Topic Six
Visualization Techniques
Three techniques that transform a static chart into an interactive experience — letting the reader explore data without leaving the report page.
Technique 01
Tooltip
Show extra detail on hover — without cluttering the page
What it is
A popup that appears when you hover over a data point, showing additional fields or even an entire report page as a mini-dashboard.
Two types
Default tooltip — fields you add in the Tooltip well of the Build pane.
Report page tooltip — a full report page designed as a popup.
Report page tooltip — a full report page designed as a popup.
When to use
When you want to give readers extra context — product details, trend sparklines, or breakdowns — without taking up space on the main report page.
How to set up a Report Page Tooltip
Create a new report page and resize it to Tooltip size (Format → Page information → Type → Tooltip).
Design the page with any visuals you want to appear in the popup.
On the source visual, go to Format → General → Tooltips → Type → Report page → select your tooltip page.
Hover over any data point on the visual — the tooltip page appears as a popup.
Tooltips in action — default fields and a full report page tooltip.
Technique 02
Drill Through
Right-click a data point to jump to a detail page filtered to that item
What it is
A navigation action — right-click any data point and jump to a dedicated detail page that is automatically filtered to that exact value.
How it works
You build a detail page, add a field to its Drill through well. Any visual across the report can now drill through to that page using that field.
When to use
When a summary visual needs a companion detail view — e.g. click a city on the map to see all transactions for that city on a separate page.
How to set up Drill Through
Create a new report page — this will be your detail page.
In the Visualizations pane, drag the field you want to drill on (e.g. City) into the Drill through well. A Back button appears automatically.
Add any visuals to the detail page — they will automatically filter to the selected value.
On any other page, right-click a data point that contains that field → Drill through → select your detail page.
Image / video coming soon
Technique 03
Drill Down
Click into a hierarchy to reveal the next level of detail
What it is
An in-visual navigation — clicking a data point expands it to the next level of a hierarchy (e.g. Year → Quarter → Month → Day).
How it works
Add multiple fields to the Axis well. Power BI treats them as a hierarchy. Use the drill icons in the visual header to go up or down a level.
When to use
Time hierarchies (Year → Month), geographic hierarchies (Country → City), or any category with natural sub-levels (Category → Sub-category).
Drill Down controls
↓ Drill Down mode — click a single bar to drill into that value at the next level only.
↓↓ Go to next level — expands the entire visual to the next level for all values at once.
↑ Drill Up — returns to the previous level.
The current level is shown in the visual header — use this to confirm where you are in the hierarchy.
Image / video coming soon