How to Create a Slicer Panel in Power BI

Creating an interactive Power BI report is one thing, but making it clean, intuitive, and easy for anyone to use is another challenge entirely. A common problem is a cluttered canvas, where dozens of filters, or "slicers," take up valuable real estate. This article will show you how to build a collapsible slicer panel, a technique that tidies up your reports and gives them a professional, app-like feel.

What is a Slicer Panel?

A slicer panel is a dedicated, often hidden, sidebar in your Power BI report that neatly contains all of your filtering options. Instead of scattering slicers across your report page, you group them inside a container that users can show or hide with the click of a button. Think of it as a navigation menu for your data filters.

Why bother building one? There are three big advantages:

• Saves Space: This is the most obvious benefit. By tucking filters away, you free up the main canvas for what truly matters: your charts and key metrics. This leads to a cleaner, less overwhelming user experience.
• Improves User Experience: Centralizing your filters in one place makes your report incredibly intuitive. Users know exactly where to go to slice and dice the data instead of hunting for a specific filter somewhere on the page.
• Creates a Polished Look: A collapsible panel makes your report look less like a static page and more like a custom-built application. It's a professional touch that elevates the quality and user perception of your work.

Step-by-Step: How to Build Your Power BI Slicer Panel

Ready to build? We'll use a combination of shapes, buttons, and one of Power BI's most powerful features: bookmarks. Don't worry if you've never used bookmarks before, the process is straightforward once you know the steps.

For this example, let's assume you have a sales report with some basic charts and you want to filter by Year, Product Category, and Region.

Step 1: Get Your Report Visuals Ready

Start with a completed or nearly completed report page. Have your main charts and KPIs arranged, leaving some space on the left or right side where your panel will eventually pop out. The functionality we're building is a layer on top of your existing visuals, so it's best to have them in place first.

Step 2: Add and Format Your Slicers

First, add the slicers you want to include in your panel. In the Visualizations pane, select the Slicer icon and drag the fields you need onto it.

1. Click the Slicer icon in the Visualizations pane.
2. Drag 'Year' from your Fields pane into the Field well of the slicer visual.
3. Repeat this for 'Product Category' and 'Region', creating three separate slicers.
4. For now, just place them on the canvas. Don't worry too much about perfect positioning yet. Format them to a consistent style (e.g., list vs. dropdown), size, and font treatment.

Step 3: Create the Panel Background

Your slicers need a home. We'll use a simple shape to act as the background for our panel.

1. Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
2. Click on Shapes and select the Rectangle.
3. Resize and position the rectangle on the left side of your report canvas. This will be the physical panel that slides in and out.
4. Use the Format pane to customize its appearance. A common choice is a light gray or a color that matches your report's theme. You can also adjust its transparency under Style > Fill. Go to Effects > Shadow and toggle the shadow on for a nice depth effect.

Once your background is ready, drag your slicers from Step 2 on top of the rectangle, aligning them neatly inside.

Step 4: Use Bookmarks to Manage Visibility

This is where the magic happens. Bookmarks in Power BI save the state of a report page— including the visibility of objects and filter selections. We'll create two bookmarks: one for when the slicer panel is visible (its "Show" state) and one for when it's hidden (its "Hide" state).

But first, open two essential panes from the View tab: the Bookmarks pane and the Selection pane. The Selection pane lists all the objects on your page and lets you show or hide them with a click of an eye icon. This is crucial for setting up your bookmarks.

Grouping Your Panel Objects

In the Selection pane, you'll see a list of everything on your page. To make managing the panel easier, let's group all its components. Hold Ctrl and click on the rectangle shape and each of your slicers. Right-click and select Group > Group. Rename this group to something intuitive, like "Slicer Panel Group." Now you can show or hide the entire panel with a single click in the Selection pane!

Creating Your "Hide" Button and "Show" Button

We'll need buttons to trigger our bookmarks. Go to Insert > Buttons and add two buttons. A good choice is the 'right arrow' for opening the panel and the 'left arrow' for closing it. You could also use icons like a filter symbol and an 'X'.

Place the "Show Panel" button (right arrow) where you want it to appear when the panel is hidden. Place the "Hide Panel" button (left arrow) at the top of the slicer panel itself.

Configuring the "Show Panel" State and Bookmark

1. In the Selection pane, make sure the "Slicer Panel Group" and the "Hide Panel" button are visible (eye icon showing).
2. Now, hide the "Show Panel" button (click its eye icon to close it).
3. With your report in this state, go to the Bookmarks pane, click Add.
4. Rename the new bookmark to "Show Panel." Click the three dots (...) next to it and, importantly, uncheck the box for "Data". This is a critical step. If you leave "Data" checked, the bookmark will save the current filter selections, which you don't want. You only want to save the visual state (Display).

Configuring the "Hide Panel" State and Bookmark

1. In the Selection pane, hide the "Slicer Panel Group" and the "Hide Panel" button (click their eye icons).
2. Make sure the "Show Panel" button is visible.
3. Now, go back to the Bookmarks pane and click Add again.
4. Rename this bookmark "Hide Panel." Once again, click the three dots and uncheck the box for "Data."

Step 5: Connect Buttons to Bookmarks

The final step is to tell our buttons what to do when clicked. We link each one to its corresponding bookmark.

1. Select the "Show Panel" button (your right arrow).
2. In the Format pane, go to Action.
3. Toggle the Action to On. For Type, select Bookmark. For Bookmark, select "Show Panel."
4. Now, select the "Hide Panel" button (your left arrow).
5. In its Format pane, repeat the process. Turn Action On, set the Type to Bookmark, and the Bookmark to "Hide Panel."

Step 6: Test Your Panel

Your interactive slicer panel is now fully configured! To test it in Power BI Desktop, hold Ctrl and click your buttons. You should see the panel slide in and out smoothly. When you publish your report to the Power BI service, your users will be able to click the buttons normally (no Ctrl key needed).

Advanced Tips for Your Panel

Once you've mastered the basics, here are a few extra touches to make your slicer panel even better:

• Add a "Clear all Slicers" Button: Inside your panel, add a new button. Clear all selections from your slicers, then create a new bookmark called "Clear Filters." This time, leave "Data" checked (and "Display," but uncheck "Current Page"). Assign this bookmark to your button. Now users can reset all filters with one click.
• Optimize Slicer Formatting: To keep your panel compact, change slicers to the Dropdown style instead of List. You can also customize the headers, backgrounds, and font sizes to make them uniform and easy to read.
• Consider layering: When the slicer panel opens, you might want to slightly dim the rest of the report. You can achieve this by adding a large, dark, semi-transparent rectangle to your "Show Panel" bookmark state that sits between the panel and your charts, and hiding it in the "Hide Panel" state.

Final Thoughts

Building a slicer panel is a fantastic way to level up your Power BI reports. It takes a few extra minutes to set up, but the impact on layout, usability, and professionalism is enormous. You're effectively taking a standard report and turning it into a polished, app-like experience for your end users.

Manual report building in tools like Power BI is powerful, but it involves a steep learning curve with features like layers and bookmarks. At Graphed, we remove this friction entirely. We built Graphed to be your AI data analyst, connecting to all your marketing and sales sources automatically. Instead of manually arranging visuals, setting up panels, and linking buttons, you just ask questions in plain English - like "Build a dashboard comparing campaign spend vs. revenue last quarter." Graphed instantly handles the design and creates a real-time, interactive dashboard for you in seconds.