# Horizontal Bar Chart

## Horizontal Bar Chart

### What is the Horizontal Bar Chart Widget?

The Horizontal Bar Chart is a widget type available in Birdie Dashboards. It displays data as horizontal bars, ranking categories from top to bottom by their metric value. This orientation makes it especially easy to read and compare category labels of varying lengths, each bar extends to the right in proportion to its value, with the exact figure displayed alongside it.

#### How to extract the most value from the Horizontal Bar Chart?

The Horizontal Bar Chart is ideal when your focus is on ranking or comparing discrete categories by volume or score, and legibility of category names matters. Use it when you want to answer questions such as:

* Which feedback areas generated the highest volume of responses in the last 30 days?
* Which topics are driving the most mentions across my customer base right now?

Because bars are arranged vertically with labels on the left, this widget handles long or multi-word category names much more cleanly than a vertical bar chart. It is particularly well-suited for dashboards where the category dimension, such as Areas, Opportunities, or feedback channels, is the most important variable.

<img src="/files/wIxoVE1mqtacSxhLGefj" alt="Horizontal Bar Chart widget preview" width="563">

### Setting up a Horizontal Bar Chart

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Select the widget type

When adding a new widget to your dashboard, select **Horizontal bar** from the widget type options at the top of the configuration panel.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Add a title and subtitle

In the **Title** field, enter a clear name for your widget. You can also add an optional **Subtitle** to provide additional context for other users viewing the dashboard.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Configure the data source

Navigate to the **Setup** tab to define what data the chart will display.

* **Metric**: Select the metric you want to measure. For example, choose **Overall** to display aggregate feedback counts across all sources.
* **Breakdown**: Select the dimension to group your data by. Each item in the breakdown will appear as a separate horizontal bar. For example, selecting **Areas** will render one bar per area.
* **Selection**: Use the selection dropdown to choose which specific items within the breakdown to include. By default, all available items are selected.
* **Limit**: Set the maximum number of bars displayed. This caps how many breakdown items appear on the chart, keeping it focused on the most significant results.
* **Set vertical axis range**: Toggle this on to manually define the minimum and maximum values for the horizontal scale.
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Configure display settings

Still in the **Setup** tab, scroll down to the **Display settings** section.

* **Always show values on chart**: Enable this toggle to display exact data point values directly alongside each bar, making it easier to read precise figures at a glance.
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Set filters

Navigate to the **Filter** tab to control the time range and granularity of the data shown.

* **Date range**: Select the period you want the chart to cover. The default is **Last 30 days**.
* **Time aggregation**: Choose how data is grouped over time. The default is **Week**.
* **Advanced filters**: Use the **Add filter** option to refine the data further, for example, by a specific tag, sentiment, or source. You can also enable **Ignore global filter** if you want this widget to display independently of any dashboard-level filters.
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Customize series labels and colors

Navigate to the **Customization** tab to review and edit how each series is labeled and colored on the chart.

* Each breakdown item appears as a numbered series (Serie 1, Serie 2, and so on).
* You can rename any series label by editing the text field next to it.
* Click the color swatch to change the color assigned to that series.

![Customization tab showing series labels and color pickers](/files/TwXYCm0Lx4QXRHDJD1Cw)

{% hint style="info" %}
Renaming series labels is especially useful when the default breakdown names are long or technical. Clearer labels make the chart easier to read for teammates who may not be familiar with the underlying data structure.
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Save the widget

Once you are satisfied with the configuration, click **Save changes** to add the Horizontal Bar Chart to your dashboard.

{% hint style="info" %}
Remember to save the Dashboard itself after setting up the widget, otherwise your changes will not be persisted.
{% endhint %}
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}


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