Skip to content
Plume Visuals
← Back
How-to guidesIntermediate5 min read· Published on October 21, 2026

Stream Plume: 10 how-to recipes to read a composition

Step by step: 100% shares, total of each stream, fixed order, small multiples, biggest risers, Top N, reference period, events, navigator, playback.

Lire en français

These recipes start from a Stream Plume already in place. If you do not have one, begin with the getting started guide: the examples reuse its data (Sales, Revenue measure, streams by Channel). Features marked ★ are premium: they work without a license, with a watermark.

How do I show shares rather than amounts?

You want to see whether Web gains ground, whatever the level of sales.

  1. Format › Streams › Layout = 100% (shares of the total).
  2. Optional, ★: Format › Stream labels › Content = Name and share of the total ★ (each stream's share over the whole period, written inside it).

Result: each date adds up to 100%, a Y axis from 0% to 100% appears and the tooltip gives the share of the hovered stream at that date.

How do I show the total of each stream in the chart?

You want each channel's revenue over the whole period, with no table next to it.

  1. Format › Stream labels › Content = Name and total.
  2. For thousands: Format › Stream labels › Numbers › Display units = Thousands, Suffix = k if your measure has no currency format.

Result: "Web $4,812K" written in the Web stream, where it is thickest. A stream too thin for its text stays unlabeled.

How do I force the order of the streams?

Your management always wants Stores at the bottom and Web right above.

  1. Format › Streams › Stream order = Custom order.
  2. Bottom-to-top order (names separated by ;): Stores; Web.

Result: the listed channels are placed first, bottom to top; the others follow, largest in the middle. Case and accents are ignored. With an unknown name, a warning shows in edit mode.

How do I compare several regions with the same scale?

A Sales table with a Region column.

  1. Drop Region into Small multiples.
  2. Keep Format › Small multiples › Stream scale = Shared by all panels (free).
  3. Format › Small multiples › Total in the title = on.

Result: one panel per region, with the same number of pixels for $100,000 everywhere; the smallest region really looks smaller. The Independent per panel ★ scale fills each panel, useful when regions are not the same size.

How do I bring out the channels that grow the most? ★

You want the chart to point out the winners by itself.

  1. Format › Data colors › Coloring = Highlight streams ★.
  2. Highlighted streams = Biggest risers, Number of streams = 2.

Result: the two channels whose value grew the most between the first and the last point keep their color, the others turn gray. Biggest fallers does the opposite; Named streams highlights the channels of Stream names (Web; Export).

How do I avoid an unreadable chart with 30 categories? ★

  1. Format › Streams › Top N and "Others" ★: turn Show on, N = 6.
  2. Optional: "Others" label = Other products, "Others" color.

Result: the 6 largest streams over the period, plus an "Others" stream at the top of the stack. Clicking "Others" selects every category it groups.

How do I compare each channel to 2019? ★

  1. Open the Analytics pane (the magnifying glass icon next to the Format pane).
  2. Reference period ★: turn Show on, Start = 2019, leave End empty.
  3. Format › Stream labels › Content = Name and change vs. the reference period ★.

Result: 2019 is shaded; each label gives the change between the last value and the 2019 average ("Web ▲ +137%") and the tooltip adds "Change vs. the reference". A period over several months is written Start = 2020-01, End = 2020-06.

How do I annotate the time axis and a stream? ★

  1. Format › Annotations ★ (this card replaces the former "Events" of the Analytics pane) › Annotations (one per line): 
    2020-03-17 | Lockdown
2021-06..2021-08 | Summer 2021 | #2E7D4F
2023-09 | Web | Marketplaces open
    The first line puts a vertical marker, the second shades a period, the third (x | stream | text) pins the note to the Web layer.
  2. Or a text measure in the Annotations (text) ★ field, for example: 
    Event = IF ( MAX ( Sales[Month] ) = DATE ( 2023, 9, 1 ), "Marketplaces" )
  3. In edit mode, drag a note to move it, double-click to edit it, × to delete it.

Result: a dashed line and its label for each date, a shaded area for each period, a bubble linked to the stream for pinned notes. An unreadable line or one outside the axis is reported in edit mode.

How do I zoom into a period without filtering the report? ★

  1. Format › Navigator ★: turn Show on.
  2. To open on the last two years: Window start when opened = 2024-01.

Result: a mini chart of the whole period under the streams; drag the window, pull its edges, or turn the wheel on the chart. Double-click the navigator to see everything again. The rest of the report is not filtered.

How do I replay the story, date after date? ★

  1. Format › Playback ★: turn Play bar on, then set Duration of a frame (ms) (one frame = one date; 300 for a fast replay).
  2. Optional: Play automatically on opening, Loop; ★: turn Ranking at the cursor date ★ on, Streams in the ranking = 5.
  3. Click ▶ in the play bar.

Result: a cursor travels through time and what comes next stays veiled; with the ★ ranking, a box gives the top 5 streams at the cursor date (value and share). The bar is the one of every Plume visual: graduated slider, start and end, speed ×0.5 to ×4, Space and arrows on the keyboard. Autoplay never starts when Windows asks to reduce motion, nor on a dashboard tile. Without a key, playback works with the "Premium preview" watermark.

How do I keep the same scale when filtering?

With stacked areas (Streams › Layout = Stacked areas (from zero)), a slicer on the channel makes the Y axis refit. Pin its maximum with a measure that ignores this filter.

  1. Create the measure:
Axis max =
CALCULATE (
    MAXX ( VALUES ( Sales[Month] ), [Revenue] ),  -- the highest month (all streams stacked)…
    REMOVEFILTERS ( Sales[Channel] )              -- …all channels
)
  1. Drag it into Dynamic format, then rename it for this visual yAxis.max.
  2. Pick a channel in the slicer: the axis no longer moves, the remaining stream shrinks.

Don't use ALLSELECTED (): it follows slicers, so the scale would still move. REMOVEFILTERS ( Sales ) (or ALL ( Sales )) ignores every filter.

Going further