How to Make Slicer Apply to All Pages in Power BI

Building a multi-page Power BI report is a great way to organize your insights, but it often comes with a frustrating challenge: how do you get a filter on one page to apply to all the others? Having to re-apply the same slicers on every single page is tedious for you and a poor experience for your users. This article will show you exactly how to use Power BI's built-in "Sync slicers" feature to make any slicer a global filter that controls your entire report.

Why Sync Slicers Across Pages in the First Place?

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." Creating a slicer that applies to all pages isn't just about saving yourself a few clicks, it fundamentally improves the quality and usability of your dashboard. When you sync slicers, you create a seamless and intuitive experience for anyone interacting with your report.

There are three main benefits:

• Improved User Experience: Instead of forcing users to remember and re-select their filters as they navigate from a summary page to a detail page, a synced slicer maintains their selection throughout. If a sales manager filters for their own name on the overview page, every other page in the report - from deal analysis to activity tracking - will automatically be filtered for them. It’s how people expect dashboards to work.
• Guaranteed Consistency: When filters are managed on a page-by-page basis, it’s easy for users to accidentally analyze different segments of data without realizing it. They might forget to apply an important "Date Range" or "Campaign" filter on one page, leading to apples-to-oranges comparisons and incorrect conclusions. Synced slicers ensure everyone is looking at the same slice of data, no matter where they are in the report.
• Easier Report Maintenance: As the report creator, syncing slicers saves you an enormous amount of time. You only need to create and format the slicer once. If you ever need to update its style, add a new field, or change its behavior, you only have to do it in one place, and the changes will apply everywhere. No more chasing down ten different versions of the same slicer across ten different pages.

The Key: Understanding the "Sync Slicers" Pane

The magic behind this functionality is a special settings panel in Power BI called the "Sync slicers" pane. Many users don't even know it exists because it's hidden by default.

To reveal it, go to the View tab in the Power BI ribbon at the top of your screen and check the box labeled Sync slicers. A new pane will appear on the right side of your workspace, likely next to the "Visualizations" and "Data" panes.

When you select a slicer on your report canvas, this pane comes to life. It displays a list of all the pages in your report and gives you two options for each page, represented by two columns with icons:

1. The Sync Column (circular arrow icon): This is the most important one. Checking this box means that the slicer's selection will actively filter the data on that specific page.
2. The Visibility Column (eye icon): This column controls whether the slicer visual itself is visible on that page.

This distinction is critical and is a common point of confusion. A slicer can be hidden on a page but still filter the data in the background. This allows for really clean report design, like creating a dedicated "Filters" page that controls a dozen other pages without cluttering them up.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Apply a Slicer to All Pages

Ready to put it into action? Let's walk through the process of creating a slicer and making it control every page in your report.

Step 1: Build Your Initial Slicer

First, create the slicer on any page. This will be your "master" slicer. For this example, let's pretend it’s on our main "Sales Overview" page.

1. Click a blank area of your report canvas.
2. Go to the Visualizations pane and select the Slicer icon.
3. From your Data pane, drag the field you want to filter by into the "Field" well of the slicer visual. For example, you could use "Salesperson Name" or "Region."
4. Format the slicer as needed (e.g., change it to a dropdown, adjust the title, change colors).

Step 2: Sync the Slicer Across All Pages

With your new slicer still selected, turn your attention to the Sync slicers pane (if it's not open, go to View > Sync slicers).

• In the pane, you'll see a row for each page of your report.
• In the first row of column headers, click the "Sync" checkmark icon to instantly select the sync option for all pages. This tells Power BI that any selection made in this slicer should apply to every page of your report.

Step 3: Manage Slicer Visibility

Now you need to decide where you want the slicer to physically appear. You have two main options:

Option A: Make the Slicer Visible on Every Page

This is the most straightforward approach. If you want the user to be able to see and change the filter from any page, just click the "Visibility" (eye icon) checkmark in the column header of the Sync slicers pane. This will make the slicer visible on all pages.

However, doing this just makes copies appear in the top-left corner of each page. The best practice is to copy your master slicer manually for perfect positioning and formatting.

• Click on your formatted slicer on the original page.
• Copy it by pressing Ctrl + C (or Command + C on Mac).
• Navigate to another page where you want the slicer to appear.
• Paste it by pressing Ctrl + V (or Command + V). Power BI is smart and will paste it in the exact same position on the canvas. Repeat this for any other pages where you want the slicer visible.

The benefit of this is that all the pasted slicers are automatically synced. When a user changes the filter on Page 3, the slicer on Page 1 will update accordingly.

Option B: Use a Single Slicer on a “Main” Page

For a cleaner look, you can leave the slicer visible on just one page (like your "Sales Overview" or a dedicated "Filters" page) but have it control all the other pages behind the scenes.

• In the Sync slicers pane, ensure the Sync box is checked for all pages.
• Then, go down the list and only check the Visibility (eye icon) box for the one page where you want the slicer to stay. Uncheck it for all others.

Now, when a user selects "East Region" on your main page and navigates to the "Product Details" page, all the visuals there will be filtered for the East Region, even though there's no visible slicer on that page.

Pro-Tips and Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Syncing slicers is simple once you get the hang of it, but a few tips can smooth out the process and a couple of common pitfalls can trip you up.

Pro-Tip: Create a Dedicated "Filters" Page

For complex reports with many potential filters (date range, region, product category, campaign name, etc.), the best practice is often to create a single page dedicated to all your filters. Users land on this page first, make all their selections, and then use page navigation buttons to go to the different analytical views. In this setup:

• All slicers live on the "Filters" page.
• The Sync option is checked for all slicers across all pages.
• The Visibility option is only checked for the "Filters" page. This keeps your data-heavy pages completely free of slicer clutter.

If you take this approach, add a small text box or card on each content page that displays the currently active filters, like "Region: East" and "Date Range: Q4 2023," so users don't forget what data's being shown.

Pitfall #1: Confusing Visibility and Syncing

The most common mistake is assuming that making a slicer "Visible" is what makes it filter another page. Remember, syncing (the arrow icon) is what controls the filtering behavior. Visibility (the eye icon) just determines if you can see it or not. Mastering this distinction is key to building an effective report.

Pitfall #2: Forgetting to Sync a New Page

Whenever you add a new page to your report, Power BI does not automatically add it to your existing sync settings. You need to manually go to your master slicer, open the Sync slicers pane, and check the box for the newly created page to include it in the global filter group.

Pro-Tip: Use the "Advanced options" for Grouping

In the Sync slicers pane, you'll see a button for "Advanced options." This allows you to create groups of slicers. For example, you might want one group of slicers that Sync Across "Sales" pages and a completely different group of slicers that Sync Across "Marketing" pages. This gives you more granular control instead of having to choose between a slicer that works on one page or all pages.

Final Thoughts

Mastering a small feature like the Sync slicers pane is what separates a decent Power BI report from a great one. By ensuring your filters are applied consistently across all pages, you create a more professional, reliable, and user-friendly experience that helps your team find the answers they need without any frustration. It’s a simple technique that has a huge impact on your final product.

Of course, becoming proficient in tools like Power BI takes time and sometimes feels like a full-time job. At Graphed, we created a way to get actionable dashboards without the steep learning curve. Instead of navigating menus and panes, you just connect your data (like Google Analytics, Salesforce, or Shopify) and ask for what you want in plain English. We turn hours of clicking and configuring into a 30-second conversation, giving you the real-time insights you need to get back to growing your business.