Most Power BI users put slicers in the dashboard together with the visual reports. However, they encounter problems fitting all the visual reports on one page or create cluttered pages.
So what can you do if you want more space for your visuals? Can you create a hidden slicer in Power BI?
If you’ve ever found yourself asking this question, this article is for you. It explains how you can hide slicers in Power BI.
When you're done, you should be able to improve your dashboards’ appearance and make them more interactive.
But, before we begin, let’s understand what’s the purpose of slicers in Power BI.
What are Slicers in Power BI?
If you are unfamiliar with slicers in Power BI, this article should get you started. Slicers help report readers to sort information using filters. They can narrow data displayed in report visualizations for better understanding.
How Do You Create Slicers in Power BI?
Creating a slicer in Power BI is easy, just click on the Slicer icon in the visualizations pane.
With the slicer selected, choose the information you want to use to filter your report visualizations (often the dimensions).
How Do You Create Hidden Slicers in Power BI?
Creating a hidden slicer in Power BI is a long process. But the results are always more appealing with more space for your visuals.
The first step to create a hidden slicer in Power BI is to design an icon. It will be used to open your slicers.
Your icon’s appearance depends on the way you created your page background. You can do this directly in Power BI. Alternatively, you can create your background in PowerPoint and save it as SVG or PNG to insert in Power BI.
The PowerPoint option is more flexible and gives you greater control over your page’s appearance.
After importing your background, it’s time to create a hidden slicer in Power BI.
First, build the filter pane to place the hidden slicer for your report visualizations.
- Go to the Insert on the ribbon, click Shapes, and select Rectangle.
2. Set the shape to cover the entire page.
3. Next, set your color preference (black in this case) in the Fill option under Format Shape.
4. You should set the transparency of this shape at 25% so that your report visualizations are somewhat visible.
5. Add another shape over the shape with a 25% transparency. Make sure the transparency of the new shape is 0%.
6. Create your slicers using details in your data and place them on top of the second shape as shown.
7. Include a text box on top of the slicers to indicate the purpose of this pane.
8. Remember to add a button for closing the slicer pane.
9. Next, go to the view tab in the ribbon.
10. Under Show panes, select the Bookmarks and Selection options.
11. The titles of the tiles in your dashboard should appear in the Selection pane.
12. In the Selection pane, arrange the titles of the tiles you want to appear in the slicers area. Hold and drag each tile to the right position. Then, put the shape you set at 25% transparency at the top.
14. To group the items and make them responsive with one click, hold the shift key and highlight the titles in the Selection Pane. Right-click on the Filter Pane and group the highlighted elements.
16. Click the icon before the ellipsis in Filter Pane. Your actions should make the slicer tiles in your dashboard disappear and reappear.
17. Now insert a blank button and place it on top of the icon to hide your Slicer Pane.
18. Format the blank button to remove its outline. Your dashboard users can click on the open slicers icon in your dashboard to open the Slicer Pane.
19. Next, bookmark your dashboard’s appearance. Start by clicking the icon before the ellipsis in Filter Pane under Selection. It opens and closes the slicer pane in your dashboard.
20. Open the slicer pane and bookmark. Do the same with the slicer closed and rename the bookmarks.
21. Click on the button you placed on top of the icon to open the Slicer Pane. It opens the Format Button Pane.
22. Scroll to the bottom and open Action.
23. Under Type, select Bookmark. In the Bookmark section, choose Open Filter. You can check if it works by holding the CTRL key and clicking the open slicer icon in your dashboard.
24. Open the Slicer Pane and select the Back button.
25. Again, go to the Format button pane and open Action. Set Type as Bookmarks. However, choose “Hide Filter” under Bookmark. Pressing and holding CTRL and clicking the back button should hide the Slicer Pane
After setting the hide/unhide slicer options, you may encounter a new problem. When you use the slicers to filter information, it works.
But after hiding the Slicer Pane, your report visualizations resume to the original state. The information is no longer filtered.
The problem is that the icons retrieve the bookmarks the way you saved them.
To change the behavior, select the ellipsis next to the Open Filter options under Bookmarks. Uncheck data and do the same for Hide Filter.
Everything should work. You have created a hidden slicer in Power BI. You can now view the report visualizations according to your filters.
Congratulations on learning how to create hidden slicers in Power BI. Now it’s time to try it in your dashboards. Make your visualizations more appealing and interactive with a hidden slicer in Power BI.