Forum Discussion
Linking documents
I'm working on an Area chart that displays a YTD employee performace score and a % to goal. Is it possible to link the employee's audit .PDF document (stored within my OneDrive) to it's score within the chart? Each of the decimal numbers are scoring events that have a related .PDF.
Hi PPars2025
Power BI does not support adding hyperlinks directly to points on a chart. However, there are user-friendly ways to link an employee's audit document to their score:
Two Practical Options:
- Table Next to the Chart: Clicking on a point in the chart can filter a table that includes the relevant row, where users can access the document link.
- Drill-through: Users can click on a point in the chart and navigate to a drill-through page that contains the related document link and additional details.
Technical Requirements & Limitations:
- The dataset must include a column containing the document link at the required level of granularity (e.g., per employee or per scoring event).
- If the documents are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint Online, ensure the links are publicly accessible or that users have the necessary permissions. Power BI does not handle authentication for these links, meaning users may need to log in separately when clicking them.
- Power BI Service may handle different types of URLs differently. Some may open in a new browser tab, while others may not be clickable depending on security settings.
UX Perspective:
Navigating back and forth between a chart and an external document can create cognitive overload. Users may forget the context of what they saw in the chart once they open the document, and switching back can be disruptive.
Recommended Approach:
Instead of relying on external links, consider integrating key insights from the documents into the dataset so they can be displayed directly within the report. This way, users can access relevant information without leaving the Power BI environment.
If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly
9 Replies
- Ritaf1983Super User
Hi PPars2025
Power BI does not support adding hyperlinks directly to points on a chart. However, there are user-friendly ways to link an employee's audit document to their score:
Two Practical Options:
- Table Next to the Chart: Clicking on a point in the chart can filter a table that includes the relevant row, where users can access the document link.
- Drill-through: Users can click on a point in the chart and navigate to a drill-through page that contains the related document link and additional details.
Technical Requirements & Limitations:
- The dataset must include a column containing the document link at the required level of granularity (e.g., per employee or per scoring event).
- If the documents are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint Online, ensure the links are publicly accessible or that users have the necessary permissions. Power BI does not handle authentication for these links, meaning users may need to log in separately when clicking them.
- Power BI Service may handle different types of URLs differently. Some may open in a new browser tab, while others may not be clickable depending on security settings.
UX Perspective:
Navigating back and forth between a chart and an external document can create cognitive overload. Users may forget the context of what they saw in the chart once they open the document, and switching back can be disruptive.
Recommended Approach:
Instead of relying on external links, consider integrating key insights from the documents into the dataset so they can be displayed directly within the report. This way, users can access relevant information without leaving the Power BI environment.
If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly
- PPars2025Helper I
Thank you for the great info! Would you mind sharing how I would go about adding them as a drill-through?
- Ritaf1983Super User
Hi PPars2025
I apologize for not explaining myself properly.
There is no direct Drillthrough to documents,
but you can create a table of links based on the dimension you have in the graph,
where navigating to it will display a single row with the corresponding link.If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly
- ToddChittSuper User
Are you wanting to show those values on the plot? That seems kind of messy.
Can you not save the name and path to each .PDF as a column in the base data? To see it, use a Table visual, and set the properties of the [PDF Location] field to be a Link.
- AnonymousNot applicable
Hi PPars2025 ,
Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
Ritaf1983 ToddChitt Thank you for your quick response.
We would like to follow up to see if the solution provided by the super user Ritaf1983 resolved your issue. Please let us know if you need any further assistance.
If our super user response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.
Regards,
B Manikanteswara Reddy - AnonymousNot applicable
Hi @PPars2025 ,
We would like to follow up to see if the solution provided by the super user @Ritaf1983 resolved your issue. Please let us know if you need any further assistance.
If our super user response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.
Regards,
B Manikanteswara Reddy - AnonymousNot applicable
Hi PPars2025 ,
May I ask if you have gotten this issue resolved?
If it is solved, please mark the helpful reply or share your solution and accept it as solution, it will be helpful for other members of the community who have similar problems as yours to solve it faster.
Regards,
B Manikanteswara Reddy