How to Add Tooltip in Table in Power BI

Adding tooltips to your Power BI tables is a simple way to elevate your reports from static data dumps to interactive analysis tools. A well-placed tooltip can provide instant context and deeper insights without cluttering your main dashboard. This guide will walk you through the process, covering both the simple default tooltips and the more powerful custom report page tooltips.

First, Why Should You Use Tooltips in Your Tables?

Before getting into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." A tooltip is the small pop-up window that appears when you hover your mouse over a data point or element in a report. In Power BI tables and matrices, they serve a few important purposes:

• Provide Extra Context: They allow you to show supplementary information without jamming more columns into an already crowded table. A user can see sales by month in the table, and hovering over a specific month could reveal the top-performing product or region for that period.
• Improve User Experience: Instead of making users navigate to another page or filter a different visual to get more details, tooltips bring the answers directly to them. This creates a smoother, more intuitive experience.
• Answer Follow-up Questions Instantly: Good dashboards anticipate the next question. If your table shows transaction counts, a tooltip can instantly answer questions like "What was the average order value?" for that entry.

Essentially, tooltips help you tell a more complete story with your data, transforming a flat table into a dynamic layer of information.

Method 1: Using Power BI’s Default Tooltips

The fastest way to add more information is by using the default tooltip feature. This method involves simply dragging fields into a dedicated space in the Visualizations pane. It’s perfect for showing a few additional raw numbers or categories.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Let’s imagine you have a simple table showing monthly sales revenue. You want to see the total units sold and the total profit for each month when you hover over the revenue figure.

1. Select Your Table or Matrix: Click on the table visual on your report canvas to activate it. You’ll see the Visualizations pane update to show the fields used in that table.
2. Locate the Tooltips Field Well: In the Visualizations pane, underneath the fields for "Columns" or "Values," you’ll see an area labeled “Tooltips.”
3. Drag and Drop Your Fields: From your data in the "Data" pane, find the fields you want to show in the tooltip. In our example, you would click, drag, and drop the Units Sold and Total Profit fields into the "Tooltips" box.

That’s it! Now, when you return to your report and hover over any row in your table, a default tooltip will appear showing the units sold and total profit associated with that specific month. Power BI automatically filters the tooltip data based on the row you’re hovering over.

Best For:

Default tooltips are ideal for quick, simple additions. Use them when you just need to display a few extra numeric values or text fields and don't need any special formatting or charts.

Method 2: Creating a Custom Report Page Tooltip

While default tooltips are useful, custom report page tooltips allow you to create a rich, insightful user experience. This method lets you design an entirely new, small report page that acts as your tooltip. You can add charts, cards, images, and formatted text - whatever you need to provide the best context.

This process has three main stages: creating the tooltip page, adding visuals to it, and then linking it to your main table.

Stage 1: Create and Configure the Tooltip Page

First, we need to build the mini-page that will serve as our tooltip.

1. Create a New Page: At the bottom of your Power BI window, click the '+' icon to add a new page to your report.
2. Name the Page: Right-click the new page tab and rename it to something descriptive, like Sales Detail Tooltip. For a better user experience, consider hiding this page when you publish your report by right-clicking the page name and selecting "Hide Page."
3. Enable the Tooltip Setting: With nothing selected on the new page, go to the Visualizations pane and click the "Format your report page" icon. Expand the "Page information" section and toggle the "Allow use as tooltip" switch to On. This is the most important step, it tells Power BI this page can be used as a tooltip.
4. Adjust the Canvas Size: Under the "Format page" menu, go to the "Canvas settings" section. In the "Type" dropdown, change it from the default "16:9" to "Tooltip". You'll see the report canvas shrink down to a small rectangle, which is the perfect size for a pop-up window.
5. Tweak Your View: (Optional but very helpful): The small canvas can be hard to design on. To see it clearly, go to the "View" tab in the main Power BI ribbon, click "Page view", and select "Actual size." This will zoom in on your little tooltip canvas so you can work effectively.

Stage 2: Add Visuals and Data to Your Tooltip Page

Now that you have your canvas, you can add any Power BI visuals you want, just like a regular report page. The data fields you add here will be automatically filtered by whatever row the user is hovering over in the main table.

Continuing our monthly sales example, let's say you want the tooltip to show a donut chart of sales by product category and a card visual displaying the top-performing sales region for that month.

1. Drag in a Data Field: Drag the key fields from your data source that your tooltip describes onto the page. Let Power BI auto-create a chart for you. In the Visualizations pane, build the visual. You can add as many as you need while maintaining clarity. Make size adjustments so that you can fit two visuals easily.
2. Add a Card Visual: Release the mouse to add card visuals. For instance, using sales data, you could highlight the top-performing sales region. Format the visuals appropriately, ensuring labels are clear.
3. Remember the Context for Your User: Add visuals where they improve context for analysis.
4. Fine-tune and Clean Up: Adjust colors and styles to match the main chart for a cohesive look. Keep titles short to focus on data insights.

Stage 3: Connect the Tooltip to Your Main Table

Finally, link everything up.

1. Select Your Visualization: Head to your main report page and select the table or matrix visual.
2. Open Visualizations Pane: From the Visualizations icon pane, click on "Format" for the visuals.
3. Adjust Tooltip Settings: Expand the "General" section and click on "Tooltips."
4. Change from Default to Report Page: In the type dropdown, change from "Default" to "Report Page." Then select your tooltip page from the dropdown. Save your changes.

Best Practices for Effective Tooltips

• Don’t overwhelm users, show only key stats.
• Use a simple and uncluttered layout. A compact chart beside two card-like visuals reads more clearly.
• Ensure the data provides added insight, not just repetition. Tooltips should clarify context.

Final Thoughts

Tooltips in Power BI transform your reports into interactive, insightful analysis tools. By integrating custom report page tooltips, you create dynamic presentations of your data, enhancing communication of business details. Streamlined insight offers efficiency through context awareness. Power BI, with its robust platform, empowers users to develop comprehensive, meaningful reports.