Graphed LogoGraphed
Graphed LogoGraphed
How It WorksAgentsIntegrationsPricing

How to Hide Page Navigation in Power BI

Cody Schneider••8 min read

Hiding the default page navigation in Power BI is one of the quickest ways to transform your report from a simple collection of charts into a professional, focused analytics application. Instead of letting users randomly click through tabs, you can guide them through your data story, making insights easier to uncover. This article will show you exactly how to hide the default page pane and build a clean, custom navigation experience using buttons and bookmarks.

GraphedGraphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Watch Graphed demo video

Why Should You Hide the Page Navigation in Power BI?

While the default page tabs at the bottom of a Power BI report are functional, they’re not always ideal for a polished user experience. Leaving them visible is like building a custom website and leaving the default server directory file list visible. It works, but it breaks the illusion and can create confusion. Hiding them gives you several key advantages.

  • Create a Guided Analytical Path: You get to control how your audience consumes the report. You can lead them from a high-level summary to more granular details in a logical order, rather than letting them jump to the conclusion or get lost on a page that requires prior context.
  • Simplify the User Interface: Too many page tabs can feel cluttered and overwhelming, especially for executives or clients who are less familiar with the data. A clean interface with simple, clear buttons ('View Sales', 'Analyze Marketing', etc.) reduces cognitive load and makes the report feel immediately more approachable.
  • Deliver an "App-like" Experience: Custom navigation makes your report feel less like a BI report and more like a purpose-built web application. This professional touch elevates the perceived value of your work and improves user adoption.
  • Conceal "Helper" or "Work-in-Progress" Pages: Most complex reports have pages used for calculations, data validation, or reference that aren't meant for the end-user. Maybe you have a drill-through target page that should only be accessed from a specific chart. Hiding these pages from the main navigation ensures users don't land on them by accident and get confused.

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

The Right Way: Hiding Pages for Your End-Users

Many beginners try to hide page navigation from the View tab in Power BI Desktop. While this works for your personal view, it does not hide the pages once the report is published to the Power BI Service. The real goal is to hide the page tabs that appear at the bottom of the report when your colleagues or clients view it in their browser.

The process is straightforward and is done on a page-by-page basis. Once you hide all but your main landing page, the navigation pane disappears for good, leaving a clean canvas for your custom system.

Here’s how to do it in Power BI Desktop:

  1. Locate Your Page Tabs: At the bottom of the Power BI Desktop window, find the tabs for each page in your report.
  2. Right-Click the Page to Hide: Right-click on the tab of a page you want to remove from the main navigation. Let's say you have a detailed drill-through page named "Detailed Sales Data."
  3. Select "Hide page": From the context menu, simply click Hide page.

You’ll immediately see an icon that looks like an eye with a slash through it next to the page name. This indicates that the page is now hidden from viewers in both Power BI Desktop's Reading View and, most importantly, in the Power BI Service.

Repeat this process for every page you want to remove from the visible navigation. Typically, you might leave just a single "Home" or "Overview" page visible and hide all the others that will be accessed via your new custom buttons.

It’s important to understand that a hidden page is not deleted or inaccessible. It's just hidden from the primary navigation rail. You can still access these pages through custom navigation you build with buttons, links, or drill-through actions - which is exactly what we lean on for the next step.

GraphedGraphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Watch Graphed demo video

Building a Better Experience: Creating Custom Navigation

Now that you’ve cleared away the default clutter, it’s time to build a more intuitive navigation system. This usually involves creating a navigation bar on the top or left side of your report. The basic workflow involves three key components: Bookmarks (to "save" the destination), Buttons (the thing to click), and Actions (to connect them).

Step 1: Create Bookmarks for Each Destination

A bookmark in Power BI captures the state of a report page. For navigation, we use them to save a simple "view" of the destination page we want our buttons to link to. Think of it as creating a saved link or a favorite that you can point to later.

  1. Go to the page you want to create a link to. For example, navigate to your "Sales Performance" page.
  2. Go to the View tab in the Power BI ribbon at the top.
  3. Click on Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks pane (it will appear on the right side of your screen).
  4. Click the Add button in the Bookmarks pane. A new bookmark with a generic name like "Bookmark 1" will appear.
  5. Rename it immediately to something logical and clear. Double-click the name and change it to something like "Navigate to Sales Page". Being descriptive here will save you a headache later when you have a dozen bookmarks.
  6. Repeat this for every hidden page you want to be able to navigate to. Go to each page, add a bookmark, and give it a descriptive name.

Step 2: Design Your Navigation Buttons

Next, you'll need to create the clickable elements that users will interact with. You can use icons, shapes, or pre-built buttons.

  1. Go to the page where you want to add the navigation menu (like your "Home" page).
  2. Go to the Insert tab in the ribbon.
  3. Click Buttons and select a type. The Blank button is incredibly versatile and a popular choice because you can fully customize it with text, icons, and colors.
  4. Place the button on your report canvas, perhaps in a header at the top or a sidebar on the left.
  5. Select the new button. In the Format pane on the right, you can customize everything. Under the Style (or Shape) dropdown, add your button text (e.g., "Sales Performance"). You can also change the colors for the default state, on-hover state, and on-press state to make the button feel more interactive.

Create a button for each bookmark you created in the previous step.

Step 3: Connect Buttons to Bookmarks with Actions

This is where you bring it all together. You’ll tell Power BI that when a user clicks a specific button, it should activate the corresponding bookmark, taking them to the desired page.

  1. Select the button you want to configure (e.g., your newly created "Sales Performance" button).
  2. In the Format pane, find the Action control and toggle it On.
  3. Expand the Action settings. For Type, select Bookmark from the dropdown list.
  4. For Bookmark, choose the relevant bookmark you created earlier (e.g., "Navigate to Sales Page").
  5. In the Tooltip input box, add a helpful description like "Click to view the Sales Performance Dashboard". This text will appear when a user hovers over the button, improving usability.

Now, test it out! Hold down the Ctrl key and click your button in Power BI Desktop. It should instantly navigate you to the Sales Performance page. Repeat this process for all your navigation buttons, linking each one to its specific bookmark.

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Best Practices for Custom Power BI Navigation

Technically, you're done. But follow these tips to make your custom navigation system truly professional and user-friendly.

  • Build a Consistent Navigation Bar: Create your navigation design on one page (a header block, a stack of buttons, etc.). Once you're happy with it, select all the elements, group them together (right-click > Group > Group), and then copy-paste the group onto every other page in your report. A consistent location for controls is a fundamental principle of good user experience.
  • Use Visual Cues for the Active Page: Give users a clear sign of where they are. You can do this by having the button for the current page be a different color. A simple way to achieve this is to have two versions of a button - one "active" and one "default" - and use bookmarks to hide/show the appropriate one on each page.
  • Start with a Home Page: Designate one page as your report landing page or an executive summary. This page should have your primary navigation hub, allowing users to branch out into the areas that are most relevant to them.
  • Test, Test, and Test Again: Before publishing, click every single button from every single page. Ensure links aren't broken, bookmarks point to the right places, and the user experience is smooth and logical. It's an easy step to forget but catches nearly all the small errors.

Final Thoughts

By hiding Power BI’s default page tabs and creating your own custom navigation, you take control of the user's journey and transform a functional report into a sleek, targeted business application. It guides your audience to the most important insights and removes unnecessary complexity, making your work more impactful and professional.

While mastering Power BI is a valuable skill, teams often need fast answers without a steep learning curve. We created Graphed because we believe getting insights shouldn’t require hours of report building. Instead of navigating complex formatting panes and settings, you can connect your data and just ask a question in plain English, like "Create a dashboard showing our marketing ROI by channel," and our AI builds a real-time, interactive dashboard for you in seconds.

Related Articles