Clear text in Q&A input field

[Anonymous]

Dear all,

I decided to post this in Service even though the issue pertains also to the Desktop and Mobile versions of Power BI.

Issue:

When using the Q&A Visual, we need to manually remove the existing text from the previous query each time before being able to enter a new one. This becomes annoying.

Ideal solution:

It would be great if an "X" or "Clear" button could be added to the Q&A Visual which removes the existing text in the input field with one single click. Please see the following link for the existing idea: Clear or X text string from Q&A field.

Help request:

In the meantime, we would like to ask for assistance in how to achieve a similar functionality using other means.

In the Desktop version, we can create a bookmark which when clicked reverts to an "empty" Q&A Visual.

In Power BI Service and Power BI Mobile however, the same bookmark does not work. 

1. How can we get such a bookmark to work across all Power BI platforms?

We would ideally like a solution that resets the Q&A text input field with a single click of a button, not multiple. Moreover, if possible, we would not like to force the user to refresh the whole report each time as this introduces an additional annoying waiting time.

Many thanks in advance

[v-zhenbw-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Sorry for that Power BI doesn’t have a button can clear the text in Q&A box yet.

If you want to change the text, you can click the button on the left of the text box.

It will select all text, then you can click the delete key on the keyboard.

If you have any question, please kindly ask here and we will try to resolve it.

Best regards,

Community Support Team _ zhenbw

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Greg_Deckler]

@Anonymous  - Perhaps use a button and a bookmark? 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Greg_Deckler,

Thank you for the speedy reply.

Maybe I was not clear enough in the original question statement. What you suggest is exactly what we have been trying.

The bookmark + button approach works perfectly in Power BI Desktop. It does not however work in neither Power BI Service nor Power BI Mobile, as clicking the button does not result in the Q&A Visual resetting.

To use Power BI Service as an example, what happens when clicking the bookmark button (denoted 1 in the screenshot below) is that a separate button in the upper-right corner of the Power BI Service report view is highlighted (denoted 2 in the screenshot below).

On mouse-over, this button displays the message "Reset filters, slicers, and other data view changes you've made." When clicked, you are additionally prompted with a question asking you if you want to reset the filters, slicers and other data view changes of the report. Only after clicking "Reset" in this prompt, will the actual resetting of the Q&A Visual take place.

In other words, the button + bookmark approach in Power BI Service leads to more waiting time and button clicks than CTRL + A and backspace, whereas the same approach in Power BI Desktop is a one-click way of resetting the input field of the Q&A Visual.

Power BI Service view

Is there a way to make the behaviour of the bookmarked reset button so that it simply resets the state of the report without the user having to make these additional clicks I just mentioned?

Many thanks

[Anand24]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Currently there is no work-around to clear Q&A text field area directly in Power BI Service.

You can try by turning-on the persistent filter option but i don't think it will work either.(Link)

I guess you have already figured out how to achieve the bookmark+button combination to achive with 2 clicks.

Another suggestion would be to have Q&A action if possible to close the Q&A windowin 1-click but yes, this goes with the fact that 1 additional click is required to even access the feature.

Give a thumbs up if this post helped you in any way and mark this post as solution if it solved your query !!!