How to Add Information Button in Power BI

Adding a button to a Power BI report sounds simple, but it can completely change how your audience interacts with your data. A well-placed information button, often marked with an "i" or "?", provides definitions, instructions, and context right where users need it most. This article will show you exactly how to add helpful information buttons to your Power BI reports using two effective methods.

Why Bother with an Information Button?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Power BI dashboards are often packed with charts, metrics, and filters. For a new viewer, this can be overwhelming. They might not know how you define a "Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)" or what a specific KPI like "Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)" really means.

An information button solves this by offering on-demand help without cluttering your report. It helps you:

• Improve User Experience (UX): Instead of receiving questions via email, you provide answers directly within the report.
• Reduce Clutter: Definitions and detailed explanations are hidden until needed, keeping your dashboard clean and focused.
• Increase Adoption: When users feel confident navigating and understanding a report, they're more likely to use it to make decisions.

There are two primary ways to create these handy buttons: the pop-up window method using bookmarks and a simpler tooltip method. We'll walk through both.

Method 1: The 'Pop-Up' Experience with Bookmarks

This is the most common and flexible method. It involves creating a hidable "pop-up" group of visuals that appears when the user clicks your information button. This approach is perfect for providing detailed explanations, images, or even step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Design Your Information Pop-Up Window

First, you need to build the content that will appear in your pop-up. This isn't a true pop-up window but a collection of visuals on your report canvas that we will show and hide.

1. Go to the Insert tab in the ribbon. Click on Shapes and select a Rectangle. This will be the background of your info panel.
2. Drag the rectangle onto your report canvas and resize it. A good practice is to make it slightly smaller than your whole canvas.
3. In the Format shape pane, change the color and transparency. A semi-transparent dark grey or blue overlay helps focus the user's attention by dimming the underlying report.
4. Insert a Text Box on top of this rectangle. Write the detailed information you want to share. Format the text for readability (size, font, color).
5. Add a "close" button. Go to Insert > Buttons > Back, or insert a simple image of an "X" icon. Place this button in a corner of your pop-up, making it obvious how a user can close the window.

Step 2: Group the Pop-Up Elements and Use the Selection Pane

The key to making this trick work is managing the visibility of your pop-up elements together. The Selection Pane is essential here.

1. Go to the View tab and check the box for Selection. This will open the Selection pane, which lists every visual element on your page.
2. Find the new visuals you just created (the rectangle, text box, and close button). It's helpful to rename them something descriptive like "Info Popup Background," "Info Text," and "Info Close Button."
3. Select all these elements by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each one in the Selection pane.
4. Right-click on the selected items and choose Group > Group. Power BI will create "Group 1". Rename this group to something clear like "Info Pop-Up Group." Now you can show or hide all these elements with a single click in the Selection pane.

Step 3: Create Your Bookmarks

Bookmarks in Power BI capture the state of a report page — including which visuals are visible. We'll create two bookmarks: one to show the pop-up and one to hide it.

1. First, make the info pop-up visible. In the Selection pane, click the little eye icon next to your "Info Pop-Up Group" so that all its elements are visible on the canvas.
2. Go to the View tab and check the box for Bookmarks.
3. In the Bookmarks pane, click Add. A new bookmark will appear. Rename it to "Show Info".
4. Important: Click the three dots (...) next to your "Show Info" bookmark and make sure Data is unchecked. This prevents the bookmark from messing with your users' filter selections when they click the button. You want to preserve their data state and just toggle the visibility.
5. Now, hide the pop-up. In the Selection pane, click the eye icon again to hide your "Info Pop-Up Group."
6. In the Bookmarks pane, click Add again. Rename this new bookmark to "Hide Info." Again, click the three dots and uncheck Data.

You can test this by clicking the names of your two bookmarks. Clicking "Show Info" should make the pop-up appear, and clicking "Hide Info" should make it disappear.

Step 4: Create and Configure the Main Information Button

Finally, we link everything to the buttons on the canvas.

1. Find a suitable spot on your main report page for the information button. Go to Insert > Buttons and choose the Help button type (the one with the "?").
2. Select this newly added Help button. In the Format pane, find the Action section and toggle it On.
3. Set the Type to Bookmark.
4. In the Bookmark dropdown, select your "Show Info" bookmark.
5. Next, select the "Close" button that's part of your pop-up group. (You may need to make the group visible again to do this).
6. With the "Close" button selected, go to its Action settings.
7. Set the Type to Bookmark and select the "Hide Info" bookmark.
8. Hide your "Info Pop-Up Group" in the Selection pane one last time before saving so that the default view of your report is clean.

To test it out in Power BI desktop, hold down Ctrl and click your Help button. The pop-up should appear. Then Ctrl-click the close button, and it should vanish.

Method 2: Using the Built-In 'Tooltip' Feature

If you only need to show a small amount of information and don't require a full-screen overlay, the tooltip method is faster and simpler.

Step 1: Create a Dedicated Tooltip Page

A tooltip is a small window that appears when you hover over a visual. Power BI lets you design a custom report page to act as a tooltip.

1. Create a new page in your report. Give it a descriptive name like "Definitions Tooltip".
2. With nothing selected on the canvas, go to the Format page pane.
3. Expand the Page information section and toggle Allow use as tooltip to On.
4. Next, go to Canvas settings. Change the Type from '16:9' to Tooltip. Power BI will automatically create a small canvas perfect for a tooltip.

Step 2: Design Your Tooltip

Now, add whatever content you need to this small tooltip page. You can add a Text Box with definitions, Cards to spotlight a single number, or even a small chart for extra context.

Step 3: Link the Tooltip to Your Information Button

1. Go back to your main report page.
2. Insert a Help button just like in the previous method (Insert > Buttons > Help).
3. Select the button. In the Format pane, go to the Action settings and toggle it On. This step is still important, though we won't actually be creating a click action. Toggling the action on enables the tooltip feature with more reliability.
4. Still in the Format pane for the button, go to General and expand the Tooltip section.
5. Change the Type to Report page.
6. Under Page, select the tooltip page you just created ("Definitions Tooltip").

That's it! Now, when you publish your report, users can simply hover their mouse over the information button, and your custom tooltip page will pop up automatically. This is an incredibly quick way to add helpful context.

Best Practices for Info Buttons

• Keep It Focused: Whether using a pop-up or a tooltip, focus on providing just the essential information needed. Avoid cluttering your info panel.
• Placement is Key: Place the button near the chart or area it's explaining. A general-purpose info button can live in the header. A button explaining a specific visual should be right next to it.
• Maintain Consistency: Use the same icon or style for your information buttons across your entire report for a consistent user experience.
• Don't Be Afraid to Blend: The best info buttons don't scream for attention. Use subtle formatting and place them intuitively, so they are there when needed but don't distract a user who already knows the content.

Final Thoughts

Information buttons are a small but powerful feature in Power BI. They allow you to add layers of optional detail to your reports, making them more approachable for new users and more insightful for experienced ones without sacrificing a clean design. By mastering the bookmark and tooltip methods, you can significantly elevate the quality and usability of your data dashboards.

While Power BI provides amazing control for custom interactions, we know that the setup time for these features can add up. Sometimes you just need to get quick answers from your data without a lengthy process. Using a tool like Graphed allows you to connect data sources like Shopify or Google Ads and just ask questions in plain English - "compare ad spend vs. revenue by campaign for the last 30 days" - to instantly build the dashboard you need. We created it to handle the manual, repetitive parts of reporting, giving you more time to act on your data.