Configuring navigation for a report
Having a clear path to navigate your report goes together with the concept of using data to tell your story. Clear report navigation allows your report users to move from one page in your report to the next, move from one visual to another, and return to where they started. The design of your report navigation is important because if report consumers get confused navigating your reports, they will become frustrated and not use the report, so all your hard work will have been for nothing.
You have already seen one of the coolest ways to implement navigation: buttons linked to bookmarks!
Navigation buttons
To configure navigation within a report, it is recommended to use buttons. You will configure those buttons on either a dedicated page or a pane within your report. You can add a button to your report by selecting one of the buttons from the Buttons dropdown on the Insert tab of the ribbon. After selecting the button added to your report, you can enable an action for the button by clicking on it and then, under the Format button pane, toggling Action, and then selecting the kind of action you’d like the button to use, in this case a bookmark. Once the Bookmark type is selected, you then select which bookmark you’d like the button action to take.
Using an action associated with a bookmark can easily make it appear that a navigation pane opens and closes. All you need to do is create two bookmarks for the report page: one with the navigation pane hidden and one with it visible.
Figure 11.16 – Clicking on the button opens the bookmark where the slicer pane is visible
Once the report consumer is done selecting the slicers, they can close it by clicking on another button that takes them to the page bookmarked with the slicer pane hidden.
Figure 11.17 – Clicking on the arrow “closes” the slicer pane. We know it just takes us to the bookmark with the slicer pane hidden
This ability to use the selection pane, bookmarks, and actions on images and buttons can make your report more interactive and allow you to free up space for delivering information.