How to Make Buttons in Power BI

Power BI buttons can transform a static report into a dynamic, app-like experience for your users. Instead of just presenting data, you can guide them through a narrative, let them explore different views, and drill down into details with a simple click. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create, customize, and configure buttons in your own Power BI reports.

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What Are Power BI Buttons and Why Should You Use Them?

In Power BI, a button is an interactive object you can add to your report canvas. When a user clicks it, it triggers a specific action that you’ve preset. Think of them as the control panel for your dashboard.

So, why bother adding them? Buttons drastically improve the user experience (UX) of your reports. They help you:

• Create Guided Navigation: Instead of relying on users to find the correct tabs at the bottom of the page, you can create a clear menu with buttons like "View Summary," "See Regional Breakdown," or "Go to Sales Details."
• Control Report Interactivity: You can use buttons to toggle visuals, switch between metrics on a chart, apply complex filter presets, or launch a Q&A window for users to explore the data themselves.
• Provide Context: A button can link out to a web page with documentation, a detailed data dictionary, or your company’s homepage.
• Build a Professional “App” Vibe: Well-designed buttons make a report feel less like a cluster of charts and more like a polished, purpose-built application designed for the end-user.

Getting Started: How to Add a Button to Your Report

Placing a button onto your report canvas is the easy part. Power BI gives you several pre-built options, but the real power comes from the blank one which you can fully customize.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Navigate to the Insert tab in the Power BI Desktop ribbon.
2. Click the dropdown arrow on the Buttons option.
3. From the list, select Blank. This gives you a clean slate to work with. (You can also choose pre-configured buttons like "Back" or "Q&A" that have default icons and actions.)

A simple rectangular shape will appear on your report canvas. You can click and drag to move it around and use the corner handles to resize it, just like any other visual element.

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Customizing Your Button’s Appearance

An unformatted button doesn't look like much. The magic happens in the Format pane, where you can modify everything about its appearance, from its shape and color to the text it displays.

First, click on the button on your canvas to select it. Then, find the Format pane on the right-hand side of your Power BI Desktop window (it has a paintbrush icon). Let's go through the key tabs to design your perfect button.

Understanding Button States

Before anything else, notice a new tab near format visuals, Apply to State. This special field shows as a dropdown: Default, On hover, On press, or optionally a grayed out, Disabled. This feature creates dynamic visual feedback for the user:

• Default: How the button looks normally.
• On hover: How the button changes when a user's mouse hovers over it.
• On press: How the button changes during the moment a user clicks it.
• Disabled: How the button appears when its action isn't available (this is often handled automatically, like with drill-through actions).

For example, you can set the button to have a light gray fill in its "Default" state, and a slightly darker gray fill in its "On hover" state. This gives users a clear signal that the object is clickable and responsive.

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Shape, Style, and Text

Shape

In the Shape dropdown within the Shape tab, you can change the button from a basic Rectangle to a Rounded Rectangle, Snipped Tab, or other variations. For modern dashboards, the "Rounded Rectangle" is a fantastic standard!

Style

This is where you'll spend most of your time customizing your buttons! The Style tab with its multiple formatting drawers lets you totally personalize its aesthetic.

• Text: Type what you want the button to say directly in the Text drawer's text box, like "View Sales" or "Reset Filters." Use the apply to state machine to customize a unique look for all of your button states! You can adjust every normal styling property including: font type, font size, bolding, underline, strikethrough, color, transparency, and layout. Remember to customize each of your button states so it feels right!
• Icon: Instead of or in addition to text, you can display an icon. Choose from a small selection of prebuilt basic icons or choose custom to supply your favorite .jpg or .gif. Adding a .gif to change its look on hover can be eye-catching.
• Fill: This drawer allows you to change the color and transparency in each button state. Set the color to your brand's favorite gray for the default state. Later, add flair by changing its look on hover and press. Try a color that's bright yet neutral.
• Border and Shadow: Add polish but use them thoughtfully. A subtle shadow can make buttons pop off the page. A 1px, 45-degree drop shadow under the outer-bottom position, set to white with 50% opacity, looks great on every background color. This tip can elevate many designs!

Making Your Buttons Do Something (Actions)

Great, you have an impressive looking button! Now you want your button to perform actions. In the format panel, switch to the Button tab to start defining your button's Actions. This connects your button so actions will be performed every time users click!

To enable the Action property, under the Button Format drawer, change the type from Inactive to "Active" to create navigation to the last visited or previous page. When activated, your Action expands to show the type you want from a list of options.

Link your buttons with your bookmarks like you do with drillthroughs. Change action type to "Bookmark," and in the dropdown, select from all bookmarks created. Just pick one by title. It's that simple!

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Final Thoughts

As you can see, Power BI buttons open up a huge range of possibilities beyond simple, static dashboards. By mastering their customization settings and actions like page navigation and bookmarks, you can create polished, intuitive, and highly functional reports that genuinely guide your users to the insights they need. This small element makes a massive difference in how people interact with your data.

Of course, building all this interactivity in tools like Power BI takes time and practice. If your goal is to get straight to the answers without a steep learning curve, we built Graphed for that exact reason. You can simply connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce - and use plain English to ask questions and generate dashboards in seconds. Instead of manually configuring every button and action, you can just ask, "Show me my top marketing campaigns by revenue last month," and get a live, interactive report built for you instantly.