How to Edit Text in Power BI

A well-designed Power BI report does more than just display data, it tells a clear story. But even the most beautiful chart can fall flat if its titles and labels are confusing or unhelpful. This guide will walk you through exactly how to edit text across your Power BI reports, from basic chart titles to dynamic text that updates automatically.

Good Reports Need Great Text

Before jumping into the "how," it's worth understanding "why" text editing is so important in a visual-heavy tool like Power BI. Your visuals show what's happening, but text explains why it matters. Clear, concise text brings several benefits:

• Better Context: A title that reads "YTD Revenue vs. Target" is instantly more understandable than a default title like "Sum of Sales Amount by Month."
• Guided Analysis: Use text boxes to summarize findings, point out key insights on a chart, or explain an unusual data spike. You're guiding your audience's attention where it needs to be.
• Increased Readability: Adjusting font sizes, colors, and styles makes your reports less cluttered and easier to read, especially during presentations or when viewed on different screen sizes.
• Professional Polish: A report with consistent and clean typography simply looks more credible and professional, building trust with your stakeholders.

Editing Text within Your Visuals

Most of the text you'll want to change lives directly on your charts, graphs, and cards. Power BI centralizes these options in the "Format your visual" pane, which you can access by first selecting a visual and then clicking the paintbrush icon in the Visualizations pane.

Adjusting Chart and Axis Titles

Titles are your report's headlines. They should be descriptive and concise. Vague, system-generated titles are one of the most common signs of an unpolished report.

To edit the main title of a visual:

1. Select the visual you want to edit.
2. Go to the "Format your visual" pane.
3. Select the "General" tab at the top of the pane.
4. Expand the "Title" section.
5. Under the Text field, type your new, descriptive title.
6. Below the text field, you'll find options to change the Font, Text color, Background color, and Horizontal alignment.

To edit the X-axis and Y-axis titles:

1. Select the visual.
2. In the "Format your visual" pane, make sure you're on the "Visual" tab.
3. Expand the "X-axis" section.
4. Expand the "Title" sub-section that appears. Here you can change the title text, color, and font for the horizontal axis.
5. Repeat the process for the "Y-axis" section to modify the vertical axis title.

Pro Tip: Sometimes, you don't need an axis title, especially if the main title and data labels make it obvious (e.g., a "Sales by Year" chart with years on the x-axis). You can simply toggle the "Title" switch off in these sections to clean up your visual.

Formatting Data and Category Labels

Data labels are the numbers that appear directly on your chart (e.g., on top of the bars in a bar chart). Messy labels can make a good visual nearly impossible to read.

To format data labels:

1. Select your visual and go to the "Format your visual" pane.
2. Under the "Visual" tab, find and switch on "Data labels."
3. Expand the "Data labels" section.
4. Inside, you can adjust the "Position" (e.g., Inside end, Outside end), and expand the "Values" sub-section to change the font, size, and color.
5. Under "Values," look for "Display units." This is incredibly useful for formatting large numbers. You can change raw numbers like 2,500,000 into a cleaner "2.5M."

Category labels are the text that describes the data points on an axis (e.g., the months "Jan, Feb, Mar" on the X-axis). These are edited in the axis settings as well.

1. In the "Format your visual" pane > "Visual" tab, expand "X-axis."
2. Click into the "Values" section to change the font, color, and size of the category labels on that axis.

Working with a Legend

A legend can be edited for positioning and style, but the actual text it contains is pulled directly from the name of the data field you're using. To edit the text style:

1. In the "Format your visual" pane > "Visual" tab, expand the "Legend" section.
2. Under "Text," you can change the font family, font size, and color.

If you want to change the actual words in the legend (e.g., from "SalesAmt" to "Total Sales"), you have to rename the field itself. The easiest way is to go to the "Data" pane on the right, find the field your visual is using, click the three dots (...), and choose "Rename for this visual."

Adding Descriptive Context with Text Boxes

Sometimes you need to add text that isn't attached to a specific chart, like an executive summary, instructions for the user, or a definition of a key metric. This is where text boxes come in.

To add and format a text box:

1. Make sure no visual is selected by clicking on a blank area of your report canvas.
2. In the top ribbon, click the "Insert" tab.
3. Click the "Text box" button.
4. A text box will appear on your canvas. Drag it to your desired position and resize it as needed.
5. Type your text directly into the box. You'll see a basic formatting toolbar appear above the text box for quick changes like bold, italics, font size, and alignment.
6. For more advanced formatting, select the text box and use the "Format" pane that appears on the right for background colors, borders, and other styling options.

Text boxes are perfect for adding a title to your entire report page or for writing a small paragraph explaining what the user is looking at in a particular section.

Using Dynamic Text with Measures

What if you want a title to update automatically based on a user's filter selection? For example, when a user selects "2023" in a slicer, the title of a chart changes from "Total Sales" to "Total Sales for 2023." This is where you can use a simple DAX measure as a powerful feature that makes your reports feel interactive and intelligent.

Here's a quick example:

Step 1: Create a DAX Measure for the Title

1. In the "Home" tab, click "New measure."
2. In the formula bar that appears, enter a formula similar to this. This formula combines a static string "Sales for" with whatever value is selected in the 'Year' column of your 'Date' table.

Dynamic Title = "Sales for " & SELECTEDVALUE('Date'[Year], "All Years")

Step 2: Connect the Measure to Your Visual's Title

1. Select the chart whose title you want to make dynamic.
2. Go to the "Format your visual" pane > "General" > "Title."
3. Instead of typing in the 'Text' field, look to the right of it and click the fx (Conditional formatting) button.
4. In the popup window, change the "Format style" to "Field value."
5. In the field dropdown below ("What field should we base this on?"), find and select your newly created "Dynamic Title" measure.
6. Click OK.

Now, when you use a slicer to pick a year, the title of your chart will update itself instantly. This technique can be applied to different scenarios and adds a layer of sophistication to your reports.

Best Practices for Clear Report Text

Knowing how to edit text is one thing, knowing what makes for effective text is another. Keep these principles in mind:

• Be Consistent: Use the same font and size for similar elements across your entire report. All chart titles should look the same. All data labels should follow the same style.
• Prioritize Hierarchy: Your most important text (like page titles or KPI numbers) should be the largest. Axis labels and other helper text should be smaller and more subdued.
• Ensure High Contrast: Light gray text on a slightly-less-light-gray background is impossible to read. Make sure your text color stands out clearly from its background color for accessibility.
• Don't Be Afraid of Space: A cramped report with too much text is overwhelming. Cut unnecessary words and give your elements room to breathe. The goal is clarity, not density.

Final Thoughts

Mastering the text editing features in Power BI elevates your reports from simple data outputs to compelling, easy-to-understand stories. By thoughtfully formatting your titles, labels, and contextual notes, you make it easier for your audience to grasp key takeaways quickly and trust the insights you're presenting.

While tools like Power BI are incredibly powerful, they still come with a significant learning curve just to perform basic tasks like getting your data connected and presentable. We built Graphed to remove this friction. Instead of hunting through Formatting panes and writing DAX measures, you can simply ask for what you need in plain English. Just connect your sources, and you can create entire real-time dashboards by asking, "Show me a chart of our total sales by month for the last year," freeing you up to focus on strategy instead of struggling with software.