according to their stacking order on the canvas, with the topmost visual appearing first and the bottommost visual appearing last. To rearrange the order, simply drag and drop a visual to a new position in the list or utilize the arrow buttons to move it up or down.
4. Canvas Controls
Canvas controls enable us to turn off the grid, enable or disable snap-to-grid, and lock visuals in place to prevent them from accidentally being moved around.
The different options in canvas controls includes:
- Gridlines – Show gridlines help us to manually align objects in our report
- Snap to grid – Helps to automatically align objects
- Lock objects – Lock all objects in place so that they don’t move around when interacting.
How does the auto-create option work?
When we choose the auto-create mobile layout option, a new complete layout with our report’s visuals is created on the mobile layout canvas. If the canvas already has a layout, it will be removed and replaced with the new automatically generated layout. This feature aims to streamline the process of initiating mobile-optimized views for our reports. However, the outcome’s quality may vary based on the complexity and structure of the report’s desktop layout. If the automatically generated mobile layout doesn’t meet our expectations, we have the flexibility to manually adjust it until satisfactory or utilize the Undo function (Ctrl+Z) to revert to the previous layout. It is important that the auto-create engine consistently applies the same logic with each use. Thus, selecting the auto-create option again won’t yield a different result unless modifications are made to the source desktop layout.
Considerations and Limitations
- The auto-create engine reads the report horizontally from left to right, starting from the top. Therefore, reports whose general layout follows that structure are more likely to be satisfactorily rendered than reports that have a strong vertical component, such as a left-hand report navigation bar.
- The engine can’t handle background images.
- Too much overlaying is a challenge for the engine. It will do its best, but the result might not be optimal.
- If there are too many images, not all of them might fit on the layout canvas, in that case we will see unplaced visuals in the page visuals pane after choosing the auto create option.
- Tooltips are disabled on the mobile layout canvas, but they’re available when viewing in the mobile app.
- Metric visuals aren’t interactive on the mobile layout canvas.
- Slicer selections made on the mobile layout canvas don’t carry over when we switch to web layout but when we switch from web layout to mobile layout canvas, the slicer selection will also carry over from the web layout.
Summary
The Auto Create Mobile Layout feature is most effective when applied to uncomplicated reports. In these instances, the automatically generated layout may be suitable without further adjustments. However, for reports of greater complexity, some fine-tuning may be necessary.
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Author: Team PowerBI