In addition to the Field and Formatting panes used to create report visuals, an Analytics pane is also available for cartesian visuals such as Line and clustered column charts. This pane allows report authors to add constant and dynamic reference lines such as average, max, and min to visuals to provide greater context and analytical value. Additionally, trend and forecast lines can be added to display the results of advanced analytical techniques such as exponential smoothing to support predictive analytics.

A simple but important use case of the Analytics pane, exemplified in the Trend lines section below, is to add a constant line that represents a goal or threshold to compare a measure against. Dynamic reference lines representing an aggregation (for example, a median) behave just like DAX measures and thus, in some scenarios, avoid the need to create new DAX measures into the source dataset.

The reference lines available in the Analytics pane depend on the type of visual. For example, reference lines are currently not supported for any custom visuals and only a constant line can be applied to the stacked column and bar charts. Additionally, the trend line is exclusive to the Line and clustered column chart, while the forecast line is exclusive to the line chart. Moreover, a date or a numeric column is required in the axis to utilize the trend and forecast lines.

New features and capabilities are planned for the Analytics pane, including an expanded list of visuals supported. Similar to the Tooltips feature described in the previous Chapter 11, Creating and Formatting Power BI Reports, Power BI report authors should be conscious of the Analytics pane and its ability to enhance report visuals with additional context and insights.