Google's Looker Studio announced significant updates to its platform, introducing Modern charts in preview along with improved pivot table functionality and enhanced filter conditions for Looker data sources.
Modern Charts Preview Experience
The new Modern charts feature introduces comprehensive styling improvements and enhanced configuration options. Key improvements include:
- New default color themes applicable across all chart types
- Rounded edges for column and bar charts
- Line gradient settings for line and time series charts
- Transparency controls for scatter and bubble charts
- Enhanced padding controls for pie and donut charts
- Advanced grid line customization
- Detailed axis customization options
- Flexible axis label rotation settings
The Modern charts experience operates on a per-report basis, allowing creators to toggle between new and original chart experiences as needed.
Enhanced Pivot Table Functionality
Looker Studio introduced a significant improvement to pivot tables with the "Pivot sort by any" feature. This update enables users to sort pivot tables using any metric or calculated field available in their data source, providing greater flexibility in data analysis.
Improved Filter Conditions for Looker Data Sources
The platform addressed previous limitations with blank filter parameters in Looker data sources by implementing the "Is Any" filter condition option. This new feature ensures proper handling of blank LookML filter values by applying a default condition that accepts any value, resolving previous interpretation issues.
