How to Add Heading in Power BI

Adding clear and descriptive headings to your Power BI reports is one of the simplest ways to make them more professional and easier for your audience to understand. Well-placed titles turn a grid of visuals into a coherent data story that guides users to the right insights. This article will walk you through several methods for adding headings in Power BI, from basic visual titles to dynamic headings that update automatically based on user selections.

Why Good Headings are a Game-Changer

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Headings are not just for decoration, they serve a critical function in any report or dashboard. They provide context, create a clear visual hierarchy, and make your reports scannable. A user should be able to glance at your report and immediately understand what each chart represents and what the overall page is about. Skipping this step is the difference between a confusing collection of charts and a powerful, insightful dashboard.

Method 1: The Quick Win - Adding a Title to an Individual Visual

The most common and straightforward way to add a heading is by using the built-in title feature on a visual. Every chart, table, and card in Power BI has a dedicated title property you can enable and customize.

Follow these steps:

1. Select Your Visual: Click on the chart or visual you want to add a title to. This will activate the "Visualizations" and "Data" panes on the right-hand side of the screen.
2. Go to the Formatting Pane: In the "Visualizations" pane, click on the icon that looks like a paintbrush. This is the "Format your visual" section.
3. Enable the Title: Click on the "General" tab within this section. You'll see several options, one of them is "Title." Toggle the switch next to it to "On."
4. Customize the Title Text: A text box will appear under the toggle. Type your desired heading here. For example, "Total Sales by Product Category" or "Website Sessions Over Time."

Once you've added the text, you can expand the "Title" section to see a range of formatting options:

• Text: Change the font family, font size, and color. You can also make it bold, italic, or underlined.
• Heading: Some visuals allow you to change the heading level (H1, H2, etc.) for accessibility purposes.
• Background color: Apply a background color specifically to the title area to make it stand out.
• Horizontal alignment: Align your title to the left, center, or right of the visual.
• Text wrapping: If you have a long title, enable this to let it wrap onto a second line instead of being cut off.

Pro Tip: Be consistent with your visual title formatting across the entire report. Use the same font size and style for similar charts to give your report a clean, unified look.

Method 2: Creating a Main Report Header with a Text Box

While visual titles are essential, you also need a main heading for the entire report page. The best tool for this job is the versatile Text Box. This lets you create a standalone header that isn't tied to any specific visual.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to the Insert tab on the top ribbon of Power BI Desktop.
2. In the "Elements" section, click on Text Box.
3. A new text box will appear on your report canvas. Click inside it and type your main report title, such as "Q3 Marketing Performance Dashboard" or "Annual Sales Review."
4. Highlight the text to access the formatting options. You can adjust the font, size, color, and alignment just like you would in a word processor. Make this title larger and bolder than your individual chart titles to establish a clear hierarchy.
5. Click and drag the handles on the text box to resize it, and click and drag the box itself to position it, usually at the top-center or top-left of your report page.

Taking it a Step Further with Shapes

To create a defined header section, you can pair a text box with a shape. Go to the Insert > Shapes menu and select a Rectangle. Draw the rectangle across the top of your report page, adjust its color to match your brand, and then place your text box on top of it. This simple design trick creates a clean, dedicated header area that neatly frames your report.

Method 3: Go Dynamic with DAX Measures for Titles

This is where Power BI's real power begins to shine. What if you want your chart title to change based on a user's selection in a slicer? For example, if a user filters the report for "USA," you might want a chart title to automatically update from "Global sales" to "USA Sales." This is called a dynamic title, and you can create one using DAX (Data Analysis Expressions).

This adds incredible context for your users and makes the report feel more interactive and responsive.

Creating a Dynamic Title Step-by-Step

Let's create a title that displays the year selected in a slicer.

1. Create the DAX Measure

A DAX measure is a formula that calculates a result. In this case, our measure will calculate the text we want to display for our title.

• In the Home tab of the ribbon, click New Measure.
• A formula bar will appear. Here, you'll enter your DAX expression. Let's create one that shows which year is selected from a slicer connected to a 'Calendar'[Year] field.
• Enter the following formula:

Dynamic Title - Year = 
"Sales Performance for " & SELECTEDVALUE('Calendar'[Year], "All Years")

Let's break down this formula:

• "Sales Performance for " is a static piece of text that will always appear. The & symbol is used to join text strings together.
• SELECTEDVALUE('Calendar'[Year], "All Years") is the dynamic part. It checks if a single year has been selected from the 'Calendar'[Year] field. If it has, it returns that value (e.g., "2023"). If multiple years or no years are selected, it returns the alternative text, "All Years".

2. Link the Measure to Your Visual's Title

Now, you just need to tell your visual to use this measure for its title instead of static text.

1. Select the visual you want to have a dynamic title.
2. Go back to the Format your visual > General > Title section.
3. Hover over the "Text" field, and you'll see a small fx (Conditional formatting) button. Click it.
4. A new window titled "Text - Title" will pop up. For "Format style," select Field value.
5. Under "What field should we base this on?," click the dropdown, find your new measure (e.g., "Dynamic Title - Year"), and select it.
6. Click OK.

That's it! Now, when a user clicks a year in your slicer, the title of that visual will instantly update to reflect their selection. This technique can be used with almost any field, allowing for titles that respond to product categories, regions, customer segments, and more.

Best Practices for Report Headings

Now that you know how to add headings, keep these principles in mind to ensure they are effective:

• Be Clear and Concise: A heading should accurately describe the visual without being overly wordy. "Revenue vs. Target" is better than "A Chart Showing How Our Revenue Compares to Our Targets for The Period."
• Maintain a Hierarchy: Your main report title should be the most prominent. All your individual chart titles should follow a consistent format that makes them appear secondary.
• Think About Your Audience: Use language and acronyms that your end-users will understand. Avoid technical jargon unless the report is for a technical audience.

Final Thoughts

Creating clear and informative headings is a fundamental skill for building effective Power BI reports. By mastering basic titles, page headers with text boxes, and advanced dynamic titles with DAX, you can dramatically improve the user experience and ensure your insights are understood exactly as intended.

Learning the intricacies of different business intelligence tools like Power BI can be time-consuming. While these customizations are powerful, they often involve manual clicks, formatting, and formula writing before you even get to the analysis. At Graphed, we automate this entire process. Instead of building charts and setting up dynamic titles manually, you can just ask a question like, "Show me our sales by year, broken down by country" and have a fully interactive dashboard built for you in seconds, complete with properly labeled charts and live data connections.