Power BI Tooltip

What is Tooltip in Power BI?

A Power BI tooltip is an excellent method to provide detailed data information on a data visual. A tooltip in Power BI is a small popup that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over a data point or visual element in a report. It provides additional information or context about the data point, enhancing the understanding of the displayed data. Power BI tooltips work with both Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service and you can customize tooltips as per the reporting requirements.

How to Add Tooltip to Show Other Values in Power BI?

To add a tooltip that shows other values in Power BI, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Import the dataset to Power BI using Data Connection and load the dataset to Power BI Desktop.

Step 2: Navigate to the Visualizations pane, choose an appropriate visual, and drag and drop the fields from the Fields pane to the report canvas.

Here we have chosen the Line and Cluster column chart visual from the Visualizations pane.

Step 3: Navigate to the Tooltips section in the Visualizations pane.

Step 4: Drag and drop fields from the Fields pane into the Tooltips section to include them in the tooltip content.

Step 5: Apply the formatting to the visual. Hover the mouse over the visual to see the additional information per the data fields in the Tooltips section.

As you can see when you hover the mouse over the Line and Stacked Column chart, a small pop-up window shows the contextual information on the Total population, Total Tests, and Total cases per 1 million Population and Total Deaths per 1 million population as defined in the Tooltips section.

You can create Power BI Tooltip on the Table visual as well. To create a Power BI tooltip on Table visual, follow the steps below:

• Create a Table visual in Power BI Desktop based on the imported dataset
• Navigate to the General section under Format your visual tab in the Visualizations pane and toggle the Tooltips slider to On.
• Specify the Tootips options, Text, and Background details to provide the formatting details

• Once the Tooltips is enabled, hover your mouse over the Table visual. You will be able to view the Power BI tooltip on Table Visual.

Currently, the creation of Power BI tooltip on specific columns is not supported in Power BI Desktop. Any Power BI tooltip you create will be applied to the entire visual or report.

Customize Data Points Results in Tooltip

You can customize the data point results displayed in a tooltip in several ways:

• Aggregation Function: You can apply aggregate functions in Power BI such as SUM, AVERAGE, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, etc., on the data fields specified in the Tooltips section.

• Calculated Values: You can perform calculations to customize the data points to be displayed in the contextual information in the visual.

• New Quick Measure: You can also create a new quick measure to include in the Tooltips section as well.

Once included in the tooltips, these customized data points will display when you hover the mouse over the visual.

Create Report Page Tooltip in Power BI?

Power BI allows you to create report page tooltips that show an entire report page within a tooltip. It is beneficial for providing detailed information without cluttering the main report. When you create a report page intended to serve your tooltips, you can customize the tooltips to include any visuals, images, or other items in your report page. To view the report page tooltips, you have to hover the mouse over the visual, and Power BI will show up the visual as defined in the tooltips.

You can create multiple tooltip pages linked to multiple data fields in your report. The tooltip data points can be filtered per your report’s data selection. To create a report tooltip page, follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Navigate to the Power BI Desktop screen, and click on the + icon available at the bottom of the Power BI Desktop canvas to create a new report page.

Step 2: Go to the Visualizations pane and under the Format page tab expand the Canvas settings card

Step 3: Choose the Tooltips option from the Type dropdown menu in the Canvas settings. It will provide a report page canvas size that you can use in your tooltip, i.e., this will ensure that the Power BI fits your report canvas as per the size available on your report page.

You can also customize as per the choices available by navigating to the View tab and choosing the options under the Page view menu.

Ensure that the page size fits the Power BI tooltip visuals. Otherwise, you will notice that Power BI not showing all the values in the visual. Select the right page view option to avoid scenarios where Power BI does not show all values in the visual.

Step 4: Once you select the Tooltip Type in the Canvas setting, you can choose the vertical alignment.

This will create a dummy tooltip in the report canvas.

Step 5: Expand the Page Information card in the Format page tab, provide a meaningful name to the tooltip, and enable the Allow use as a tooltip slider to On.

Step 6: Expand the Canvas background and specify the details such as Color, image, etc.

You can choose the background color for your tooltip from the color palette menu.

Step 7: Create visuals by choosing the appropriate visuals from the Visualizations pane and drag and drop the fields from the Fields pane to the report canvas. Navigate to Format your visual tab and apply the formatting to the visuals per your tooltip page needs.

Here, we have created 2 card visuals and one clustered column chart.

Step 8: Navigate to the report page for which you want to configure your tooltip report page. Navigate to the General tab under the Format visual tab in the Visualizations pane. Under the Tooltips section, choose the Tooltip option you had created previously.

Here we have selected the Demo Tooltip page that we created in the previous steps.

Step 9: Now, hover your mouse over the Power BI Visual. You will see the Tooltip page pop-up window you have created.

Note that currently, you can’t create Power BI tooltips on a button, unlike the report page. However, Microsoft may include Power BI tooltips feature in future versions.

When you cross-highlight a report, the report tooltips show the data specific to the report section on which you are hovering your mouse over. For example, in the diagram below, even though we have cross-highlighted Italy, you will see the tooltips specific to France when you hover your mouse over France.

Important Things to Note

• Tooltips can improve the interactivity and user experience of your reports by providing context on demand.
• Use tooltips judiciously to avoid overwhelming users with too much information.
• Check the accuracy and relevancy of the data displayed in tooltips, as they rely on your data model and calculations.
• Default tooltips may not work for large amounts of content. These tooltips may change their look and feel with any Power BI updates.
• Certain visuals, such as button visuals, support tooltips, whereas dashboards and Python/R visuals don’t support report tooltips.
• If a field is included in report tooltips, a Power BI visual containing that field will show the associated tooltip only when the visual summary matches the selected field.
• Power BI allows you to turn off the tooltips completely for any visual display in Power BI reports. But, when that visual is pinned to a dashboard in the Power BI service, it will display the basic tooltip.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Power BI Tooltip. Here we look how to add tooltip to show values in Power BI report with examples. You can learn more from the following articles –

• SUMX in Power BI
• Power BI Date Functions
• Power BI DISTINCT