Hello! Welcome back to our workshop design course.
In our last lesson, we covered how to add explicit controls like slicers and filters, giving managers the power to consciously narrow down the data they see. Now, we'll explore a more fluid and implicit form of interaction that is one of Power BI's most powerful features: the way visuals talk to each other.
This lesson addresses the learning outcome: Describe how visuals interact through default cross-filtering. We will explore how clicking on a data point in one chart can instantly filter or highlight all other charts on the page. Understanding and controlling this behavior is key to creating truly intuitive and dynamic dashboards for the managers in your workshop.
From Slicing to Clicking: A More Natural Exploration
While slicers are excellent for deliberate filtering, much of data exploration is more spontaneous. A manager might see a surprising spike in a sales chart and wonder, "What products contributed to that?" Instead of using a slicer, they can simply click on the spike. Power BI's default interactivity makes this possible.
This interactivity comes in two flavors: cross-highlighting and cross-filtering.
To start, let's get a clear definition of these two concepts from the official Microsoft documentation.
Filters and highlighting in Power BI reports
This article, 'Filters and highlighting in Power BI reports,' provides the foundational definitions for how visuals interact. Understanding this distinction is the first step.
Please read the section titled 'Cross-filter and cross-highlight visuals.' Focus on the definitions of the two main interaction types and which visuals they typically apply to.
As the article explains:
- Cross-highlighting keeps all the original data but dims the unrelated parts. This is great for showing a part-to-whole relationship (e.g., "what portion of our total sales comes from this single product?"). Bar charts and column charts use this by default.
- Cross-filtering removes the unrelated data entirely, as if you had applied a filter. This is useful for focusing on a specific segment without distraction. Line charts, maps, and scatter plots do this by default.
Seeing Interactions in Action
The best way to understand this is to see it. Let's look at how Power BI handles these interactions by default.
The following image shows a simple example of cross-filtering. When a user clicks on the "Corn" bar in the left chart, the right chart automatically filters to show only the hours related to "Corn."
To see both highlighting and filtering demonstrated, the following video is an excellent resource for your workshop.
How to use the CROSSHIGHLIGHT and CROSSFILTER // Beginners Guide to Power BI in 2022
This video from 'Fernan | Power BI' provides a very clear demonstration of both cross-highlighting and cross-filtering in a report.
Watch the segment from 02:56 to 04:52. Notice how clicking a 'Category' in the bottom bar chart highlights the corresponding products in the top chart, dimming the others but keeping them for context.
This "out-of-the-box" interactivity is a major "wow" factor for new users and a concept you should definitely demonstrate live in your workshop.
Taking Control: Customizing Visual Interactions
While the default behavior is powerful, it's not always what you want. For example, you might have a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) card showing total annual sales. You probably don't want that number to change when a manager clicks on a specific region in a map.
Power BI gives you, the report creator, full control over these interactions using the Edit Interactions feature.
This is a critical skill to teach in your workshop, as it allows managers to tailor the report's behavior to their exact needs. The official Microsoft documentation provides a clear, step-by-step guide.
Change how visuals interact in a Power BI report
The article 'Change how visuals interact in a Power BI report' is your main guide for this topic. It explains how to enable the controls and what each option does.
Read the sections 'Introduction to visual interactions,' 'Enable the visual interaction controls,' and 'Change the interaction behavior.' Pay close attention to the three icons that appear and what they represent: Filter, Highlight, and None.
To see this process in action, let's watch two short video clips.
How to use the CROSSHIGHLIGHT and CROSSFILTER // Beginners Guide to Power BI in 2022
First, let's return to the 'Fernan | Power BI' video to see how to switch a visual's behavior from the default (highlight) to filter.
Watch from 05:05 to 06:36. The presenter selects one visual, enables 'Edit interactions,' and then changes how it affects another visual by selecting the 'filter' icon instead of the 'highlight' icon.
Power BI Visuals That Behave - Edit Interactions Done Right
Now, let's watch a clip from 'Guy in a Cube' that expertly demonstrates using the 'None' option to prevent filtering, which is perfect for the KPI card example we discussed.
Watch from 01:36 to 03:32. Observe how they select a chart, enable 'Edit interactions,' and then choose the 'None' icon on other visuals to stop them from being filtered. This allows for powerful side-by-side comparisons.
Test your understanding!
You are building a report for a logistics manager. It has a map showing distribution centers and a bar chart showing total shipping volume by carrier. The manager wants to be able to click on a distribution center on the map and see the carrier volumes for only that center. How would you ensure this interaction works as intended?
Show answer
- Select the map visual.
- Go to the Format tab in the ribbon and click Edit Interactions.
- Icons will appear on the other visuals. On the bar chart showing carrier volumes, make sure the Filter icon (looks like a funnel) is selected.
- By default, a map cross-filters other visuals, so this setting should already be active. However, knowing how to check and change it is the key skill.
Changing the Default for the Entire Report
If you or your workshop participants find that you almost always prefer filtering over highlighting, you can change the global default setting for new reports. This saves time by making cross-filtering the standard interaction between visuals like bar and column charts.
This setting is found under File > Options and settings > Options > Current File > Report settings. It's a useful tip for power users who want to standardize their report creation process.
Conclusion
You have now learned about the implicit, interactive nature of Power BI visuals. This automatic cross-filtering and cross-highlighting is what transforms a static page of charts into a dynamic canvas for exploration.
Key Takeaways for Your Workshop:
- Interaction is Default: Clicking a data point in one visual will, by default, affect other visuals on the page.
- Highlight vs. Filter: The two main interactions are cross-highlighting (dims unrelated data) and cross-filtering (removes unrelated data). The default depends on the chart type.
- You Are in Control: The Edit Interactions feature gives you precise control to change the interaction to Filter, Highlight, or None on a visual-by-visual basis.
- Purposeful Design: Customizing interactions is essential for building user-friendly reports where KPIs remain stable and comparisons are easy to make.
Preview of the Next Lesson:
We've now completed our module on building interactive reports. We know how to add visuals, tables, slicers, and control how they all interact. But how do we choose the right visual in the first place? In our next lesson, Select appropriate chart types for different analytical questions, we will kick off a new module focused on designing visualizations for maximum clarity and impact, ensuring that the story in the data is told effectively.