Customize buttons in Power BI reports

APPLIES TO: Power BI Desktop Power BI service

Whether you create a button in Power BI Desktop or the Power BI service, you can customize it in many different ways to suit your requirements. For example, you can turn Button Text on or off, and you can change the button shape, icon, fill, title, or the action that's taken when users select the button in a report, among other properties.

Screenshot showing button shape options.

Note

Customizing a button requires edit permissions to the report. Sharing a report requires a Power BI Pro or PPU license or for the report to be saved in Premium capacity. For more information, see Which license do I have and What is Premium.

Change the shape

A rectangle is the default shape for buttons, but you can change the shape.

  • Select the button, navigate to the Shape tab of the Format button pane, and customize the button to any of these shapes:

    • Arrow
    • Chevron arrow
    • Pentagon arrow
    • Heart
    • Hexagon
    • Isosceles triangle
    • Octagon
    • Oval
    • Parallelogram
    • Pentagon
    • Pill
    • Rectangle
    • Right triangle
    • Rounded rectangle
    • Speech bubble
    • Snipped tab, top right
    • Snipped tab, both top
    • Rounded tab, top right
    • Rounded tab, both top
    • Trapezoid

Add a custom image or icon

Another great way to customize your button is to add a custom image or icon for your button.

Here’s an example of a button with a custom image:

Screenshot showing an example of a button with a custom image.

Here's how:

  1. Select the button, and navigate to the Style > Icon tab of the Format button pane.

  2. Select the Custom option for Icon, then select Browse.

    Screenshot showing the Browse option to add an image to a custom image.

  3. After you add your image, you can customize the Image fit and Icon placement. With icon placement, you can place the image either Left of text, Right of text, Below text, or Above text.

    Screenshot showing the icon placement options.

  4. You can choose the Custom option to control the icon’s Vertical alignment and Horizontal alignment.

    Screenshot showing the Horizontal alignment and Vertical alignment options for an icon.

  5. You can also customize the Icon size. By default, the icon size is set to Auto, meaning that as you resize the button, the icon size automatically changes size. You can set a fixed Icon size (in pixels) by typing a number in the Icon size box.

Add effects

Just like Power BI built-in shapes, Power BI buttons can have artistic effects to suit your design needs:

  • Shape shadow effects
  • Shape glow effects
  • Button Shape rotation and Text rotation

For more information about features that are similar or interact with buttons, take a look at the following articles: