Power BI for the End User

Header Icons

Header Icons should appear over a visualization when you click or hover on it. HOWEVER, header icons can be turned off by the report creator - either all or individually.

This image shows header icons in blue in the top right hand corner:

Let's go over what each of them does. The links in Title jump to the section on the page.

ICON	Title
	Pin to Dashboard
	Copy (static)  image with caption
	Hover over this icon to view a list of applied filters
	Personalize this visual
	Open in focus mode. This is a bigger version of the visualization.
	Ellipses for more header icon options.
	Share a link directly to a visual (includes applied filters!)
	Comment on a report or a visualization
	Export data as a table
	Show the data visualization as a table

Pin to Dashboard 

Clicking on the "pin to dashboard" icon will open a window that allows you to choose an existing dashboard, or create a new dashboard. See Image below.

Dashboards are a collection of visualizations gathered from various reports in a workspace. A workspace holds a collection of reports for a project or department in Power BI (like a file folder). Read more about dashboards from Microsoft.

Suggested use cases:

• Select all the visualizations that you are interested in for quick access. 
• Curate visualizations for a different project
• Gather all visualizations you want to share with someone else to one place

Suggested viewing:

Copy Image with Caption 

When you click on the copy image with caption icon a window of the preview image and caption will appear. It may take a few seconds to load, as Power BI is generating the image. See image below.

The image is static, so it won't be interactive like it is in the report. It does retain the filters and other changes you have applied to it and link back to the report it comes from. If you share the image and caption with someone who does not have permission to see the report, they can see the image and caption, but the link won't work. They can request access through the link though.

Suggested use cases:

• Share an image in an email or chat to answer someone's question
• Use the visualization in a written report
• Share with someone who does not have access to the original report

Suggested viewing:

Filters and Slicers Affecting this Visual 

Hover over or click on this icon to see the filters and slicers in the report that are affecting the visual. See image below.

Suggested use cases:

• Check that the right filters are applied before sharing or reporting data
• Check the state of the report when troubleshooting 

Personalize this Visual 

Clicking the personalize this visual icon opens a new pane that you can interact with (See images below). With this you can change the visualization type, replace, add, or remove variables from the visualization. The changes you make won't affect the report for anyone else and you can save them using the bookmarks button (covered in the button section). The report creator is able to set which variables from the dataset are available for a visualization.

1. pane opens when you click on the icon

2. Example use case: change the chart type to clustered column chart by clicking on "Line chart" below "Visualization type"

• Before 
• After 

3. When you make any changes a new icon will appear which allows you to reset the visuals to their original state

Suggested use cases:

• Create new visualizations that suit your needs using the underlying data in the report
• Taylor existing visualizations to your exact needs

Open in Focus Mode 

Clicking on the open in focus mode icone bringing you to a full page version of the visualization.

Example Focus mode report:

Suggested use cases:

• Expand when data points are close together
• Show during a presentation and the screen is far away for some
• Help for the visually impaired

Suggested Viewing:

Ellipses 

When you click on the ellipses header icon you can see more interaction options, which are covered in the following sections. See Image below. 

Includes:

• Share
• Add a Comment
• Export Data
• Show as Table
• Spotlight

Share 

Hovering over the Share icon reveals more options:

• "link to this visual"
  • copies a link to the visual which will retain all filters that are applied at the time. The link will only work for people who already have permission to view the report.
• "share in teams"
  • add the email or name of someone you are connected to on Teams to send a link directly (without the need to copy and paste)
• and "open in PowerPoint"
  1. Copy and paste a static image of the visualization, similar to "copy image with caption"
  2. Requires the Power BI add-in in your PowerPoint App before hand which let's you embed live visualizations into a presentation

Add a comment 

Clicking in this icon will open the comment pane. You can comment directly on a visualization or on the whole report by clicking outside of any visualizations. You'll know a visualization is selected when the header icons stay even when you move your mouse off the visualization. Comments are related to bookmarks because when someone else selects your comment they will be brought back to the same state, including filters, that was there when you created the comment.

Suggested use cases:

• Ask a question about the report
• Report a problem about a visualization
• Provide information to someone

Suggested Viewing:

Export Data 

Clicking the Export data icon opens a new window allowing you to choose what data format to export in and what data to export. The options for data are:

•  Data with current layout: Only available for table and matrix visualizations
• Summarized data: Export the data underlying a visual; for example, if your visual is a line chart showing sum of income per day then the table will have dates in one column and sum for each date in the other column.
• Underlying data: Access the raw data that makes up the report, often turned off by the report creator.

Suggested use cases:

• Share raw data with someone
• Export to use data in other ways (outside Power BI and the report)
• Explore data in Excel

Suggested viewing:

Show as table 

When you click on the Show as table icon the report will show the visualization, similar to focus mode, and a table of the data that makes up the visual, similar to export data. You can also move the table to the side or below the visual for your convenience using the new header icon that appears .

Horizontal view

Vertical View

Suggested use cases:

• View underlying data for more context
• See what table will look like before exporting to Excel
• Tables are screen readable for the visually impaired

Spotlight 

Clicking on the Spotlight icon will fade all other visuals on the page, therefore the selected visual appears highlighted.

Before	After

Suggested use cases:

• Direct peoples attention during a presentation