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How to Change Orientation of Slicer in Power BI

Cody Schneider•

Transforming a Power BI slicer from a vertical list to a horizontal button bar is one of the quickest ways to elevate your report's design and usability. This simple change can save valuable screen space and give your dashboard a clean, modern, and app-like feel. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to change your slicer's orientation and customize it to perfection.

A Quick Recap: What Are Slicers in Power BI?

In Power BI, a slicer is a type of on-page visual that allows you or your end-users to filter the other visuals on a report page. Think of it as a user-friendly filter control. Instead of forcing users to open the Filters Pane to narrow down data, you can place a slicer directly on the canvas for easy, intuitive interaction.

Slicers are incredibly versatile. You can create them from almost any data field in your model, such as:

  • Product categories

  • Geographic regions (Country, State, City)

  • Time periods (Year, Quarter, Month)

  • Customer segments

  • Sales representatives

By default, when you create a slicer from a categorical field, Power BI displays it as a vertical list with checkboxes. While functional, this default layout isn't always the most efficient or aesthetically pleasing option, especially for fields with only a handful of distinct values you want to feature prominently.

Why Change a Slicer to a Horizontal Layout?

Shifting your slicer's orientation isn't just a style choice, it offers several practical advantages that significantly improve the user experience and the overall impact of your dashboard.

1. To Save Valuable Report Space

Dashboard real estate is precious. A standard vertical slicer, especially if it's placed on the side of your report, can take up a lot of vertical space that could be used for other important visuals like charts or KPI cards. A horizontal slicer can be neatly tucked into the top or bottom of your report page, serving as a navigation bar that takes up minimal space while remaining highly functional.

2. To Create an Intuitive, App-Like Experience

Most people are accustomed to navigating websites and applications using horizontal button bars or tabs. By converting a slicer into this familiar format, you reduce the cognitive load on your users. They instantly understand how to interact with the report, making it feel more like a custom-built app than a static dashboard. This is especially effective for high-level filters like choosing between different business units, years, or core product lines.

3. To Improve Visual Appeal and Professionalism

A well-organized horizontal slicer looks clean, modern, and purpose-built. It can transform a cluttered report into a polished, professional-looking dashboard. This deliberate design choice signals to your audience that thought and care went into creating a seamless user journey, which builds confidence in the data and insights you're presenting.

4. For Better Usability on Touchscreens

Horizontal slicers, when formatted as "tiles" or large buttons, are much easier to tap on a tablet or mobile device than small checkboxes in a vertical list. The larger tap targets reduce frustration and improve accessibility for users who consume Power BI reports on the go.

Step-by-Step: Changing a Slicer from Vertical to Horizontal

The process of changing the slicer's orientation is straightforward. Follow these steps to transform your visual.

Step 1: Add a Slicer to Your Report

First, if you don't already have a slicer, let's add one. In the Power BI report view:

  1. Make sure no visuals are selected on your canvas.

  2. In the Visualizations pane, click on the Slicer icon. A new, empty slicer visual will appear on your report page.

  3. From the Data pane, drag and drop the field you want to filter by into the "Field" well of your empty slicer. For this example, we'll use a "Product Category" field. Your slicer will now display a default vertical list of product categories.

Step 2: Navigate to the Format Visual Settings

Now, let's find the setting we need to change.

  1. Click on your slicer visual to select it.

  2. In the Visualizations pane, click on the icon that looks like a paintbrush, which is the Format your visual tab. This is where all the customization happens.

Step 3: Change the Orientation from List to Tile

In recent versions of Power BI, the horizontal view is achieved using the "Tile" style.

  1. In the Format your visual tab, expand the Slicer settings section.

  2. The first option you'll see is Style. By default, it's set to "Vertical list."

  3. Click the dropdown menu and select Tile.

Note: In much older versions of Power BI, you might have found an "Orientation" option with "Vertical" and "Horizontal" settings. This has been streamlined into the "Style" dropdown, where "Tile" is the new "Horizontal."

Step 4: Resize and Position Your New Horizontal Slicer

Immediately after selecting "Tile," your slicer will still look vertical. That's because it needs to be resized to fit the new layout.

  1. Grab one of the side handles of the slicer visual and drag it outwards horizontally to make it wide.

  2. Adjust the height to be much shorter, like a thin band.

As you resize it, Power BI will automatically wrap the items into a horizontal layout. You can now drag the entire slicer to the top of your report to serve as a header navigation bar.

Advanced Customization for a Polished Look

Changing the orientation is just the beginning. To truly make your slicer effective and visually appealing, you'll want to dive into the formatting options.

Perfecting the Layout

Inside the Format your visual > Layout setting, you can control the arrangement of your slicer buttons precisely.

  • Rows and Columns: For a single-row navigation bar, leave Rows set to "1" and adjust the Columns to fit all your categories. If you have many categories, you might create a 2x3 grid instead of a 1x6 bar.

  • Space between cards: Increase this value to add more padding or empty space between each button for a cleaner look.

  • Overflow: This determines how the slicer behaves if there isn't enough space. "Pagination" adds little arrows to click through pages of buttons, while "Continuous scroll" lets users scroll with a scrollbar or mouse wheel.

Formatting Slicer Values (The Buttons)

Under Format your visual > Values, you'll find everything you need to format the text and background of the slicer buttons.

  • Font: Change the font family, size, color, and style (bold, italic).

  • Background: Set a background color for the buttons in their default state.

  • Border: Add borders to make buttons feel more distinct. You can control color, corner radius (for rounded corners!), and width.

Setting the Selection State

In the same Values section, you can change the visual appearance for different states: Default, Hover (when a user moves their mouse over it), Selected, and Pressed. For a great user experience, try changing the background color and font color for the Selected and Hover states. This visual feedback tells the user exactly which filter is active and which one they're about to click.

Controlling Selection Logic

Go back to Slicer settings > Selection. Here you have critical controls:

  • Single select: If this is turned ON, users can only select one category at a time. This is very useful when you want to force a comparison apples-to-apples.

  • Multi-select with CTRL: By default, this is on, allowing users to click multiple buttons while holding the CTRL key.

  • Show "Select all": Adds an option to quickly select all items in the slicer.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

"I selected 'Tile' but my slicer is still a vertical list."

This is the most common issue. The slicer visual is likely too narrow. You need to physically drag the edges of the visual to make it wider on your report canvas. Once it has enough horizontal space, Power BI will redistribute the buttons into rows and columns according to your Layout settings.

"My text is getting cut off in the buttons."

Your slicer visual isn't tall enough to accommodate the font size. Either increase the height of the visual slightly, decrease the font size under the Values formatting options, or shorten the category names in your data source if possible. You can also reduce vertical padding in the Values > Padding section.

"My slicer shows too many options and looks cluttered as a tile bar."

A horizontal/tile bar is best for fields with a limited number of distinct options (typically 3 to 7). If your field has more than that, consider using a "Dropdown" slicer instead. You can change to this via Slicer settings > Style. This still saves space but gracefully handles longer lists.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to change a slicer's orientation is a fundamental Power BI skill that pays off immediately by creating dashboards with a professional user experience. By switching from a vertical list to a horizontal tile, you save screen real estate, improve intuitiveness, and give your viewers an easy-to-use navigation tool to explore your data with confidence.

While fine-tuning visuals in tools like Power BI is powerful, we know that the hours spent building, testing, and adjusting can really add up. At Graphed, we automate the process, allowing your team to turn tedious data work into actionable insights, freeing you to focus on strategy.