How to Create a Button Slicer in Power BI

Ever felt that standard slicers make your reports look cluttered or confuse non-technical users?

Button slicers offer an elegant solution, transforming filtering into intuitive, clickable navigation.

Instead of dropdown menus or checkbox lists, button slicers use custom buttons to filter your data.

This gives you complete control over design and user experience while creating cleaner, more professional-looking reports.

What Is a Button Slicer?

A button slicer replaces the traditional slicer visual with custom buttons that filter your data when clicked.

Think of it as creating a custom navigation bar where each button represents a different filter value.

Button slicers excel when you have a small, fixed set of filter options like time periods (This Month, Last Month, YTD), product categories, or regional views.

However, they are not ideal when you need a date slicer to filter to specific days or months.

The key advantages over standard slicers:

• Cleaner design – Buttons integrate seamlessly into your report layout
• Mobile-friendly – Large, touch-friendly buttons work better on phones and tablets
• User-friendly – Non-technical users find buttons more intuitive than dropdown filters

Step 1: Create a Supporting Table

First, create a disconnected table containing the values you want as buttons.

This table drives your button logic without affecting your main data relationships.

We will be using a sample sales data coming from different regions for this article.

Create a new table in Power BI Desktop with this measure:

Button Values =
DATATABLE(
"FilterType", STRING,
"DisplayName", STRING,
{
{"All", "All Regions"},
{"North", "North"},
{"South", "South"},
{"East", "East"},
{"West", "West"}
}
)

You can copy and paste this DAX code even if you don’t understand it! If you want to learn how it works, check out our introduction to DAX.

Keep this table disconnected from your main data model – it’s purely for button functionality.

Step 2: Create a Selection Measure

Create a measure that detects which button was selected:


Selected Region =
VAR SelectedValue = SELECTEDVALUE('Button Values'[FilterType], "All")
RETURN SelectedValue

This measure returns the currently selected button value, defaulting to “All” when nothing is selected.

Step 3: Create and Configure Buttons

Now for the visual part:

1. Insert a Button:

Go to Insert tab → Elements → Button → Blank Button

2. Set Button Text:

In the Format pane, under Button Text, enter your display name (e.g., “North”)

3. Configure Action:

Under Action, set Type to “Bookmark” and create a bookmark that filters the Button Values table to your specific value

A smart approach: get one button working perfectly, then duplicate it and change only the text and bookmark for each new option.

This keeps everything consistent.

Step 4: Apply Selection to Visuals

Make your visuals respond to button selections by modifying your measures:

Filtered Sales =
VAR SelectedRegion = [Selected Region]
RETURN
IF(
SelectedRegion = "All",
"Total Sales: " & SUM(Sales[Amount]),
"Sales for " & SelectedRegion & ": " &
CALCULATE(
SUM(Sales[Amount]),
Sales[Region] = SelectedRegion
)
)

Replace your original measure in visuals with this filtered version so the report responds to the button clicks.

Step 5: Style and Test

Make your buttons look polished:

• Use consistent colors that match your report theme
• Set a clear “selected” state with different background colors
• Add hover effects for better user feedback
• Size buttons appropriately for touch interaction

Best Practices for Button Slicers

• Limit your options – Stick to fewer buttons. Too many choices create clutter.
• Use bookmarks for complexity – If you need multiple filters applied at once, bookmarks are your friend.
• Test on mobile – Ensure buttons are big enough and spaced well for touch.
• Watch performance – Buttons with bookmarks can be faster than slicers on huge datasets.

Common Button Slicers Use Cases

• Time period navigation – Replace a date slicer with buttons like “Last 7 Days,” “Last 30 Days,” and “Year-to-Date.”
• Category filters – Swap a category slicer for branded product-line buttons.
• Regional dashboards – Let users flip between regions without opening a dropdown menu

Conclusion

Button slicers transform traditional filtering into an intuitive, design-friendly navigation system that users actually enjoy using.

Start with simple single-value filters to master the technique.

Then experiment with more complex scenarios using bookmarks and conditional formatting.

The investment in setup pays off through improved user adoption and cleaner report design.

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