Version
1.1.0.10 (latest)
Language
English

Build your first map

This tutorial takes about 15 minutes. You start with an empty visual and a ten-row table, and finish with a map of circles sized and colored by sales, on a basemap you chose, with labels and tooltips.

The finished map: ten US cities drawn as circles sized and colored by sales, each labeled with its city name, on a light basemap
The map you build in this tutorial

Before you start

You need:

Step 1: Create the sample data

  1. In Power BI Desktop, select Home > Enter data.
  2. Copy the table below, select the first cell of the grid in the Create Table window, and paste.
  3. If Power BI does not pick up the column names, select Use first row as headers.
  4. Name the table Stores and select Load.
City Latitude Longitude Sales Category
Seattle 47.6062 -122.3321 420 Retail
San Francisco 37.7749 -122.4194 610 Online
Los Angeles 34.0522 -118.2437 880 Retail
Denver 39.7392 -104.9903 310 Wholesale
Dallas 32.7767 -96.7970 540 Retail
Chicago 41.8781 -87.6298 760 Online
Atlanta 33.7490 -84.3880 450 Wholesale
Miami 25.7617 -80.1918 390 Retail
New York 40.7128 -74.0060 950 Online
Boston 42.3601 -71.0589 280 Wholesale

Expected result: a table named Stores appears in the Data pane with five columns. Latitude, Longitude and Sales show the sum symbol, which tells you they are numbers.

If Latitude and Longitude are not numbers

On a computer whose regional settings use a comma as the decimal separator, Power BI may read 47.6062 as text. Select the column in the Data pane and check that Data type on the Column tools ribbon is Decimal number. If it is not, retype the values with your own decimal separator.

Step 2: Add the visual

  1. Select the Icon Map Pro icon in the Visualizations pane.
  2. Drag a corner of the new visual so it fills most of the page.

Expected result: the visual shows the Icon Map Pro start page, with a Get started panel. On a large visual the start page also shows example maps. If you have no license, a license message appears once you add fields: select Get FREE Developer License and follow the steps, or enter your license key.

The Icon Map Pro start page in an empty visual
The start page, shown until you add a field

Step 3: Add the fields

Keep the visual selected and drag fields from the Stores table into the field wells in the Build pane, in this order.

  1. Drag City to * ID (required).

    Expected result: the start page is replaced by a panel titled What kind of map are you making?. It tells you that only the ID is filled in so far. This panel is the layer guide. It appears whenever your rows do not reach a layer yet.

  2. Drag Longitude to Longitude (X) and Latitude to Latitude (Y).

  3. In each of those two field wells, select the arrow next to the field and choose Average.

    Expected result: the layer guide stays, and now says that Circles is turned on, but also needs Circle Size. Point to the Circles tile to see the fields it needs, with a tick next to the ones you have added. The card opens over the tile and, on a short visual, can cover the summary at the top of the guide.

    The layer guide with the Circles tile expanded, showing ID, Longitude and Latitude ticked and Circle Size still to add
    The layer guide shows what each layer type needs

  4. Drag Sales to Circle Size.

    Expected result: the guide closes and the map appears. It zooms to fit ten circles across the United States, larger where sales are higher.

Ten circles of different sizes over the United States on the default basemap
Circles appear as soon as a row has an ID, a position and a size

Your field wells now look like this:

Field well Field
* ID (required) City
Longitude (X) Average of Longitude
Latitude (Y) Average of Latitude
Circle Size Sum of Sales
Why did circles appear without turning anything on?

On a new map the Circles layer is already on. Each row has an ID, a longitude, a latitude and a circle size, and no other layer's fields, so it is drawn as a circle. See How Icon Map Pro works.

Step 4: Style the circles

  1. Open the Format pane and expand the Data Layers card. In its first group, Data Layers, the Circles switch is already on.
  2. Expand Circles - Configuration. Leave Size Behavior on Relative, and set Minimum Size to 8 and Maximum Size to 40. These are the sizes of the circles with the smallest and largest value.
  3. Expand Circles - Formatting. Set Outline Color to white (#FFFFFF) and Outline Width to 1.

Expected result: the circles now range from small to large with a thin white outline.

Step 5: Color the circles by sales

Fill Color sets one color for every circle. To take the color from your data, use conditional formatting.

  1. Stay in Data Layers > Circles - Formatting.
  2. Next to Fill Color, select the fx button.
  3. In the Power BI dialog, set Format style to Gradient and choose Sales as the field to base it on. Pick a light color for the lowest value and a dark color for the highest.
  4. Select OK.

Expected result: each circle takes a color between your two colors. New York, with the highest sales, is the darkest, and Boston the lightest.

The ten circles now shaded from light to dark by sales
Size and color both follow Sales

Most color, size and visibility settings accept conditional formatting. See Conditional formatting.

Step 6: Choose a basemap

  1. In the Format pane, expand the Background Layer card. Under Map Source, Background map source is already set to Icon Map.
  2. Expand Icon Map Tiles - Configuration.
  3. In the Layer list, choose a pale style, for example Positron.

Expected result: the map is now on the pale basemap, and the colored circles stand out against it.

The list of Icon Map styles is updated from time to time, so the names you see can differ from the ones here. Any style works for this tutorial. See Icon Map basemap styles and Set the basemap in the Format pane.

Step 7: Add labels

  1. In the Format pane, expand the Labels card and its Content group.

  2. Set Display Label to Yes.

  3. Next to Label Text, select fx. Set Format style to Field value, choose City as the field, and select OK.

    Expected result: each circle shows its city name in a box, centered on the circle.

  4. In the Style group, set Label Style to Halo Text.

  5. In the Placement group, set Position (circles & images) to Above.

Expected result: the names sit above the circles as plain text with a white halo, which keeps them readable on any basemap.

See Data labels for the other label styles and options.

Step 8: Add tooltips

  1. Drag Category to the Tooltips field well.
  2. Drag Sales to Tooltips as well.
  3. Point to a circle on the map.

Expected result: a tooltip lists the category and the sales for that city. When the Tooltips field well is empty, the tooltip shows the ID and the circle size instead. See Tooltips.

Step 9: Try it out

  • Select a circle. If the page has other visuals, they filter to that city. Select it again to clear the selection. Hold Ctrl to select several.
  • Zoom and move. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, and use the + and - buttons at the top left.
  • Switch to a globe. Select the globe button at the top left of the map. Select it again for the flat map.

What you have learned

  • A row is drawn when it fills in the fields its layer needs. For circles these are * ID (required), Longitude (X), Latitude (Y) and Circle Size.
  • The layer guide tells you what is missing while nothing is drawn.
  • Each layer has a switch in Format pane > Data Layers, followed by its configuration and formatting groups.
  • Conditional formatting (fx) takes a color, a size or a label from your data.

Next steps

Choose a layer typeSee what else you can draw: heatmaps, lines, shapes, 3D columns and more. Reference layersAdd a boundary file or another layer for context. CirclesEvery circle setting, including sizes in meters and clustering. Combine several layers in one mapDraw circles, lines and shapes from one table.