How to Add Export Button in Power BI

Building a Power BI report is one thing, but making it truly useful for your team is another. Often, your colleagues don't just want to see dashboards, they want to grab the underlying data and play with it in Excel, use it in a presentation, or combine it with other numbers. This article will show you exactly how to add user-friendly export buttons to your Power BI reports, turning them from static visuals into interactive data tools your team will actually love to use.

Why Bother Adding an Export Button?

You might be thinking, "Can't users just click the three dots on a visual and export from there?" And you're right, they can. But a dedicated export button enhances the user experience significantly for a few key reasons:

• It’s Intuitive: A clear button that says "Export to Excel" or "Download Data" is far more discoverable and straightforward than knowing to hover over a visual, find the ellipses (...) menu, and navigate the export options.
• It Empowers Users: It gives your report users the confidence to pull the data they need on their own, whenever they need it. This reduces the number of "Can you just send me the data for this?" emails that land in your inbox.
• You Control the Data: By setting up a dedicated export, you control exactly which columns and data points are exported. This ensures consistency and prevents users from pulling incorrect or incomplete information.

In short, it’s a simple feature that makes your reports more professional, functional, and less demanding on your time for ad-hoc requests.

Method 1: The Simple Bookmark Button for CSV/Excel Exports

This is the most common and straightforward method. The strategy is to create a dedicated page in your report formatted as a data table. You then use a button on your main dashboard page to navigate users to this pre-formatted table, where they can easily export the data to a CSV or XLSX file.

Step 1: Create a Dedicated "Export" Page

First, you need a place for your detailed data table to live. This page won't be part of your main report navigation, it’s a hidden utility page.

1. Click the '+' icon in the bottom page navigation bar to add a new page.
2. Right-click on the new page tab and select "Rename." Name it something logical like "Data Export Page" or "Excel Export."
3. Right-click the page tab again and select "Hide Page." This prevents users from navigating to it directly, ensuring they can only access it via your new button.

You now have a hidden page ready for your data table.

Step 2: Add and Configure a Table Visual

On your new hidden page, you'll place a single table visual that contains all the fields you want to make available for export.

1. On the "Data Export Page," select the "Table" visual from the Visualizations pane.
2. Drag all the relevant fields from your data pane into the "Columns" well of the table visual. This should include everything your users would want to see in their Excel file - every dimension, metric, ID, and descriptive field. Don't worry about summarizations for now, the goal is to provide the raw, underlying data.
3. Add a simple text box or card visual at the top of the page with instructions for the user, such as: "To export this data, click the (...) in the top-right corner of the table below and select 'Export data'." This small step is crucial for user guidance.

Step 3: Create a Bookmark to Your Export Page

A bookmark in Power BI captures the state of a report page. We'll use a bookmark to "remember" the view of our hidden export page so the button knows where to navigate.

1. Navigate to the "View" tab on the Power BI ribbon and click "Bookmarks" to open the Bookmarks pane.
2. With your "Data Export Page" currently visible, click "Add" in the Bookmarks pane. A new bookmark will appear.
3. Rename this bookmark to something clear, like "Navigate to Export Page."
4. This next step is critical: Click the ellipses (...) next to your new bookmark and uncheck the "Data" option. By unchecking "Data," you ensure that the bookmark only captures the page navigation, not the current filter/slicer state. This means when a user clicks the button, their filter selections from the main page will carry over to the data table, and they'll export only the data they've filtered for.

Step 4: Add and Link Your Button

Now, let’s go back to your main report page and add the button that will bring this all together.

1. Navigate back to your primary dashboard or report page.
2. Go to the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Buttons," and select "Blank." A blank button will appear on your report canvas.
3. Select the new button. In the "Format button" pane on the right, expand the "Style" (or "Shape" and "Text") section.
4. Under "Text," toggle it on and type in your desired call to action, like "Export Filtered Data" or "Download as CSV." You can also style the button's color, add an icon, and change the font.
5. With the button still selected, go to the "Action" section in the format pane.
6. Toggle the "Action" on. Set the "Type" to Bookmark.
7. In the "Bookmark" dropdown that appears, select the "Navigate to Export Page" bookmark you created in the previous step.

That's it! Now, when a user (or you) clicks that button, Power BI will instantly navigate them to the hidden page containing the detailed table. From there, they just follow your on-screen instructions to click the ellipses and export the data. They can then click on another page tab to return to the interactive report.

Method 2: One-Click PDF/PowerPoint Exports with Power Automate

What if your users don't want a CSV? What if they want a clean, pixel-perfect PDF or a PowerPoint slide of your report? For this, we'll use the Power Automate visual, which provides a true one-click export experience directly from your report.

Prerequisites: You'll need a Power BI Pro license, and your organization needs to have Power Automate enabled.

Step 1: Add the Power Automate Visual to Your Report

Power Automate now has its own visual inside Power BI, making integration simple.

1. In the Visualizations pane, click the ellipses (...) and select "Get more visuals."
2. Search for "Power Automate" and click "Add" to add it to your visualizations pane.
3. Once added, click the Power Automate icon to add the visual to your report canvas.

Step 2: Configure the Power Automate Flow

With the Power Automate visual selected on your canvas, a setup window will appear. This is where you'll build the mini-automation that handles the export.

1. In the Power Automate window, click "New," then select "Instant cloud flow." This creates a new flow that is triggered manually by a button click.
2. The trigger, "Power BI button clicked," is already there. Click "+ New step."
3. Search for "Power BI" in the action search bar and select the action named "Export To File for Power BI Reports."
4. Now, configure the export action:
5. Next, you need to decide what to do with the exported file. The easiest option is to email it to the user who clicked the button.
6. Click "Save" at the top of the flow editor, then click the back arrow to return to your Power BI report.

Step 3: Finalize and Test Your Button

Back in Power BI, you'll see that the visual now contains a button. Apply the flow by clicking the ellipses on the visual and selecting "Apply". You can format this button just like any other.

• Select the visual and go to the "Format" pane.
• Under "Button Text," change the default text to something like "Export to PDF" or "Email Report."
• Now, test it! Hold Ctrl and click the button in Power BI Desktop (or just click it after publishing to Power BI Service). Within a minute or two, you should receive an email with your perfectly formatted PDF or PowerPoint file attached.

Final Thoughts

Adding export buttons to your Power BI reports is a small investment of time that pays huge dividends in user satisfaction and self-sufficiency. Whether you use the simple bookmark method to give users quick access to raw data in CSVs or the more advanced Power Automate method for polished PDF or PowerPoint exports, you're making your data more accessible and actionable for your whole team.

Ultimately, these buttons bridge the gap between viewing a dashboard and taking action on its insights. At Graphed, we’re obsessed with eliminating those gaps entirely. That’s why we built a tool that lets your team get straight to the insights by asking questions in plain English. Instead of exporting data to answer follow-up questions, imagine just asking, "Which campaigns had the best ROI last month?" and getting an instant, shareable dashboard. It’s the next evolution of making data truly accessible to everyone, not just the people who know how to build the reports.