Power BI Paginated Reports are known for precision, consistency, and scale. They are trusted for operational reporting, financial statements, regulatory outputs, and executive-ready documents. But a well-structured report is only the starting point.
What separates a good paginated report from a great one is interactivity—how users explore information, how quickly leaders get answers, and how efficiently organizations reduce follow-up questions and rework.
In this stage of report design, the focus shifts from building the report to using the report. The goal is to deliver insight clearly for decision-makers while giving end users just enough control to explore data without breaking governance or design standards.
For executives, interactivity means:
For end users, interactivity means:
Paginated Reports support this balance through a focused set of interactive features—designed to enhance clarity without turning reports into free-form dashboards.
Power BI Paginated Reports support four core interaction patterns:
Each feature serves a specific purpose and must be applied intentionally, based on how the report will be consumed.
Not all output formats support interactivity in the same way. This is a critical design consideration for both business leaders and report authors.
Because reports are often viewed on screen, exported, or delivered through subscriptions, Paginated Reports provide a render format object that can be referenced in expressions. This allows reports to adapt intelligently to how they are delivered.
From a leadership perspective, this ensures consistency and predictability. From a user perspective, it prevents features from appearing when they are not usable.
Visibility toggling is the foundation of structured drill-down in Paginated Reports. It allows designers to hide detail by default and reveal it only when needed.
This approach benefits:
This creates a guided experience: users see just enough information and can expand only when required.
Visibility toggling works in:
If a report is primarily consumed as a PDF, visibility toggling should be limited or conditionally disabled to avoid confusion.
Links allow paginated reports to function as part of a broader reporting ecosystem rather than standalone documents.
Links can also pass parameters, preserving context as users move between reports. For leaders, this means continuity. For users, it means fewer steps to get answers.
Interactive sorting gives users control over how data is ordered—without changing the underlying dataset or business logic.
This feature applies only to HTML-rendered reports and works within tablix headers or group headers.
Multi-column sorting allows users to sort by more than one field—such as sorting first by department and then by revenue—by selecting columns in sequence.
From a governance perspective, sorting affects presentation only. From a user perspective, it enables quick comparisons without additional reports.
Tooltips provide extra information without adding visual noise. They appear when users hover over a report item and can include explanations, definitions, or supplemental values.
Tooltips are especially useful for:
Because tooltips rely on hover behavior, they work only in HTML-rendered reports. Any information critical to interpretation should still be visible directly on the report surface.
Expressions are what make interactive features flexible and reliable. They allow report authors to:
For example, subscription emails often include an image preview along with a PDF attachment. Using expressions, the preview image can show a simplified or alternative view—while the attachment contains full detail.
This ensures every delivery method is optimized for how it will be consumed.
To ensure paginated reports serve both leadership and operational users effectively:
For executives, this results in clarity and confidence. For end users, it creates usability without complexity.
Interactivity in Power BI Paginated Reports is about clarity, not complexity. When used intentionally, features like visibility toggling, links, sorting, and tooltips help executives get answers faster and allow users to explore data without breaking structure or governance.
The result is a single report that works across audiences and formats—clear for leadership, practical for end users, and reliable at scale.
At brs, we can help you turn your data into insights with Power BI. Whether you are in oil and gas, mining, or manufacturing, our team can design and implement interactive reports or paginated reports tailored to your needs.
Your data is your most valuable asset — let us help you visualize it. Contact us today at info@bowriversolutions.com or visit www.bowriversolutions.com to start your data visualization journey.
This article is part of our Power BI Paginated Reports Series, a structured guide designed for both business leaders and report authors.
For C-level and senior decision-makers, the series explains how paginated reports support operational reporting, governance, scalability, and consistent decision-making across the organization. For analysts, developers, and power users, it provides practical insight into how paginated reports are designed, built, and refined using Power BI Report Builder.
Each article focuses on a specific stage of the paginated report lifecycle—from foundational concepts to advanced capabilities. You can explore the series in order or jump directly to related topics:
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View the full series: https://bowriversolutions.com/blog