Forum Discussion
How to directly reference a Measure within a Narrative Visual?
I want to leverage the Narrative visual to provide a brief custom narrative for my dashboard. I want to reference a DAX measures that I have defined in the text. However, when I try to add a value, it does not show any results. For example, in the below screenshot, I am trying to reference a DAX Measure called Admissions, but when I type in the name of that Measure, nothing happens:
Hi tfanaswala,
Apologies for the earlier miscommunication, you are indeed using the correct Narrative visual. Microsoft has changed how it works in recent versions. you can no longer drag measures directly into it. Instead, you’ll need to place your measures in another visual (such as a Card, KPI, or Table) and then build the Narrative from there.
Regards,
Prasanna Kumar
10 Replies
Also, all the documentation I'm seeing online keeps referring to "Smart Narrative" visual, but in Power BI (August 2025) version, I only see the "Narrative" visual, and it appears to be behaving the same way that the "Smart Narrative" visual is supposed to behave. Also, my workspace does not have Copilot enabled. Is that required to reference DAX Measures directly?
Hi tfanaswala,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Forum Community.
In the new Power BI Narrative visual (which replaced Smart Narrative), DAX measures like “Admissions” won’t appear in the +Value search unless they are part of the visual’s data context. To make them available, you need to drag the measure into the Narrative visual’s Values well in the Fields pane; once bound, it will show up in the +Value list and can be referenced in your custom text.
Regards,
Prasanna Kumar
This time, I've created a Narrative by summarizing a chart I already created. I cannot find a Fields well for me to drag measures into.
Hi tfanaswala,
The text box style Narrative you used can’t accept measures directly. To reference measures, you need the Narrative visual from the Visualizations pane, which does have the Fields well.
Thanks & Regards,
Prasanna Kumar
I've already tried the Narrative visual in the Visualizations pane (see image below), and that doesn't have a fields pane anywhere. What Narrative visual should I be using?
Hi tfanaswala,
Apologies for the earlier miscommunication, you are indeed using the correct Narrative visual. Microsoft has changed how it works in recent versions. you can no longer drag measures directly into it. Instead, you’ll need to place your measures in another visual (such as a Card, KPI, or Table) and then build the Narrative from there.
Regards,
Prasanna Kumar
Hi tfanaswala,
Just following up to see if the Response provided by community member were helpful in addressing the issue.
If one of the responses helped resolve your query, please consider marking it as the Accepted Solution. Feel free to reach out if you need any further clarification or assistance.
Best regards,
Prasanna KumarHi tfanaswala,
Just following up to see if the Response provided was helpful in resolving your issue. Please feel free to let us know if you need any further assistance.
Best regards,
Prasanna Kumar
Hi @tfanaswala,
Just following up to see if the Response provided by community member were helpful in addressing the issue.
If one of the responses helped resolve your query, please consider marking it as the Accepted Solution. Feel free to reach out if you need any further clarification or assistance.
Best regards,
Prasanna KumarHi - I have found the same issue. I believe this is due to the move toward Fabric. Can I recommend HTML Content (lite) Power BI Visual. It's certified and Free and looks and feels nicer than Smart Narrative.
You can use this to contain dynamic measures in a narrative.
Cheers
