How to Turn Off Stepped Layout in Power BI

If your Power BI matrix visuals feel cramped and difficult to read, the default "stepped layout" is likely the reason. It's a setting designed to save space, but it often sacrifices clarity in the process. This guide will show you exactly how to turn it off, explain why you should, and offer some extra tips to create cleaner, more intuitive reports.

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What Exactly is Stepped Layout in Power BI?

Stepped layout is the default format for matrix visuals in Power BI when you have multiple fields in the "Rows" well. Instead of placing each row field in its own separate column, it displays them hierarchically within a single column, with each subsequent level indented beneath its parent.

For example, if you add fields like Region, Country, and City to your rows, a stepped layout will look something like this:

• North America
• Europe

All of those items - Region, Country, and City - are displayed in one column, using indentation to show the relationships. Power BI does this automatically to conserve horizontal space on your report canvas, which can be useful for dashboards with many visuals. However, this space-saving benefit comes with some significant downsides.

Why Turn Off Stepped Layout?

While default settings are often helpful, the stepped layout is one you should frequently disable. Moving away from the indented, single-column format to a more traditional tabular view offers several clear advantages that your audience will appreciate.

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1. Drastically Improved Readability

The primary reason to turn off stepped layout is clarity. When each field in your hierarchy gets its own column, the structure becomes flat and instantly more scannable. Your brain doesn't have to work to understand the indented hierarchy, the relationship is clearly defined by the columns.

A "tabular" layout (the result of turning off stepped layout) puts Region, Country, and City into their own separate columns. This is a much more natural and organized way to view hierarchical data, resembling a clean spreadsheet or a classic pivot table.

2. Cleaner Exports to Excel

This is an incredibly common source of frustration. When you export a matrix with stepped layout enabled to Excel (using the "Data with current layout" option), you get a report with merged cells and an awkward indented structure. To do any further analysis - like sorting, filtering, or using the data in another pivot table - you first have to spend time unmerging cells and cleaning up the formatting.

By turning off the stepped layout before exporting, you get a clean tabular export where each field is neatly in its own column. This one simple change can save you and your colleagues hours of tedious data wrangling and spreadsheet cleanup.

3. Familiar Pivot Table-Style Reporting

Most business users live and breathe spreadsheets. They are deeply familiar with the structure of a classic pivot table in Excel, where row labels are in their own columns. Forcing them to adapt to an indented layout can cause confusion and slow down their ability to get insights from your report.

By disabling stepped layout, you present the data in a format they already understand. This alignment with existing mental models makes your reports more intuitive and effective, reducing the learning curve for any stakeholders viewing your work.

How to Turn Off Stepped Layout: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to make the change? Disabling the stepped layout is a quick and easy process that takes just a few clicks. Follow these simple steps.

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Step 1: Select Your Matrix Visual

First, click on the matrix visual on your Power BI report canvas to select it. When selected, you will see the visualization's border highlighted and the associated panes (like "Visualize" and "Data") will become active.

Step 2: Open the "Format your visual" Pane

With the matrix selected, look to the right-hand side of your screen for the "Visualize" pane. Click on the icon that looks like a paintbrush, which is the Format your visual tab. This is where you control the appearance and formatting of the selected visual.

Step 3: Go to the "Row headers" Settings

In the "Format your visual" pane, you'll see a list of formatting categories like "Values," "Column headers," and "Row headers." Find and click on Row headers to expand its options.

Step 4: Find the Layout Options

Inside the "Row headers" section, you’ll find another subgroup of settings for Options. All of the key layout controls reside here.

Step 5: Toggle Off "Stepped layout"

Here you will see a toggle switch labeled Stepped layout. It will be turned on by default. Simply click the toggle to turn it Off.

As soon as you do this, you will see your matrix visual immediately transform on the report canvas. The indented row items will separate into their own individual columns, creating a flat, tabular layout.

Pro-Tips for Your New Tabular Matrix

Now that you've switched to a cleaner tabular format, here are a few other settings right in that same formatting pane that can help you customize the layout even further.

Manage Row Subtotals

With a tabular view, the placement of subtotals becomes more important. In the "Row subtotals" section of the formatting pane, you can not only toggle them on or off but also choose their position. By default, they appear at the bottom of each group. You can change this to show the total at the top of a group, which is often preferred for financial reports.

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Adjust the +/- Icons

These icons allow users to expand and collapse the different levels of the hierarchy directly within the report. You can customize them in the Icons section within "Row headers." You can change their color, size, and even the marker style (from the default chevron to a plus/minus or a carrot) to better match your report's aesthetic and improve usability.

Add Grid Lines for Better Separation

To make your tabular view even easier to read, add some borders or grid lines. Go to the Grid section in the formatting pane below Row and Column headers. Here, you can enable horizontal and vertical grid lines, and choose their color and thickness, which helps guide the eye across the rows and down the columns, clearly separating each cell.

Final Thoughts

Switching off the stepped layout in your Power BI matrix is a simple change that makes your reports much easier to read, interpret, and use for further analysis once exported. By moving each level of your data into its own column, you create a classic tabular view that team members can immediately understand without any additional mental hurdles.

Creating clear, frictionless reports is exactly why we built Graphed. Managing layout and formatting settings in complex BI tools can feel like a chore, stealing valuable time that you could be using to analyze performance. We believe you should get insights from your sales and marketing data just by asking questions. With Graphed , you connect your sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce and describe the report you need, and we instantly build a live, interactive dashboard - no more fighting with settings toggle by toggle.