How to Group Tabs in Power BI

A Power BI report with a dozen or more pages can quickly start to feel like a cluttered desk, making it hard for anyone - including yourself - to find what they need. Tidying up your report by grouping tabs is a simple change that makes a huge difference in usability. This guide will walk you through a couple of effective methods to organize your Power BI report pages, transforming them from a confusing jumble into a clean, intuitive dashboard.

Why Grouping Tabs in Power BI is a Game Changer

Organizing report pages isn't just about aesthetics, it’s about improving user experience for everyone who interacts with your report. When your audience can easily navigate and find the data they need, they're more likely to engage with it and use it to make informed decisions. A little organization upfront saves everyone time and frustration down the line.

Here are the key benefits of getting your tabs in order:

• Better Navigation: Imagine trying to find a specific product on an e-commerce site without any categories. That's what a Power BI report with 20 unsorted tabs feels like. Grouping creates a clear path for users to follow, so they can jump straight to the "Sales," "Marketing," or "Operations" data they care about without endless clicking.
• Logical Structure: Grouping forces you to think about the story your data is telling. You can structure your report in a way that guides the user from high-level summaries down to granular details. For example, your first group could be 'Executive KPIs' followed by sections for each department to explore their specific metrics.
• Reduced Clutter: A long row of tabs is visually overwhelming. Simply breaking it up with clear headings makes the entire interface feel cleaner and more approachable, reducing cognitive load for your users and making your work look more professional.

Method 1: The Quick and Easy Separator Approach

Power BI doesn't currently offer a built-in "folder" system for report pages, but the community has developed a simple and effective workaround using hidden pages as separators. This method is incredibly fast to implement and instantly brings order to a sprawling report.

Think of it like putting dividers in a three-ring binder. You’re simply creating visual cues to separate different sections.

How to Create Separator Tabs: Step-by-Step

Let's say you have a mix of sales, marketing, and finance reports all in one file. Your current tab list might look something like this:

Sales Funnel, Marketing ROI, Q3 P&L, Sales Rep Performance, Ad Spend, Expense Tracking, Lead Sources...

Here’s how to clean that up:

1. Create a New Page: At the bottom of your Power BI window, click the '+' icon to add a new page.
2. Rename the Page as a Divider: Double-click the new page's name (e.g., 'Page 1'). Rename it with characters that will make it stand out as a divider. You can get creative here. Some popular options include:
3. Hide the Page: This is the most crucial step. Right-click on your new separator tab and select 'Hide page'. You'll see a small 'hidden eye' icon next to the name. This means the tab is visible to you in Power BI Desktop, but viewers of the published report won't see a blank page if they click it. It functions purely as a label in the tabs list.
4. Arrange Your Tabs: Now, simply drag and drop the separator tab to the beginning of its corresponding section. Then, drag all your sales-related report pages to follow it.
5. Repeat for All Sections: Create new hidden separator pages for 'Marketing', 'Finance', and any other category you need.

After a few minutes of work, your messy list of tabs now has a clean and logical structure:

==== SALES ====, Sales Funnel, Sales Rep Performance, ==== MARKETING ====, Marketing ROI, Ad Spend, Lead Sources, ==== FINANCE ====, Q3 P&L, Expense Tracking

It’s a simple trick, but the improvement in navigation and clarity is immediate.

Method 2: Building an Interactive Navigation Page

If you want to deliver a more polished, web-like experience, creating a dedicated navigation page is the way to go. This approach involves building a central "Table of Contents" or "Homepage" that links to all the other sections of your report. You can then hide all the other pages, forcing users to navigate through your custom menu.

This method gives you complete control over how users interact with your report and helps guide them through the data story you've built.

Designing Your Navigation Page: A Guide

1. Create Your 'Home' Page: Add a new page and position it as the very first tab. Name it something intuitive like 'Start Here', 'Home', or 'Dashboard'.
2. Design Your Buttons: This is where you can be creative.
3. Set Up the Actions: This step turns your static shapes into clickable links.
4. Repeat for All Pages: Configure a button for every major page or section in your report. You could have one button for 'Sales', which links to your main sales dashboard, and maybe smaller links below it for sub-reports.
5. Hide the Underlying Pages: As with the separator method, the final step is to hide all the pages that you've linked to. Right-click each tab (except for your 'Home' page) and select 'Hide page'. This way, the only way for users to navigate the report is through the beautiful and intuitive menu you just built.

Bonus Tips for Ultimate Report Organization

Whether you use separators, a navigation page, or a mix of both, these small habits will level up your Power BI reports even further.

• Adopt a Naming Convention: Be consistent with how you name your pages. A simple format like Category - Content (e.g., "Sales - Rep Leaderboard," "Marketing - Campaign ROI") makes everything instantly understood.
• Use Emojis as Visual Cues: Add a little visual flair and make sections instantly recognizable by adding emojis to your tab names. A simple 💰 for finance, 📈 for sales, or 📢 for marketing can help users find what they need even faster. You just copy and paste them into the tab name field.
• Add 'Back' Buttons: If you're using the navigation page method, make sure to add a 'Back' button to each sub-page. Go to 'Insert' > 'Buttons' > 'Back'. It will automatically be configured to take the user to the last page they were on, which is usually your navigation menu. This small touch greatly improves the feeling of a seamless application experience.

Final Thoughts

Organizing a messy Power BI file is one of the quickest ways to improve its value and usability. Whether you choose the rapid separator method or create a polished navigation page, you're making your data more accessible and empowering your team to use it effectively. These techniques turn your report from a mere collection of charts into a professional and intuitive business intelligence tool.

This kind of hands-on polishing is a necessary step when building reports in traditional BI tools. We built Graphed because we believe valuable time could be better spent on strategy rather than formatting dashboards. You can skip the tedious process of arranging buttons and hiding pages by instead using simple, plain English to build your reports. Just ask, "Show me a dashboard of sales by region and a line chart of traffic from Google ads," and our platform instantly generates a live, interactive dashboard, letting you get straight to the insights.