Forum Discussion

c_cook28954's avatar
c_cook28954
Advocate II
1 year ago
Solved

Paginated Report: Service - Null Page Between Table Results

Hi all, 

 

Issue:

I've built a paginated report in Power BI Report Builder that includes several tables and, when published to Service, the tables skip a page when returning results.

 

What I mean by this is that page one will contain the start of the table, page two will be completely null (won't even contain the structure of a table), page three will then contain the table structure with results and so on. 

 

What's interesting/annoying about the issue is that the issue isn't present when I go to a print preview option within the Power BI Report builder and only appears in the below scenarios:

  1. When viewing the report in 'Print Layout' within Power BI Service
  2. When generating a pdf of the report in either Service or Power BI Report builder

 

It's also worth mentioning that the report generates fine in any format other than pdf. So Word, PowerPoint, Excel, ect all have no formatting issues. 

What I've tried:
I've attempted to:

  1. Remove the page break that I have at the end of the table
  2. Alter the 'keeptogether' status for the table
  3. Alter with the dimensions of the table
  4. Remove the footer
  5. Alter the dimensions of the footer

 

None of the above has made any difference and the null page is always present.

 

*Note that results have been blanked out, but you can still see the outline of the table where it normally would be

Sample Front Page: 

 

Sample Page Two:

 

Sample Page Three:


Any help would be great - thanks in advance.

Need Help

3 Replies

  • v-echaithra's avatar
    v-echaithra
    Community Support
    1 year ago

    Hi c_cook28954 ,

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

    This issue usually occurs due to mismatch between the content size (width/height) and the report page size or margins. Maybe Your report body or items inside it like tables, textboxes, etc. exceed the printable area of the page.

    Check page width vs body width.

    Check table and other items alignment, ensure that left + width ≤ usable width.

    Remove invisible objects like blank rectangles or hidden textboxes.

    For the table, set Keeptogether = False, Keepwithgroup = None, remove explicit page breaks.

    Temporarily reduce page margins to 0.25in on each side and see if the blank page goes away. If yes, you’re definitely dealing with a sizing overflow.
    Reference: Avoid blank pages when printing paginated reports - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

    If this helped, please mark it as the solution so others can benefit too. And if you found it useful, kudos are always appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Chaithra E.

    • c_cook28954's avatar
      c_cook28954
      Advocate II
      1 year ago

      Hi v-echaithra 

      Thanks for the response. 

      In order to test all your suggestions as efficiently as I could, I created a copy of my report and stripped everything out aside from one of the tables. I then reran the report several times after each of your suggestions, here's what I found:

      1. Removing blank/invisible objects: None existed on the page, so no difference
      2. Set Keeptogether = False: Already tried, no difference
      3. Set Keepwithgroup = False: Couldn't find this function
      4. Check table alignment: Reduced the size of the table by 30mm and found no difference
        Original Width: 265
        Original Location (Left): 10

        Altered Width: 235
        Altered Location (Left): 10
      5. Check page width vs body width: Well within the limitations, especially considerating the width adjustment in the previous step.
        Page Width: 29.7cm
        Length Used: 265mm + 10mm = 275mm
      6. Alter page margins: This was the only change that worked - I reduced them to 0.5 and the tables load fine, albeit very close to the top


      My issue now is that I have extremely slim margins at the top of the tables and still appear to have some whitespace beneath them that I can't take advantage of. Do you have any suggestions for how to fix this given altering the visual's size hasn't made any difference?

  • v-echaithra's avatar
    v-echaithra
    Community Support
    1 year ago

    Hi c_cook28954 ,

    Thanks for the update.

    To reduce unnecessary white space while preserving the logic for showing or hiding objects in a Power BI paginated report, consider the following approach:

    Use the “Consume container whitespace” property by setting it to True. This helps minimize white space that may appear when certain report elements are hidden.

    Additionally, place the items you plan to show or hide inside rectangles. Rectangles act as layout containers, and when the objects within them are hidden, the rectangle can collapse accordingly—further reducing blank space and maintaining a cleaner report layout.

    Refer to the Troubleshoot paginated report execution issues - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
    Add empty points to a chart in Power BI paginated report - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
    Empty and null data points in Power BI paginated report charts - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

    If our response addressed, please mark it as Accept as solution and click Yes if you found it helpful.

     

    Regards,
    Chaithra.