Data with Dom

Making sense of challenging data topics one step at a time.

Tag: Bookmarks

Enable Self Help Overlays for Power BI Report Viewers

By

On January 30, 2024

In Best Practices, Report Design

We can all use a little self help when it comes to Power BI Reports. I often need help with visualizations, formulas, or even our data sources themselves. A little help can go a long way! However, this post is not about that.

As a report creator, how often do you get asked about details around your visualizations? The questions I most frequently receive are focused on definitions of terms, how a metric is calculated, or how a particular visualization is filtered. In fairness, our report consumers do not live inside of our heads. Therefore, they do not know what we were thinking when we designed our reports. However, a little design change in your report can make all the difference. By adding a self help panel, we can eliminate these questions once and for all!

Preparing for self help

To get started, we need to take a screenshot of our report. I will use SnagIt to capture the report canvas only. If you do not have SnagIt or similar tool, you can easily use the Snipping Tool app inside of Windows. SnagIt allows me to be precise with my selection of the report canvas.

Screenshot of our Power BI Report to be used to design our self help overlay.
Screenshot of my report canvas

Once, I have my screenshot, I will open PowerPoint. I know, it seems crazy, but hang with me on this! I will create a new blank presentation, insert a blank slide, and paste my report screenshot on it.

Adding a screenshot of our Power BI Report inside of PowerPoint to prepare our self help overlay.
Adding my report screenshot to a slide in PowerPoint

With our canvas in place, it is time to work some magic in PowerPoint!

Create self help overlay objects

Our first step is to add a shape on top of our screenshot. First, go to the insert ribbon and expand the insert shape menu. Next, select the rectangle shape and cover your entire screenshot. Do not worry that we cannot see the screenshot as we will fix that next.

Inserting a rectangle shape in PowerPoint to serve as our self help overlay base
Inserting a shape inside of PowerPoint

Next, right click on the shape and select format shape. From there, expand the fill menu and change the color to black. Next, adjust the transparency to a level where we can see the canvas clearly, but realize there is something in front of it. In this scenario, 85% seems to be right for this report. Next, you can make adjustments to the border of the shape under the line section. This is a personal preference with building out self help, but I usually leave it enabled.

Formatting the overlay shape in PowerPoint as a base for our self help.
Making my overlay shape transparent

With our overlay in place, it is time to add our self help comments. Go back to the insert ribbon, expand shapes, and select one of the callout boxes at the bottom.

Inserting callout shapes in PowerPoint for the self help overlay.
Inserting callouts for the self help overlay

Keep adding callouts until you are satisfied with your overlay. I recommend erring on the side of too many callouts. However, make sure you still see the report canvas!

Final version of our self help overlay containing five callouts for our Power BI Report.
Report callouts for our self help overlay

With our overlay designed, it is time to add it to our Power BI Report!

Insert self help overlay into you Power BI Report

The first thing we must do is delete the old screenshot from the slide. Right click on your overlay shape and send it to back. Once you have completed that, you can delete the screenshot from the slide.

View of PowerPoint showing the self help overlay objects without the screenshot from Power BI

Self help overlay objects with no screenshot in PowerPoint

Next, we must save our self help objects as an image. Use Control + A to select all objects and Control + G to put them into a single group. After that, we right click on the overlay group and select save as picture. Save this picture to your device so you can access it in Power BI.

Right clicking on the self help overlay group and selecting save as picture so it can be used.
Save self help overlay group as an image in PowerPoint

Next, head back to Power BI, open the insert ribbon, select image, and insert our saved picture. Then, expand the image so it covers the entire report canvas. You will note two things. First, the image is transparent, so we do not hide the report canvas. Second, you will notice that the self help overlay does not reach the edges of the canvas. We can fix that by going to the general section of the format pane, expanding properties, and set padding for all sides to zero.

Inserting a self help overlay image into a Power BI Report canvas and adjusting the padding.
Inserting self help overlay into Power BI

Now that this has been inserted, we just need to add a few bookmarks to make it appear when we want it to be visible!

Expose self help overlay with bookmarks

Now that we have our overlay in place, it is time to hide it. To accomplish this task, we will use bookmarks. I have already written extensively about how to leverage bookmarks in a previous post. If you are not sure how to leverage them, please use that link to learn more. In this article, I am just going to show you how I quickly configure them so the self help overlay will appear and disappear when desired.

I have already added two bookmarks – one to open and one to close the self help overlay. I will simply configure my bookmark to only update the selected visuals I have clicked on and update the slicer. In the image below, I am opening the self help overlay, so it is visible. However, I will just simply hide the visuals for closing the overlay.

Updating the bookmarks to only show the self help overlay when selected and not impact the entire report canvas.
Updating bookmarks for self help overlay

Now that this is in place, I just need to update the actions on my help button and overlay image. To apply the close self help overlay action, I will select overlay image in the the report, go to the format pane and expand action. Once there, I will set the type of action to bookmark and select my close self help overlay bookmark. I will do the same to the open self help button inside of my report footer.

Setting the action properties on our image to use the close self help overlay to hide our help image
Applying the close self help overlay bookmark to our overlay image

Now that you have this in place, you can easily open and close your self help overlay. To test this in Power BI desktop, you will need to hold down the control key to activate the action. However, that will not be required when you publish the report to the Power BI Service.

Opening and closing the self help overlay on the Power BI Report canvas.
Opening and closing the self help overlay

And just like that, we have enabled your viewers to learn more about your report with a single click!

Anything else to consider?

As convenient as the self help overlay is for your viewers, there is an additional burden for you to keep the overlay up to date. I recommend that you save your PowerPoint file for easy access and updates in the future. This will save you time in the future

I always recommend having a checklist of steps that must be completed when publishing content to the Power BI service. If you choose to use a self help overlay, a step must be added to ensure it is still valid. This will prevent any confusion from your report viewers in the future.

Conclusion

This seems like a trivial addition to a report, but I promise it makes life easier. Any chance you have to eliminate the questions coming to you is time well spent. While it is a little design intensive and adds a burden to future updates, it creates a better overall experience for your report viewers. I highly recommend trying it out once or twice in a development environment so you feel comfortable doing it in production.

So, have you ever created a self help overlay? Have you found it helpful? Or are you a viewer who has benefited from an overlay? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Save Space with a Slicer Panel

By

On January 22, 2024

In Look and Feel, Report Design

Nothing is worse than a cluttered report canvas. This is one of the most common pieces of feedback I provide to customers on a regular basis. The idea that you can pack as much information into a single view is honestly obnoxious and leads to confusion. If readers have a hard time understanding the canvas, they will not understand the message you are communicating with your report. And the experience is worse if you have half of the canvas covered with slicers!

In addition to the confusion, it has the chance to impact your report performance. As you add visualizations to the Power BI canvas, you will hurt the overall performance of your report. Because each visual must be rendered and associated data queried from the model, it will impact the responsiveness when loading. But a little known secret about Power BI is that if you hide the visualization from the canvas, it does not impact the performance.

This is where slicer panels come in. Instead of having a cluttered canvas full of slicers that is slow to load, we can hide these slicers and activate them when needed. This is a small change to your canvas, but it provides a lasting impact. It only takes a few minutes to implement if you know how to do it.

Example of a cluttered report canvas.
Example of a cluttered report canvas

To resolve this issue, we will simply add a slicer panel to our report canvas. The best part of this is that we will be able to leverage our existing slicers to save us time!

Prepare the Slicer Panel

The first step in preparing the panel is adding a background. Go to the insert ribbon and insert a square shape from the dropdown. Once it appears, resize it and place it on the canvas. Personally, I add the slicer panel on the left side. However, you may choose to have it appear somewhere else on your canvas. My recommendation is to use whatever enhances your report design best is ideal.

Inserting a shape from the Insert ribbon to serve as the slicer panel
Inserting a shape for the slicer panel

Next, we need to add a way to close the panel. Under the insert ribbon, we will expand the button drop down. From here, you can pick the one that works best for you. I personally use the back button, but the reset button seems to work well for others too. You might need to perform some updates to the formatting so it is easily visible on your slicer panel.

Inserting an exit button from the button drop down to help us close the slicer panel.
Inserting an exit button for your slicer panel

Now that we have our panel in place, it is time to add our slicers.

Loading Slicers into our Panel

In our example, we already have our slicers in place. We are going to use the selection pane, found under the view ribbon. From there, we will re-order the items on our canvas so our panel appears above any visualization we add to our report. We also want to make sure our slicers sit on top of our shape so they are not hidden. Once this has been completed, you can arrange your slicers on the shape.

Updating the canvas order and placing the slicers in the right sequence for our slicer panel
Updating our canvas order and arranging our slicers

Next, as a best practice, we will want to rename our shape and our button. The traditional way to perform this task is to update the title under the general settings of the format visualization pane. However, there is an easier way to perform this action! Instead, just double click on the object on the selection pane and you can update it right there.

Renaming objects on the Power BI canvas using the selection pane by double clicking on the object name.
Renaming objects on the Power BI canvas

You will note that I have also grouped these objects together by selecting them, right-clicking, and selecting group. I renamed the group the same way I did with the other objects. This is not required, but makes life a lot easier for the next step.

Show and Hide your Slicer Panel

Now that we have our panel in place, it is time to hide it. To accomplish this task, we will use bookmarks. I have already written extensively about how to leverage bookmarks in a previous post. If you are not sure how to leverage them, please use that link to learn more. In this article, I am just going to show you how I quickly configure them so the panel will appear and disappear when desired.

I have already added two bookmarks – one to open and one to close the slicer panel. I will simply configure my bookmark to only update the selected visuals I have clicked on and update the slicer. In the image below, I am opening the slicer panel, so it is visible. However, I will just simply hide the visuals for closing the panel.

Configuring bookmarks to only update the selected visuals ensuring that only the slicer panel will be affected by the opening and closing of my report.
Updating bookmarks to open and close the slicer panel

Now that this is in place, I just need to update the actions on my buttons. To apply the close slicer panel action, I will select by button in the slicer panel, go to the format pane and expand action. Once there, I will set the type of action to bookmark and select my Close Slicer Panel bookmark. I will do the same to the open slicer button inside of my report footer.

Adding the bookmark action to the button to close the slicer panel
Applying the close slicer panel action to the close slicer panel button

Now that you have this in place, you can easily open and close your slicer panel. To test this in Power BI desktop, you will need to hold down the control key to activate the action. However, that will not be required when you publish the report to the Power BI Service.

Short video of the slicer panel opening and closing in Power BI
Opening and closing the slicer panel

Just like that, we have provided more space on our report canvas and made it easier to view!

Anything else to consider?

If you remember, I put my slicers in a group with the panel objects. While not required, it is a best practice. The reason for this is that you will at some point need to add a new slicer to your report. To make it easier on yourself, the group allows you to update the objects without having to update your bookmarks.

When I am in a hurry, I feel like bookmarks never update the way they are supposed to. The result is in a rushed experience that never works out. However, because I used groups, I can simply drag my slicer into the group and not have to make any adjustments to the bookmark. It is an extra step in the process, but it will save you considerable time and headaches in the future!

Conclusion

This is a small update for a report, but it really makes an impact. I know it takes extra time, but I promise you that it is worth the effort to preserve your canvas. This is especially helpful if you have reports using more than five slicers for a page.

Have you used a slicer panel before? Do you find them helpful? If so, tell me in the comments below!

Bookmarks – A Versatile Feature That You Are Not Using

By

On April 28, 2022

In Report Design

Bookmarks are one of those tools that I never really understood on day one. I just kept ignoring them thinking they were not that important. What a mistake!

Bookmarks serve multiple purposes in Power BI Reports. Regardless of your skill level or design experience, they can help any creator. The trick is understanding how they work so you can leverage them.

The Basics of Bookmarks

Sometimes the most basic solutions are some of the best. Bookmarks personify that point. The easiest way to showcase the basics of bookmarks is to save a view you like to use.

When digging into a report, I frequently apply different filters and slicers to find insights. I often find something interesting and will want to reference it later. Before bookmarks, I would have to take some notes about how to reproduce what I found. Well, I should take notes but often forget. Sound familiar? Instead of taking all of those notes, just apply a bookmark!

Creating Bookmarks

Last year, I created a property assessment report for my town. I built the tool to check the assessment value of houses in town and compare them. The reason? My property taxes are directly tied to the assessed value of my property. Like most people, I checked out other properties in town.

When I found one that was interesting, the easiest thing for me to do was bookmark what I found. To get started with creating a bookmark, I go to the view ribbon and select the bookmarks panel. Once that is open, I can click the add button to save my view.

Adding a Bookmark to Power BI

With my bookmark created, I can now quickly click on it to restore my view. Mess with any of the settings and then click on the bookmark on the right to restore the saved view.

Updating a Bookmark

Sometimes you want to make an adjustment to a bookmark. Maybe you made a mistake or need to adjust your filters. Instead of deleting or creating a new bookmark, you can simply update it.

I can click the three dots to the right of the bookmark name to pull up a menu. There are a lot of settings in here, but we just need to focus on the update option for now. Just simply select update and your bookmark will be adjusted.

We also can take the time to rename our bookmark in the same place. Just select rename and choose one that makes sense. Use whatever works for you – it has to be better than “Bookmark 1”!

Build a Panel of References

One of my favorite things to use bookmarks for is to build out a list of views. When I am trying to create a seamless presentation, I build out my views and just start clicking through them. Before bookmarks, I could take screenshots and put them in a PowerPoint deck, but I lost the interactivity of the report!

To prepare for my presentation, I build out all of my bookmarks. Once they are created, I can drag and drop them into the right order. When I am ready to present, I open the report and show the bookmark panel. I can step through my presentation and provide quality reporting that contains an interactive component.

Extending Bookmarks for Flexibility

Another common use for bookmarks is to provide a little flexibility with your report canvas. They say you cannot make everyone happy. However, sometimes you can using a few bookmarks.

A common scenario I run into is picky report consumers who have specific report visuals they prefer. Some users want to see charts while others want to see tables. You could create a new report page with a different visualization, but that is a lot to maintain for a single visual. Keep it clean with a few bookmarks.

To get started, I will create my two visuals on the report canvas. It will look cluttered for now, but we will fix that shortly.

Adding a Matrix or Table Visual to the Report Canvas

The next thing I am going to do is open both the bookmarks and selection panels. I am going to use the selection panel to hide the table of values from the report canvas. Once it is hidden, I will create a bookmark and label it as “Chart”.

Hiding the Matrix Visual and Creating the Chart Bookmark

Then I will do the same thing to show the matrix visual instead of the chart.

Hiding the Chart Visual and Creating the Matrix Bookmark

Now I have these bookmarks available in the panel on the right and can use it as desired. Regardless of your consumer’s preference, they can pick the right visual for their needs. A simple and seamless solution!

Making Bookmarks Accessible

Now I already know what you are thinking – this is a great solution, but my users won’t know to use the bookmarks panel! I totally agree with you! Until recently, the only option you had was to add buttons and wire up your bookmarks. But with a recent update to Power BI, we can use the Bookmark Navigator to simplify that process.

Before we add the navigator, a best practice is to group our two bookmarks together. This will allow us to flip between our visuals without interfering with future bookmarks. To group our bookmarks, use control click to select our bookmarks, right click on them, and select group. We can then rename the group to something that makes more sense. I chose “Revenue Visuals”.

With that in place, we can go to insert and click on the button drop down. I can go down to Navigator and select Bookmark Navigator. It will then place the navigator on the canvas and add my bookmarks.

Adding the Bookmark Navigator to my Report

We are almost finished. If you remember what I mentioned earlier about grouping your bookmarks, you need to assign the group to the navigator in the format panel.

Set your Bookmark Group for the Navigator

The best part about this solution is that as you add more bookmarks to the group, you can easily add them to the visual. Just create a bookmark and add it to the group!

Adding a New Bookmark to the Navigator

It is true – you cannot make everyone happy. But this might make a few extra people happy with a minimal amount of effort!

Anything Else About Bookmarks?

For report pages that do not have a lot going on, you might be fine with this setup. However, if you try to add a lot of visuals, you might run into performance issues. Instead of updating all visuals, consider changing the bookmark to update the selected visuals instead. Just use your control click on the selection pane to pick the visuals you want to show or hide and update the bookmark accordingly.

I will say, you will probably get your bookmarks wrong the first time. Even as experienced as I am, I occasionally need to keep updating my bookmarks until they are right. You might be frustrated, but don’t give up! I promise you it is worth it in the end!

Have you used bookmarks before? If so, how did you use them? Any favorite use cases? If so, tell me in the comments below!

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