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Power BI Bookmarks- Beginners Guide

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Bookmark you heard it right. Power BI provides a functionality to record the state of your page. It is quite similar to creating bookmarks on your internet browser. The good part is it provides a lot of flexibility for both the developer and the user. In this blog, we will cover how to create a bookmark in Power BI and take it to the next level by using of bookmark navigator. This blog is mainly targeting Power BI users who are at the beginners level.

Let's get started with the creation of bookmarks. To do so on the top ribbon you need to select View and under it, you can find bookmarks. It will open a separate pane on the side. Before you create the bookmark make sure all the changes are implemented on the page which you want to see in the bookmark. Once the bookmark is created every change you make on the particular page you need to update the bookmark with the help of the three dots available next to the bookmark.


Isn't it easy? Let's take it to the next level. I am using the Sample Superstore data. I have created a simple overview of all the KPIs in a matrix with categories and sub-categories. Also, I have created a detailed table where I consider everything. Our use case is to show both the visuals on the same page with an option to switch between both of the visuals. 

How to do this? Once you have created both the visuals place them on top of each other with the exact dimensions. Now create the bookmark where the table is hidden. How to hide a visual? Under view next to bookmark you can choose the selection and a separate pane will open where you can hide and unhide a specific visual. Create the first bookmark I have named it Matrix and under the selection pane hide the table. Similarly, hide the matrix for the other bookmark. 

Protip- Power BI bookmarks work well with the custom visuals which are certified by Microsoft. If you are not using any of the certified visuals try to avoid the use of bookmarks.

Both the bookmarks are now created and we need an option to switch between them. To get that we need a bookmark navigator. It is available in insert under buttons. You can find the page navigator and bookmark navigator. The Bookmark navigator will create tiles out of your bookmark. 


Smart work!! It is one of the tricks BI developers use.  You can achieve the same with the help of buttons. To learn more tricks associated with bookmarks visit the blog (link) on the slicer panel. In this case, we only have 2 bookmarks but you can have multiple bookmarks. It is always advised to group your bookmarks because by default the bookmark navigator will always show all the bookmarks you created. To change this grouping of bookmarks help under formatting you need to select the respective group.



When it comes to the disadvantages of using bookmarks the first one is to handle them when you have plenty. It can be bewildering at times and with the updates Power BI is receiving shortly bookmarks will be completely discarded. The most annoying part is to update the bookmarks if there is a change in the visual or the page itself.



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