Buttons do so much for Power BI report creators. Interaction and ease of use are paramount in Power BI. “Buttons can do more than point to bookmarks – they can also open up a Q-and-A dialogue or go to a web URL anywhere on the internet, but in this case, bookmarks are the magic sauce,” says Amanda Cofsky on Guy in a Cube. “Bookmarks … say a lot of interesting stuff about their report: cross-highlighting, filter states, if something’s visible or not: (they) have a lot of power behind (them,) but you can control what that bookmark is saving, at any given time.” Adam says you need to turn off data related things so filters don’t revert. “That part is key: … some people … get into this funky state of, ‘Woah, I hit this button, … and also … my slicers changed on me.’”
Add navigation points as well. “Set up a bookmark per page of your report and tie it to the button for each of those pages,” says Amanda.
Report Enhancing
Different information with cards (static) can be created. Cards show data; buttons make data accessible. Layer buttons on top of cards to display interactive buttons. Hover state and blank buttons show visuals: visuals can be switched to show metrics. “The bookmark is actually changing the visual that I’m seeing … I want to be able to switch the visual to show that metric that I just clicked on … Each of these buttons is just pointing to a bookmark that is changing the visibility,” Amanda says. “There [are] many visuals layering there – I’m hiding and showing them.”
Adam talks about how clients have questions about these issues. “It really can improve what we … actually show,” he says. “A lot of folks will be like, ‘How do I change accesses dynamically on the report?’ or ‘How do I get that different state and feel?’ This is a great way to go about doing it.”
Amanda advises to open the selection pane to see if something is hiding. Buttons are necessary to enhance ease of use for creators. “This pane is incredibly useful: … it lists everything that you have … in the “z” order that the things are… This is also where you would change the visibility of things as well, so if you can’t find something, always open the selection pane and you can see if there [are] any hidden objects on the page.” Amanda and Adam recommend using buttons and bookmarks in Power BI to improve user accessibility and visual appeal.
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