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How to Convert Power BI to PPT

Cody Schneider•

You’ve built an impressive, insightful dashboard in Power BI, but now comes the real test: presenting your findings in a PowerPoint slide deck. Getting your interactive visuals into a static presentation can feel awkward, but it's a necessary step for sharing data with executives, stakeholders, or your wider team. This guide will walk you through the best methods for converting your Power BI reports to PowerPoint, from simple exports to fully interactive embeds.

Why Put Power BI Dashboards into PowerPoint?

While Power BI is fantastic for live data exploration, PowerPoint is the universal language of business presentations. Moving your data stories into a slide deck helps you:

  • Tell a Cohesive Story: A presentation has a beginning, middle, and end. You can hand-pick specific charts and visuals to build a narrative around your data, guiding your audience to the conclusions you want them to reach.

  • Share with a Wider Audience: Not everyone in your organization has a Power BI license or knows how to use the service. A PowerPoint file is easily shareable and accessible to anyone.

  • Create a Static Record: Sometimes you need a snapshot of your data at a specific point in time - for example, for a quarterly business review or a board meeting. Exporting to PowerPoint freezes the data, creating a permanent record.

  • Present Offline: If you're presenting in a location with spotty Wi-Fi, having your visuals saved in a PowerPoint file is a lifesaver.

Let's look at the different ways to get this done, balancing speed with functionality.

Method 1: Using the Built-in "Export to PowerPoint" Feature

The most straightforward method is using the export function built directly into the Power BI service. This creates a PowerPoint file where each page of your Power BI report becomes a separate, high-resolution image on a slide.

How to Use It:

  1. Open your report in the Power BI service (the web version, not the Desktop app).

  2. In the top menu bar, click on File > Export > PowerPoint.

  3. You will see two options: "Embed an image" and "Embed live data." For this method, we are focusing on the image embed first. Ensure "Embed an image" is selected.

  4. A dialog box will appear. You can choose to export the Current values (with your filters and slicers applied) or the Default values. For most presentations, you'll want "Current values."

  5. You can also select the checkbox to Exclude hidden report tabs if you have pages you don't want in the presentation.

  6. Click Export. Power BI will begin processing the file, which may take a few minutes for large reports.

  7. Once complete, the file will download to your computer, ready to be opened in PowerPoint. Each slide will have your report visual and a title.

Pros and Cons of This Method

Pros:

  • Extremely Fast and Easy: It takes just a few clicks and requires no technical skill.

  • High-Resolution Images: The exported images are generally clear and much better quality than taking a manual screenshot.

  • Includes a Link Back: Each slide automatically includes a link that takes you directly to the live Power BI report, which is great for follow-up questions.

Cons:

  • Completely Static: The produced visuals are just images. You can't click on them, filter data, or see tooltips. What you export is what you get.

  • File Size: Exported presentations with many high-resolution slides can quickly become large and difficult to email.

  • No Way to Refresh: If your data updates just before the meeting, you have to export the entire file all over again. There is no refresh button.

Method 2: The Quick-and-Dirty Screenshot

Sometimes you only need one or two charts for a presentation, not the entire report. In this scenario, taking a screenshot is the fastest way to get a visual into your slide deck. While it sounds basic, it's a practical solution in a pinch.

Most operating systems have built-in screen capture tools:

  • Windows: Use the Snipping Tool or Snip & Sketch (shortcut: Windows Key + Shift + S).

  • Mac: Use the screenshot shortcut (Command + Shift + 4) to select a specific area.

Simply arrange your Power BI report how you want it, grab the screenshot, and paste it onto your PowerPoint slide.

Pros and Cons of This Method

Pros:

  • Instantaneous: It's the absolute fastest way to grab a single visual.

  • Total Control: You can capture any part of your screen - a single chart, a KPI card, or a specific table - without exporting the whole page.

Cons:

  • Lower Image Quality: Screenshots are often lower resolution than a direct export and can look pixelated or blurry when resized.

  • Unprofessional Appearance: If not done carefully, you might capture other parts of your browser or desktop, making the final slide look messy.

  • Completely Static and Lifeless: Like the direct export, it's just a non-interactive image with no link back to the source data.

Method 3: The Best of Both Worlds – The Power BI Add-in for PowerPoint

For a truly dynamic and professional presentation, the best method by far is using the official Power BI add-in for PowerPoint. This free add-in allows you to embed fully interactive Power BI report pages or individual visuals directly into your PowerPoint slides.

This means you can filter, slice, and drill down into your data live during your presentation. It’s no longer a picture of your dashboard, it is your dashboard, living inside your slide.

Step-by-Step: How to Use the Power BI Add-in

  1. Install the Add-in: In PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click Get Add-ins. Search for "Power BI" and click Add. The Power BI icon will now appear on your Insert ribbon.

  2. Add to Your Slide: Click the new Power BI icon on the Insert tab. A placeholder frame will be added to your current slide.

  3. Get Your Power BI Report Link: Open the report you want to embed in the Power BI service. To embed a full page, simply copy the URL from your browser's address bar. To embed a specific visual, hover over the visual, click the "More options" ellipsis (...), and select Share > Link to this visual. Copy that link.

  4. Paste the Link: Back in PowerPoint, paste the Power BI URL into the box in the placeholder and click Insert. You'll need to log in to your Power BI account if it's your first time.

  5. Resize and Interact: Your live report will appear on the slide. You can now resize the frame to fit your layout. During your presentation, you can click on any charts, apply slicers, and use tooltips just as you would in the Power BI service.

Tips for Making the Most of the Add-in

  • Freeze the Image: What if you need a static view but still want interactivity as a backup? The add-in includes a feature to show a saved image. In the bottom right corner of the add-in frame, you can click the icon to Show as Saved Image. This freezes the view, preventing accidental clicks, but you can toggle back to the live view anytime.

  • Use Bookmarks: In Power BI, you can create a series of bookmarks that preserve different filter states or views of your report. In PowerPoint, you can navigate these bookmarks directly within the add-in, effectively creating multiple "slides" from a single embedded report page.

  • Check Permissions: Remember, your embedded report visuals respect Power BI permissions. If you send the PowerPoint file to someone who doesn’t have access to the underlying report in Power BI, they won’t be able to see the data.

Best Practices for Presenting Power BI Data

Regardless of which method you choose, a few best practices can make your data-driven presentations more effective.

  • Keep it Simple: Don't try to cram a dense, complex dashboard onto a single slide. Create simplified report pages in Power BI designed specifically for presentation. Focus on one or two key metrics per slide.

  • Provide Context: A chart by itself is just numbers. Use the space on your PowerPoint slide to add a title that states the main takeaway — for example, "Q3 Sales Grew 15% Driven by the New Product Line" instead of just "Q3 Sales."

  • Tell a Story: Arrange your slides in a logical order to build a narrative. Start with a high-level overview, dive into the details or contributing factors, and end with your conclusions or recommended next steps.

Final Thoughts

Getting your Power BI visuals into PowerPoint can be done in a few clicks with a static export, or elevated to an interactive experience with the official add-in. For quick internal updates, a static image export often works just fine. But for important stakeholder meetings where questions are expected, embedding live, interactive reports is a complete game-changer that demonstrates confidence in your data.

Of course, creating the perfect visuals in Power BI is often a huge task in itself, requiring you to navigate complex menus and data models. At Graphed, we think asking questions about your data should be as easy as having a conversation. We make it simple to connect all your marketing and sales data sources — like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce — and build real-time dashboards using plain English. Simply describe the chart you want to see, and it appears, ready for analysis or to be shared with your team. To see how easy data analysis can be, try Graphed for yourself.