Power BI Bookmarks: What They Capture & How to Set Them Up
A bookmark is really three independent checkboxes — Data, Display, and Current page — and most confusion comes from not knowing which ones a given use case actually needs. Pick what you're trying to build below and get the exact settings.
Toggle between two chart views
Checkboxes:
What a bookmark actually captures
A bookmark snapshots a report page's state at the moment you click Add, then a button can jump back to that exact snapshot. The snapshot is controlled by three independent checkboxes in the bookmark's options (right-click the bookmark > Update, or check them before adding): Data (current filters, slicers, and cross-highlight selections), Display (which visuals are shown or hidden, via the Selection pane), and Current page (which report page the bookmark navigates to). Any combination is valid — a bookmark doesn't have to touch all three.
All visuals vs. selected visuals
By default a bookmark applies to every visual on the page. Open the Selection pane, select only the specific visuals you want affected, then add the bookmark with "Selected visuals" — useful when you want one chart to toggle while everything else on the page stays untouched by that bookmark.
Wiring a bookmark to a button
Insert a button (or use any shape/image), then in Format > Action, set Type to Bookmark and pick the bookmark from the dropdown. Clicking the button at report-viewing time replays exactly what that bookmark captured.
Questions
Is this free?
Yes, completely free, no account or signup needed.
My bookmark changed visuals I didn't want it to touch — why?
It was added with "All visuals" selected, which is the default. Select only the visuals you want affected in the Selection pane first, then add (or update) the bookmark with "Selected visuals" instead.
Can report viewers save their own bookmarks?
Yes — in the Power BI Service, viewers can create personal bookmarks to save their own preferred filter combinations, separate from the bookmarks the report author built in.
Bookmarks vs. drillthrough vs. tooltip pages — which do I need?
If you need a jump to a separate filtered detail page, or hover-only extra detail, those are different features. See the drillthrough, bookmark & tooltip picker for the full comparison.
Have your data ready? Build the dashboard.
Upload your file, describe what you want, and get back a real, editable .pbip project today — free, no Fabric or Copilot license needed.
More free tools: drillthrough explainer & picker · star schema explainer · chart chooser · see all →