Visualization (Buttons and Slicers)

[aziffarhan]

Hi everyone!
I'm currently working on an interactive Power BI dashboard and I’ve run into a challenge. I want to include slicers and buttons that allow users to filter by Year, Quarter, and Month.
My goal is to make the experience smooth and conflict-free — for example, avoiding situations where selecting Q1 and August (which belongs to Q3) results in no data.
I’ve tried using bookmarks to toggle between different slicer views, but I’m finding it a bit confusing to manage, especially since there are already quite a few bookmarks involved in the report.

Has anyone implemented something similar? What’s the best way to structure this so users don’t get confused or end up with conflicting filters?
Any tips on DAX logic, slicer design, or UX best practices would be greatly appreciated!

[v-lgarikapat]

Hi @aziffarhan ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

@danextian , @Sandip_Palit ,

Thanks for your prompt response

@aziffarhan ,

We’d like to confirm whether your issue has been successfully resolved. If you still have any questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re more than happy to continue supporting you.

Best Regards,

Lakshmi

[v-lgarikapat]

Hi @aziffarhan ,

We’d like to confirm whether your issue has been successfully resolved. If you still have any questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re more than happy to continue supporting you.

Best Regards,

Lakshmi

[v-lgarikapat]

Hi @aziffarhan ,

We’d like to confirm whether your issue has been successfully resolved. If you still have any questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re more than happy to continue supporting you.

Best Regards,

Lakshmi

[danextian]

Hi @aziffarhan Are the columns coming from the same table? If so, selecting a value in any of the slicers should crossfilter the others unless visual interactions between them have been disabled. If the columns are from different tables, it can cause issues with filtering behavior. As a best practice, use a dedicated date or calendar table that includes all relevant date components (such as date, year, month, quarter, day, week number, etc.).

[aziffarhan]

Hi @danextian, thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

There are a few things I still need help with.

Firstly, all the columns I’m using are from the same table. I’ve already created a Date Hierarchy consisting of Year, Quarter, Month, and Day.

What I’d like to achieve is the following behavior:

• When a user selects a Quarter (e.g., Q2), the respective Months within that quarter — April, May, and June — should also be automatically selected or highlighted.
• Similarly, when a user selects a Month (e.g., June), the corresponding Quarter (in this case, Q2) should also be selected or highlighted, even if only one month from that quarter is selected.

Is there a way to implement this kind of synchronized selection behavior in Power BI? I’d really appreciate any guidance or suggestions you can offer.

Thanks again!

[danextian]

Have you checked if visual interactions are enabled for those slicers? With or without hierarchy, as long as the interaction is enabled, you will get the same behaviour as in the image in my initital response. Also, please check if indeed the columns are from the same table - it could be a column with the same name but from another table.

[aziffarhan]

Hi @danextian, thanks again for your help!

The interactions are currently disabled, and there are a few reasons why I chose to do that.

I want the Month slicers to be selectable, not just displayed after clicking on a Quarter. At the same time, I need all buttons/slicers to be visible at all times. For example, when I select Q1, I want Jan, Feb, and Mar to be highlighted or selected, but I don’t want the other months to be hidden. I want all months to remain visible, regardless of the selection.

I’d really appreciate your help in figuring out how to achieve this behavior. Also just to add, a feature where I can select any months that I want without having to select a quarter is also needed. Whenever the user select a month, the respective quarter will also be selected, while the other quarter will be shown but not selected.

Feel free to let me know if more context is needed for your understanding.

Thank you!

[danextian]

If you disable the interaction then you can't really expect them to sync. There is currently no option to cross-highlight instead of cross-filtering the interaction between slicers. The default behaviour of a slicer to is to cross-filter even non-slicer visuals. That said, your workaround is to use dimensions that are not directly related to each other - quarter coming from the regular table and months from a months only table but still related to fact. Your diagram would look like below.

Cross-highligting will be done via conditional formatting. Create a measure that will check whether the months in MonthsOnly are currently visible in Dates table

Slicer Highlight Color = 
IF (
    SELECTEDVALUE ( MonthsOnly[Month Short] ) IN VALUES ( Dates[Month Short] ),
    "#ADD8E6"
)

Crossfiltering/highlighting from months to quarter also uses a measure  in a visual filter or conditional formatting.

Please see the attached sample pbix.

[aziffarhan]

Hi @danextian, thanks for your help, again.

Is there any way that I could make the font color in the button slicer becomes white after it has been highlighted. For example, when Q1 is selected, Jan, Feb and March will be highlighted and the font will be white (#FFFFFF).

I would appreciate it if you could help me with these inquiries.

Thank you.

[danextian · Accepted solution]

You could just create another conditional formatting measure but this time should be applied to the callout value of the buttons.

Slicer Highlight Color = 
IF (
    SELECTEDVALUE ( MonthsOnly[Month Short] ) IN VALUES ( Dates[Month Short] ),
    "white" --#ffffff for hexadecimal
)

[aziffarhan]

It still doesn't seem to work. Whenever I tried to select 2 quarters at the same time, the font becomes black again (in month). Really appreciate it if you could help me with these.

[Sandip_Palit]

This approach is simple to set up, requires no complex DAX, and is very intuitive for the end-user.

1. Build a Proper Calendar Table
The foundation of any good report is a solid calendar table. Make sure you have a table in your model with at least the following columns. This table should be marked as a date table and have a relationship to your data.

• Date (a continuous list of dates)
• Year
• Quarter (e.g., "Q1", "Q2")
• Month Name
• Quarter Number (for sorting)
• Month Number (for sorting)
  
  

2. Create a Hierarchy
A formal hierarchy will make the slicer "aware" of the relationship between the fields.

1. Go to the Model view in Power BI Desktop.
2. In the Data pane, find your Calendar table.
3. Drag the Quarter column and drop it directly onto the Year column.
4. Drag the Month Name column and drop it onto the Quarter column you just added to the hierarchy.
5. Rename the hierarchy to something logical, like "Date Hierarchy".

3. Configure the Slicer Visual

1. Add a Slicer visual to your report canvas.
2. Drag the entire Date Hierarchy you just created from your Calendar table into the slicer's Field well.
3. To get the button-like appearance from your screenshot, go to the Format your visual pane:
   Select Slicer settings > Style and choose Tile.
   You can adjust the layout and appearance further under the Values formatting options.

This single slicer will now provide a guided, drill-down experience:

• Initial View: The slicer will show only the Years.
• Drill to Quarters: When a user clicks on a year (e.g., "2025"), the slicer will automatically replace the years with the quarters for 2025 (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4).
• Drill to Months: If they then click on a quarter (e.g., "Q2"), the slicer will update again to show only the months within that quarter (Apr, May, Jun).

Users can navigate back up the hierarchy using the "Drill up" arrow in the slicer's header. This design makes it impossible to create a conflicting selection and eliminates the need for any complex bookmarks or DAX.

If this explanation and solution resolve your issue, please like and accept the solution.

[aziffarhan]

Hi @Sandip_Palit, thank you for your help!

Unfortunately, I don’t think a drill-down slicer is what I’m looking for at the moment. I’d like the slicer to display all Years, Quarters, and Months directly, so users can click on any of them without needing to drill down step by step.

I’d really appreciate your help with this setup.

Thank you!