How to Connect Two Pages in Power BI

Building a Power BI report is one thing, but building an interactive analytical experience is another. Linking your report pages together is the key to turning a static collection of charts into a dynamic, app-like dashboard that guides your audience to the answers they need. This article will walk you through the three best methods to connect pages in Power BI, from simple navigation to context-aware deep dives.

Why Connect Pages in Power BI Anyway?

Before jumping into the “how,” let’s quickly cover the “why.” Connecting pages elevates your report from a simple data display to a guided analytical path. Here are a few key benefits:

• Improved User Experience: Instead of forcing users to hunt through tabs at the bottom of the screen, you can create intuitive buttons, links, and menus. This makes navigation easy and professional.
• Guided Storytelling: You can direct the flow of analysis. Start with a high-level executive summary on page one, then provide buttons that let users dig into specific areas like "Sales Performance," "Marketing ROI," or "Operational Costs" on other pages.
• Reduces Clutter: You can keep your main dashboard clean by moving detailed tables and granular charts to secondary pages. Users can access them with a single click when needed, without being overwhelmed upfront.

Ultimately, a well-linked report feels less like a spreadsheet and more like a user-friendly application.

Method 1: Using the Page Navigator for Simple Navigation

If your goal is straightforward navigation between all your report’s main pages, Power BI’s built-in Page Navigator is your fastest and easiest option.

What It Is

The Page Navigator is a special type of button that automatically generates navigation links to the visible pages in your report. If you add or remove a page, the navigator updates automatically. Think of it as creating an instant menu bar for your dashboard.

How to Set it Up

Setting up a Page Navigator takes just a few clicks:

1. Navigate to the Insert tab on the Power BI ribbon.
2. Click on Buttons.
3. In the dropdown menu, select Navigator.
4. Choose Page Navigator.

That’s it! Power BI will place a container on your report canvas with a button for each visible page. You can then resize this container and change its orientation (from horizontal to vertical) and styling in the Format pane to match your report's design.

Practical Tip: Hiding Pages

You probably have pages you don’t want included in the main navigation, like hidden tooltip pages or calculation scratchpads. To exclude a page from the Page Navigator, simply hide it. Right-click the page tab at the bottom of the screen and select Hide Page. The navigator will automatically update to remove the button for that page.

Method 2: Creating Custom Navigation with Bookmarks and Buttons

For full control over where a user goes and what they see, bookmarks are the most powerful and flexible method. This approach allows you to link from anywhere – a button, a shape, an icon, or even an image – to a specific page, often with preset filters applied.

Step 1: Create Your Bookmarks

A bookmark in Power BI captures the current state of a report page – including filters, slicers, and sort order. For navigation, you'll mainly use it to "save" your destination.

• Navigate to your destination page. For example, go to your "Quarterly Sales Details" page.
• Set the desired state. While not required for simple navigation, you could apply filters here if you wanted the user to always land on a specific view (e.g., showing only the current year's data).
• Add the bookmark. Go to the View tab and click on Bookmarks to open the Bookmarks pane. Click Add.
• Rename your bookmark. Double-click the new bookmark (e.g., "Bookmark 1") and give it a clear, descriptive name like "GoToQuarterlySales."

Pro Tip: For simple page-to-page navigation, select the three dots next to your new bookmark and uncheck "Data." This ensures that when a user clicks your navigation button, it won't unexpectedly change their current slicer or filter selections. It will simply take them to the destination page as is.

Step 2: Assign the Bookmark to a Button or Object

Now that you've saved your destination, you can create a link to it.

1. Return to your starting page. This might be your main "Dashboard Overview" page.
2. Insert a clickable object. Go to Insert > Buttons > Blank to add a clean button. You can also use shapes, images, or special icons.
3. Customize the object. Select the button and use the Format pane to add text (e.g., "View Detailed Report"), change colors, and adjust styling.
4. Activate the link. With the button still selected, go to the Format pane and find the Action section. Toggle it On.

To test it in Power BI Desktop, hold Ctrl and click the button. Once published to Power BI Service, users can simply click the button like a normal link.

Method 3: Enabling Contextual Analysis with Drillthrough

Drillthrough is arguably the most powerful navigation feature for deep analysis. Instead of just linking to another page, it allows users to go to a destination page with a filter applied from the specific data point they clicked. It answers the question, "Tell me more about this specific thing."

What It Is

Imagine you have a bar chart showing total sales by category. Drillthrough lets a user right-click the "Electronics" bar and jump to a detailed product page that is already filtered to show only electronics sales trends.

How to Set it Up

Setting up drillthrough involves configuring your destination page to accept a filter.

1. Create your detail page. Design a page with visuals that provide granular details. For instance, a "Product Performance Detail" page with trends, top performers, and profit margins.
2. Designate it as a drillthrough destination. Select the detail page canvas (by clicking on an empty area). In the Visualizations pane, find the Drillthrough section at the bottom.
3. Add the drillthrough field. Drag the field that will act as the filter into the "Drill through on" well. For example, if you want users to drill down by product category, drag the Product Category field here. You can add multiple fields if needed.

Power BI will automatically add a "Back" button to your drillthrough page, allowing users to easily return to where they came from.

How Users Experience It

Once set up, whenever a user is on a page that contains a visual using the Product Category field (like our bar chart), they can:

• Right-click on a specific data point (e.g., the bar for "Laptops").
• A context menu will appear with a Drillthrough option.
• Hovering over it reveals a link to your detail page ("Product Performance Detail").
• Clicking it takes them to that pre-filtered page, showing every visual through the lens of 'Laptops.'

Which Method Should You Choose?

Choosing the right method depends entirely on the experience you want to create:

• Use the Page Navigator for simple, top-level navigation to give users an easy way to switch between all major report sections.
• Use Bookmarks and Buttons when you need full control over the user journey, creating a custom, app-like experience with guided paths and specific landing states.
• Use Drillthrough for an analytical experience where users need to investigate the details behind a number or a category on a summary page.

By mastering these three techniques, you can transform any Power BI report into a polished, insightful, and incredibly user-friendly tool that people will actually want to use.

Final Thoughts

Connecting pages with navigators, bookmarks, or drillthrough is what separates a decent report from a great one. These features transform static slides of data into an interactive journey, allowing users to explore information naturally and answer their own follow-up questions without getting lost.

At Graphed, we're obsessed with making data interaction this easy, just without the complex setup. Building guided Power BI reports involves a lot of manual configuration in different formatting panes. That’s why we built our AI data analyst to handle all that work for you. You connect your marketing and sales sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or HubSpot in seconds, then simply describe the report you want in plain English. There’s no need to manually create pages and set up navigation - our AI builds an entire real-time, interactive dashboard based on your request. It’s all about shortening the path from data to decision, letting you get insights in moments, not hours in a BI tool. If you're tired of all the clicking, come check out Graphed.