Slicers, Filters & Interactions
Control how users explore data with slicers, report/page/visual-level filters, visual interactions, sync slicers, sorting, and the Selection pane.
Giving users control
Think of a music streaming app. You can filter by genre, artist, decade, or mood. The more filters you apply, the more specific your playlist gets.
Power BI works the same way. Slicers are the visible filter controls users click on. Filters work behind the scenes at three levels: visual, page, or entire report. And interactions control what happens to OTHER visuals when you click on one.
Slicers vs Filters pane
| Feature | Slicers | Filters Pane |
|---|---|---|
| Visible to users? | Yes — interactive control on the canvas | Configurable — can be collapsed or hidden |
| Scope | Page-level by default (can sync across pages) | Visual, Page, or Report level |
| Types | List, dropdown, between (range), relative date, relative time | Basic, Advanced, Top N, relative date |
| Best for | Frequently changed filters that users need to see | Default filters, locked filters, or filters that don't need user interaction |
Slicer types
| Slicer Type | Best For | Example |
|---|---|---|
| List | Small number of categories | Product categories (5-10 items) |
| Dropdown | Many categories (saves space) | Customer names (hundreds) |
| Between | Numeric or date ranges | Date range picker |
| Relative date | Dynamic “last 30 days” style | Always shows last month |
| Relative time | Dynamic “last 4 hours” style | Real-time dashboards |
Riley at Coastal Fresh (🛒) uses:
- Dropdown slicer for Store (45 stores — list would be too long)
- List slicer for Product Category (only 8 categories)
- Relative date slicer for “Last 30 days” (always current)
Filter levels
| Level | Scope | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| Visual-level | Affects one specific visual | You want a chart to always show only top 10 products |
| Page-level | Affects all visuals on the current page | The page is about “North Region” — filter everything to North |
| Report-level | Affects all visuals on all pages | Always filter to current year across the entire report |
Exam tip: locked and hidden filters
Report authors can lock filters so users can’t change them, and hide filters so users don’t see them in the Filters pane.
This is dangerous territory on the exam. Hidden/locked filters are NOT security controls. They prevent casual users from changing filters, but determined users can inspect the report settings. For true data isolation, always use Row-Level Security (RLS) — covered in Domain 4.
Visual interactions
When you click a data point on one visual, what happens to the others? Power BI gives you three options:
| Interaction | What Happens | Icon |
|---|---|---|
| Filter | Other visuals show only the matching data | Funnel icon |
| Highlight | Other visuals show all data but emphasise the matching portion | Bar chart icon |
| None | No effect on other visuals | Circle-slash icon |
How to configure: Select a visual → Format → Edit interactions → click the icon on each other visual.
Nadia at Prism Agency (📊) configures her dashboard so:
- Clicking a bar on the campaign chart filters the detail table
- Clicking a bar highlights (not filters) the line chart — so the full trend is still visible
- The KPI cards have no interaction — they always show the grand totals
Sync slicers
Sync slicers keep the same slicer value across multiple report pages.
Dr. Ethan at Bayview Medical (🏥) has 4 report pages (Overview, Departments, Doctors, Compliance). Each page has a “Date Range” slicer. Without sync, changing the date on one page doesn’t affect the others.
How to set up: View → Sync slicers → for each page, set Sync (apply the value) and Visible (show the slicer).
You can sync the filter value without showing the slicer on every page — useful for pages where the slicer would take up too much space.
Sorting visuals
Every visual can be sorted by any field in its data:
- Click the ”…” menu on a visual → Sort by → choose field
- Toggle ascending/descending
Kenji at Apex Manufacturing (🏭) sorts his production bar chart by revenue (descending) — highest-performing product lines appear first. He sorts his time trend line chart by date (ascending) — chronological order.
Selection pane
The Selection pane (View → Selection pane) manages:
- Visibility — show/hide individual visuals (eye icon)
- Layer order — which visuals appear in front of others
- Tab order — the order in which the Tab key moves through visuals (critical for accessibility — configure in the Selection pane, separate from the Format pane)
- Grouping — group related visuals together
Real-world: grouping for bookmarks
Nadia groups her “filter” visuals (slicers, date picker) into one group and her “content” visuals (charts, tables) into another. This makes it easy to show/hide entire groups with bookmarks — creating a toggle between “full view” and “focused view” states.
Knowledge check
Nadia wants clicking a campaign bar chart to update the detail table but NOT affect the total revenue card. How should she configure interactions?
Dr. Ethan has a date slicer on Page 1 and wants the same date selection to apply on Pages 2, 3, and 4 — but doesn't want the slicer visible on Pages 3 and 4. What should he configure?
Next up: Bookmarks, Tooltips and Navigation — create guided experiences with bookmarks, drillthrough, and custom tooltips.