Bookmarks, Tooltips & Navigation

Building guided experiences

Bookmarks

Bookmarks capture a snapshot of the report page state:

• Which visuals are visible or hidden (via Selection pane)
• Which filters and slicers are active
• The current page being viewed
• Sort order and drill state

Riley at Coastal Fresh (🛒) creates a report page with two views:

1. “Overview” bookmark — shows summary cards and a bar chart
2. “Detail” bookmark — shows a detailed matrix table

She adds two buttons (Insert → Buttons → Blank) and assigns each button’s Action to navigate to the corresponding bookmark. Users click buttons to toggle between views — it feels like tabs.

How to create:

1. Set up the page exactly how you want it (show/hide visuals, set filters)
2. View → Bookmarks pane → Add
3. Name the bookmark and configure what it captures (Data, Display, Current Page)

Bookmark properties

Property	What It Captures
Data	Current filters and slicer states
Display	Visibility of each visual (shown/hidden)
Current Page	The bookmark navigates to the page that was active when it was created

💡 Exam tip: data vs display bookmarks

If you want bookmarks to toggle between views (show chart A, hide chart B) without changing filters, uncheck Data and keep only Display.

If you want bookmarks to change the filtered context (show North region data), check Data and optionally Display.

The exam will test whether you know which properties to check for different scenarios.

Custom tooltips

Instead of the default tooltip (value labels), you can create an entire report page that appears when hovering over a data point.

Nadia at Prism Agency (📊) creates a tooltip page showing campaign details:

• Campaign name, start/end dates, budget
• A mini sparkline of daily performance
• Client logo

How to create:

1. Add a new page → Format → Page information → toggle “Allow use as tooltip”
2. Set page size to Tooltip (small, 320×240px default)
3. Design the tooltip page with visuals and text
4. On the main visual → Format → Tooltip → set Type to “Report page” → select your tooltip page

The tooltip automatically filters to the hovered data point.

Drillthrough

Drillthrough sends users to a detail page pre-filtered to the selected data point.

Dr. Ethan at Bayview Medical (🏥) has:

• Overview page: department summary cards
• Department Detail page: with a drillthrough filter on Department

When someone right-clicks “Cardiology” on the overview, they jump to the detail page showing only Cardiology data.

How to set up:

1. Create the detail page
2. Add the drillthrough field to the Drillthrough filter well on that page
3. Power BI automatically adds a “Back” button

Drillthrough with buttons

Instead of right-click, you can create a button that triggers drillthrough:

1. Insert a button on the source page
2. Set its Action to Drillthrough → select the target page
3. The button becomes active when a data point is selected

Navigation buttons

Power BI supports several button action types:

Action	What It Does
Bookmark	Navigates to a saved bookmark state
Drillthrough	Navigates to a drillthrough page with context
Page navigation	Jumps to a specific page
Back	Returns to the previous page
Q&A	Opens the Q&A visual for natural language questions
Web URL	Opens an external link

Kenji at Apex Manufacturing (🏭) builds a report with a custom navigation bar — buttons for each page (Production, Quality, Supply Chain) instead of using Power BI’s default page tabs. This creates a cleaner, more professional navigation experience.

Selection pane for visual management

The Selection pane (View → Selection pane) is essential for bookmark-based interfaces:

• Eye icon: Toggle visibility of each visual — hidden visuals can be revealed by bookmarks
• Layer order: Drag visuals up/down to control which appears in front
• Grouping: Select multiple visuals → Group — manage as a unit
• Rename: Give visuals meaningful names (instead of “Chart 1”, “Chart 2”)

Knowledge check

Question

What does a bookmark capture?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

A snapshot of page state: visual visibility (Display), filter/slicer state (Data), and optionally limited to current page only. Used with buttons to create interactive interfaces.

Click to flip back

Question

How do you create a custom tooltip?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Create a new page, enable 'Allow use as tooltip' in Page information, design it at tooltip size, then assign it to a visual's tooltip property (Format → Tooltip → Report page).

Click to flip back

Question

What does drillthrough require on the target page?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

A drillthrough filter field in the Drillthrough well. When users right-click a data point matching that field, they navigate to the page pre-filtered to that value.

Click to flip back

Knowledge Check

Riley wants to create two toggle views on her report — Overview and Detail — using the same report page. What combination should she use?

ATwo report pages with page navigation buttonsBTwo bookmarks with visibility settings (Selection pane) and buttons to switch between themCDrillthrough from overview to detailDTwo custom tooltips

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

Dr. Ethan wants users to right-click a department on the overview page and see detailed metrics on a separate page. What feature should he use?

ABookmarksBCustom tooltipsCDrillthroughDSync slicers

Check Answer

🎬 Video coming soon

Next up: Copilot in Power BI Reports — use AI to create narrative visuals and report pages.