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Understanding the charts and styling in Looker Studio

What is a Looker Studio dashboard without charts? Nothing!

If you still don't know all the variety of charts that Looker Studio has, we are here to help you. Looker Studio offers a wide range of charts to use in our reports to make them more visual and interactive. In this article, you will learn a little bit more about the charts available on Looker Studio and how to style them.

Keep in mind that Dataslayer only provides connectors, which are available within Looker Studio. We cannot add, improve or change anything about Looker or its usability. Please contact Google support if you have any complaints or suggestions about Looker Studio.





These charts are:
Table
Scorecard
Time series
Bar
Pie
Google Maps
Geo Charts
Line
Area
Scatter
Pivot table
Bullet
Treemap
Sankey
Gauge

We don't recommend you to put too many charts in the report as you will be pulling too much information from the same data source which may cause the report take to more time to load, have a timeout, or other errors.

Depending on the chart you've selected, Looker Studio can consume more than 1 API call per widget. Learn more about how API calls works in Looker Studio here.


Setup section



In this example, we chose the table chart which is normally the default chart when opening one report.

On the right, you can see a column where you can change the configuration of the chart and its style.



In the setup section you can:

Change and add the metrics and dimensions that you want to pull.

Change the rows per page that you want to show.

Decide whether to show or not the summary row, which will add a "Total" row and the end of the table.

Sort ascending or descending by a specific metric or dimension.

Select the date range of the chart, and also if you want a comparison with another date range or not.

Add filters.

You can learn more about filters in this FAQ.

And if you select in the data source to be able to change some parameters, such as change the accounts for example, you will see the option "Parameters".

These are the most common options for setting up a chart, but you may see a few more or fewer options depending on the chart you have selected.



Style section



In this example we chose a Line chart.



This chart has two metrics on it, and you can style these two metrics separately however you want.

In this style section you can:

As we said, style each metric of the chart. These metrics will be called Series #1 and Series #2.

You will be able to change the metrics on bars o lines.

In the case of choosing a line, the thickness of the line.

The color so you can use your company or client's colors.

If you want to point or smooth the line.

Change the axes.

Select the color and the background of the grid.

The type and color of the letter of the grid and legend.

The alignment of the legend.

Change the colors and lines of the background, and border of the chart.

Change the position and color of the chart header.

These are the most common options for styling a chart, but you may see a few more or fewer options depending on the chart you have selected.

On charts like scorecards you can also:

Choose if you want to compact the numbers.

And if you have selected a comparison date range, you can change the color of the positive and negative change number.



We highly recommend you play with all the options available in Looker to learn how to use them in the way that best suits your work.

Remember that Dataslayer only provides connectors, which are available within Looker Studio. We cannot add, improve or change anything about Looker or its usability. If you have any complaints or suggestions about Looker Studio, please contact Google support.


As always, please contact us via our live chat on our website or via email if you still have doubts or questions. We are happy to help!

Updated on: 19/05/2023

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