Note
The Note card draws a caption box over the chart — a base, a source, a reading key, a warning. Its text is not just static: it can compute values from the fields already placed in the visual, and it can switch to an alert wording when a threshold is crossed.
All six visuals expose the card — Column Chart, Line Chart, Scatter Plot, Gradient Heatmap, Radar and Pie Chart — with the same properties and the same behavior everywhere.
It replaces the Line Chart’s former Cartouche card, which did the same job in a simpler way and has been removed: the Note adds formulas over the fields, an alert state, and a band of its own so the lines and the legend are pushed out of its way instead of being drawn under it. A report that used the Cartouche keeps opening, but its caption is no longer drawn — set it up again here.
Text and formulas
The Text property accepts free text mixed with formulas over any field placed in the visual — the field name is the one shown in the field well:
| Formula | Result |
|---|---|
%MIN(field) | Smallest value of the field |
%MAX(field) | Largest value of the field |
%COUNT(field) | Number of values |
%AVG(field) | Mean of the values |
%SUM(field) | Sum of the values |
Base : %MIN(base_rep) to %MAX(base_rep) respondents
A field name that matches nothing renders as #NAME?, and a formula with no usable value
renders as #N/A — both are visible on the chart rather than silent, so a typo is caught
immediately.
Display Units and Decimals control how those computed numbers are written.
Thousands are grouped when nothing is abbreviated, so a base reads as 2 577.
Prefix and Suffix — one measure instead of two
Text can also be bound to a measure with the fx button. A numeric measure then arrives
as a raw number, and is written with the Display Units and Decimals of the card —
floating-point noise included, so a base resolving to 2576.9999999 still reads 2 577.
The wording comes from Prefix and Suffix instead:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Prefix | Placed in front of the text |
| Suffix | Placed after the text — a unit, a closing parenthesis |
This is what removes the string measure that used to be written once per visual:
Before two measures per visual: BaseCount (numeric, for the test)
"Base: " & BaseCount (text, for the display)
After one measure: BaseCount → Text (fx)
one setting: "Base: " → Prefix
Prefix and Suffix are ordinary visual settings, so a report translator that handles visual
settings picks them up. Translating "Base: " in 50 visuals beats rewriting 50 DAX
measures. Both are bindable through fx as well, if the wording has to come from the model.
Prefix and Suffix word the normal value, and the alert keeps them: by default an Alert text is added after the caption. Only the Replace the text mode drops them along with the value they were wording — “Base: Base too small” would make no sense. The alert Prefix pictogram stays leftmost either way.
Position
| Property | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Position | Top or Bottom, each in Left / Center / Right | Top (Right) |
| Horizontal margin | Distance from the left or right edge | 8 |
| Vertical margin | Distance from the top or bottom edge | 4 |
| Padding | Space between the border and the text | 2 |
The Note is not painted over the chart: the band it occupies is reserved, and the plot — along with the legend — is pushed out of its way. When a horizontal legend sits in the same band, the two share the line if they are in different zones; otherwise the whole Note box is reserved on top of the legend, and the legend stays the closer of the two to the chart.
Style
A Note is neutral until you ask for a box: it is drawn as plain text over the chart, with neither fill nor outline. Two toggles decide otherwise, and the colors below each one are only read once its toggle is on.
| Property | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Font | Family, size, bold, italic, underline | Segoe UI 10, italic |
| Text Color | Color of the caption | #333333 |
| Background | Whether the box is filled | Off |
| Background Color / Transparency | Fill of the box — 0 % is opaque, 100 % invisible | White, 0 % |
| Border | Whether the box is outlined | Off |
| Border Color / Width / Corner Radius | Outline of the box | #CCCCCC, 1, 2 |
Alert
The alert swaps the appearance of the Note as soon as a condition is met — typically a base falling under a publication threshold.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Alert | Master toggle of the alert block |
| Test if | Left operand: a number, or a formula such as %MIN(base_rep) |
| Test if (measure) | The same operand, when it has to come from a measure. Used when Test if is left empty |
| Is | Comparison operator: <, = or > |
| To | Right operand |
| Alert text | Shown while the alert holds. Leave empty to keep the normal text alone. Formulas are accepted here too. |
| Alert Text Mode | Add after the text (default) keeps the value, its prefix and its suffix, and adds the alert sentence after them. Replace the text swaps the whole caption for it. |
| Prefix | Placed before everything while the alert holds — usually a pictogram such as ⚠️ |
| Background / Border | Whether the alert draws a filled and outlined box, on by default |
| Text / Background / Border Color | Colors used while the alert holds |
In Add after the text mode, a single space is inserted between the caption and the alert
sentence unless one of the two already brings its own separator, so typing — base too small
reads correctly without double spacing:
Base: 175 respondents — base too small
Because Test if accepts a formula, the alert reacts to the data actually plotted rather than to a fixed value:
Test if %MIN(base_rep) Is < To 50
Alert text ⚠️ Base too small — results are indicative only
A Power BI setting is declared with a single data type, and the fx field picker only
offers fields of that type. Test if is a text box — that is what lets it hold 10 or
%MIN(base_rep) — so its picker lists text fields only, and a measure returning a number
cannot be chosen there.
Test if (measure) is the numeric counterpart, and the one to bind a measure to. It is read whenever Test if is left empty, so fill in one or the other. The same measure can then feed the displayed value and the threshold: bind it to Text and to Test if (measure), with the wording in Prefix.
If the measure is already in one of the visual's field wells, you can skip the second box
altogether and name it in a formula — %MIN(My measure) — in Test if.
A Note is plain text by default, so the alert carries its own Background and Border toggles rather than inheriting the ones in Style — otherwise its colors would never be reachable. Both are on, which means enabling the alert and crossing the threshold gives you the colored box straight away. Turn them off for a text-only alert, signalled by the text color and the pictogram alone.
Relationship with the Global Threshold
The two cards answer different questions and can be used together:
| Global Threshold | Note | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Erases the chart and paints a message in its place | Adds a caption next to a chart that is still drawn |
| When to use it | The result must not be published at all | The result is publishable but needs a caveat |
A common pairing is an alert Note under a moderate base, and the Global Threshold under a base too small to show anything.
On the Pie Chart a third card sits between the two: the Series Threshold asks the same question of each small multiple on its own, so one market can be withdrawn without taking the others with it.