How to build a Power BI report 100% compatible with UpSlide link

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Written by Julien Villemonteix | Updated

Make sure a Power BI report is compatible with the UpSlide link with some good practices. If you are not the Power BI report builder, you may need to contact somebody else to do this for you.

Important
The UpSlide Power BI window only shows your workspace and "shared with you" reports but not the Power BI apps.

Summary

  1. Avoid incorrect filters
  2. Avoid grouping visuals
  3. Be careful with visuals and report background 
  4. Use slicers and relative date filters when needed

Avoid incorrect filters 

Using incorrect filters in your Power BI dashboard can make your export to PowerPoint/Word fail. An incorrect filter is one applied in a report that Power BI can no longer use or access. For example, a "country" filter where the country column has been removed from the database. The following message will alert you that an incorrect filter is set on your Power BI dashboard:
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You will need to remove these incorrect filters (which will not work in your dashboard either). To remove your filters:

    1. Go to editing mode in Power BI web 
    2. Open the filter panel
    3. Incorrect filters will show a yellow warning symbol
    4. Use the x to remove this filter
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Tip
Make sure you check each Visual, Page, Report Level filter and Hidden filter

Avoid grouping visuals 

Microsoft's API does not currently include information on grouped visuals we need for our link, so we cannot currently export them yet. If visuals are grouped, an empty blank shape will be exported into PowerPoint/Word rather than your visual. To ungroup your visuals:

  1. Go to editing mode in Power BI web
  2. Select the visuals you want to ungroup by holding the shift key while selecting them
  3. Right click -> Group -> Ungroup
    ungroup.png
Important
Your visual might be grouped with several other visuals and not just those next to it

You can also use the selection pane to quickly ungroup all visuals: 

  1. Go to editing mode in Power BI web
  2. Click on view and activate the selection pane
  3. Ungroup groups of visuals 

  selection_pane.png          ungroup_selection.png

Be careful with filter's interaction becoming deactivated

What are visual interactions? 

You might want to use a slicer to filter your report except for a specific visual. To do so, you can deactivate the slicer interaction for that specific visual. For example, you would use this when you have a monthly report and want to deactivate the "Month" slicer for a visual comparing year-round data.

Important

Microsoft's API does not currently include information on filter interaction information we use for our link, so we cannot currently export them yet. If you removed interaction filters between a slicer and a visual when exporting you will find:

  • the visual will not be filtered by the slicer 
  • the Update Link panel will show the slicer name and value as though it had been applied

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Be careful with visuals and report backgrounds

If you have a page background on the report, this will not be exported when you export visuals. Only the visual background will be. To check whether your visuals or your page have a background:

  1. Go to editing mode in Power BI web
  2. Click anywhere on the report to unselect all visuals
  3. Go to Visualization -> Page Background
  4. Check if the page has a background applied

You may want to remove the background from the page and apply it to each visual depending on the result you want in PowerPoint or Word.
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Use slicers and relative date filters when needed

You may have recurring PowerPoint/Word documents to update. Using relative date filter or editable slicers will ensure easy updates.

Have a look at our dedicated article: How to use filters as slicers in Power BI