Filtering is how you control what data a visual — or an entire report — shows.
Power BI gives you three levels of filtering, three filter types, and full control
over how visuals interact with each other.
Filter Levels
Every filter in Power BI is applied at one of three levels — the scope gets
narrower as you go from all pages down to a single visual.
Filter on All Pages
Applied to every page in the report. Drag a field to the "Filters on all pages" well in the Filters pane. Useful for report-wide context like year or region.
All Pages
Filter on This Page
Applied only to the current report page. Other pages are unaffected. Drag a field to the "Filters on this page" well.
This Page
Filter on This Visual
Applied to one specific visual only. Select the visual first, then drag a field to the "Filters on this visual" well. Other visuals on the page are unaffected.
One Visual
Filter levels — All Pages, This Page, and This Visual in action.
Filter Types
Once a field is in a filter well, you choose the filter type — how strict or
flexible the condition is.
Simplest
Basic
Select one or more values from a list using checkboxes. The visual only shows data that matches your selection.
Example: Filter City = "Riyadh" or "Jeddah" — only those two cities appear in the visual.
Conditions
Advanced
Write a condition using operators like "is greater than", "contains", "starts with", or combine two conditions with AND / OR.
Example: Filter Price > 500 AND Price < 2000 — only mid-range transactions appear.
Ranking
Top N
Show only the top or bottom N items ranked by a value. You set the count and the measure used for ranking.
Example: Top 3 cities by total price — only the three highest-revenue cities are shown.
Cross Highlight & Interactions
By default, clicking a value in one visual highlights related data in all other visuals
on the same page. You can change or disable this behavior per visual pair.
Cross Highlight (Default)
Clicking a bar or slice dims unrelated values in other visuals — the full dataset remains visible but non-matching data fades out.
Cross Filter
Clicking in one visual fully filters other visuals — non-matching data is completely removed, not just dimmed.
None
The visual is completely unaffected by clicks on other visuals — useful for summary cards that should always show the full total.
How to Configure
Select the source visual → Format tab in the ribbon → Edit Interactions. Icons appear on every other visual — click to set each one's behavior individually.
Basic, Advanced, and Top N filter types — when to use each.
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Slicers
A slicer is a visual filter — it sits on the report canvas and lets the
reader filter the page themselves without opening the Filters pane.
It's the most user-friendly filtering tool in Power BI.
Sync Slicer
A slicer only filters its own page by default. Sync Slicer lets one slicer control
multiple pages simultaneously — you decide which pages it applies to and whether
it is visible on each.
How to
View tab → Sync Slicers → check the pages you want the slicer to control.
Apply All & Clear All
By default, every slicer click immediately updates visuals. You can add
an Apply button so the report only refreshes when the user
confirms — useful when the dataset is large and each query is slow.
Clear All resets the slicer to show everything.