How to Take Screenshot of Power BI Dashboard

Need to share your Power BI dashboard in an email or presentation? A quick screenshot is often the fastest way to get your point across. This guide will walk you through several easy methods for capturing your dashboard, from basic built-in tools for high-quality exports to clever shortcuts for sharing specific insights in seconds.

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Why Not Just Use Print Screen?

Hitting the Print Screen key on your keyboard is tempting. It is universal, it is instant, and we all know how to do it. While it works in a pinch, it's rarely the best option for sharing business dashboards professionally. Here’s why:

• It Captures Everything: Print Screen captures your entire screen - your browser tabs, taskbar, desktop background, and any other open applications. This can look unprofessional and distract from the data you’re trying to highlight.
• Manual Cropping Required: You’ll always have to paste the image into an editor (like Paint or PowerPoint) to crop out the unnecessary parts. This is an extra step that adds time and friction to your workflow.
• Lower Resolution: The quality of the screenshot is tied directly to your monitor's resolution. It can often result in fuzzy text or blurry visuals, especially when pasted into a high-resolution presentation or document.

It is fine for a quick, informal share with a coworker, but for reports, client emails, or presentations, you can do much better without much extra effort.

Method 1: The Best Way to Screenshot - Using Power BI's Built-in Export Feature

Power BI has a built-in feature designed for this exact purpose: exporting your report page as a static file. This is the recommended method for getting a clean, high-resolution, and professional image of your dashboard. You can do this in both Power BI Service (the online version) and Power BI Desktop.

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Exporting from Power BI Service (Online)

When your dashboard is published online, you have a few excellent options for exporting. The best one is often an image, as it's the most versatile for slide decks and documents.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Open Your Report: Navigate to the report page you want to capture in the Power BI Service.
2. Go to File > Export: In the top menu bar, click File or Export (this can vary slightly depending on your view).
3. Choose 'Export to image': A new option will appear in some versions of the service menu. Click on "Image".
4. Adjust Settings (Optional): A dialog box will pop up. The main option here is “Export with,” where you can choose between “Current values” (including any filters you’ve applied) or “Default values.” For a screenshot, you almost always want “Current values.” You may also find options here to exclude hidden tabs, which is useful for cleaning up your output.
5. Start the Export: Click the blue Export button. Power BI will begin generating the image in the background. For large or complex reports, this might take a minute or two. Once it's ready, the PNG file will automatically download to your computer.

Alternatively, you could also select the PDF or PowerPoint export options, which follow a similar process. A PowerPoint export is particularly useful as it places each dashboard tab onto its own slide, saving you a ton of time when preparing for a presentation.

Exporting from Power BI Desktop

If you're still building your dashboard in Power BI Desktop and need to share a progress shot, you can export it directly without publishing first. The process is slightly different and a bit more limited, as you can only export to PDF.

1. Open Your Report: Make sure you have the correct report page open in Power BI Desktop.
2. Navigate to 'Export to PDF': In the top menu bar, go to File > Export > Export to PDF.
3. Save the PDF: Power BI will generate a PDF file containing a high-quality, static image of your report. You get less control over the output specifics compared to the online service (e.g., hidden tabs might still appear), but it creates a perfect, uneditable snapshot.

From there, you can use any PDF viewer’s built-in tools to take a screenshot of the page if you still need it in an image format like PNG or JPG.

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Method 2: Faster Screenshots with Windows Snip & Sketch

If the built-in export feels too slow, or you only need to grab a portion of your dashboard, the next best option is the Windows Snipping Tool (or its modern replacement, Snip & Sketch). It’s much more precise than Print Screen and almost as fast.

The keyboard shortcut is the best way to get started:

Windows Key + Shift + S

Pressing these three keys together will instantly dim your screen and open an overlay at the top with a few snipping options:

• Rectangular Snip: This is the most common one. Your cursor turns into a crosshair, allowing you to click and drag to draw a box around the exact area of the dashboard you want to capture.
• Freeform Snip: Lets you draw any shape to capture, though it's a bit less practical for squared-off dashboards.
• Window Snip: This is very useful. Simply hover over the Power BI window and click once to capture the entire application window without including your taskbar or anything else on your desktop.
• Fullscreen Snip: This one is the same as pressing the Print Screen key.

After you take your snip, the image is automatically copied to your clipboard. You can paste it directly into an email, Slack message, or document. You can also click the notification that pops up in the bottom-right corner of your screen to open the image in an editor, where you can add highlights, arrows, or text annotations before saving.

Method 3: How to Screenshot a Single Chart or Visual

Sometimes you don't need to share the whole dashboard - just one important chart. Sending a screenshot of a single visualization can help you draw immediate attention to a specific insight without overwhelming your audience. Power BI makes this simple.

1. Hover Over the Visual: In either Power BI Service or Desktop, move your mouse over the visual you want to share.
2. Find the Header Icons: A set of small icons will appear in the top-right corner of that visual's container. Click the “Copy as Image” button (it often looks like a rectangle with another corner overlayed).
3. Copy As an Image With a Caption: This will open a dialogue box where you can copy the image to your clipboard and choose display options, for example, its formatting and appearance.
4. Paste It Anywhere: The visual is now copied to your clipboard as a clean image. You can paste it directly into emails, chats, or documents.

Pro-Tip: For an even better single-visual screenshot, first use Focus Mode. Hover over the visual and click the "Focus mode" icon (it looks like a square frame). This expands the visual to fill your entire canvas. Then, use the Windows Snip & Sketch (Windows Key + Shift + S) for a large, high-resolution shot.

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Tips for Taking the Perfect Dashboard Screenshot

Regardless of the method you choose, a little preparation can make your screenshot much more effective.

• Apply Filters First: Make sure your dashboard is showing the right data. Before you capture anything, apply the necessary filters for date ranges, campaigns, regions, or whatever dimension your audience needs to see.
• Hide Unnecessary Panes: In Power BI Desktop, collapse the Filters, Visualizations, and Fields panes by clicking the little arrows. This maximizes the dashboard’s screen area and provides a cleaner final image.
• Use Descriptive File Names: When you save your file, name it something clear and specific like Sales-Performance-Dashboard-Q3-2023.png instead of Screenshot-123.png. It will make it much easier to find later.
• Annotate After a Screenshot: Don't be afraid to add annotations. After you’ve captured your image, use a simple editor to add arrows, circles, or short text callouts to draw attention to the most important metric or trend on the dashboard.

Final Thoughts

Capturing your Power BI dashboard is simple once you know your options. For the highest quality, use the built-in Export feature. For quick, agile sharing of specific sections or visuals, use the Windows snip shortcut (Windows Key + Shift + S).

Of course, manually capturing and sharing static images highlights the bigger challenge: empowering your entire team with access to live data. Instead of sending screenshots back and forth, we created Graphed to solve this problem at its source. You can create real-time, interactive dashboards from all your marketing and sales data using simple prompts, and then share live reports with team members who can ask questions and get fresh insights for themselves.