Uplift your storytelling by using annotations on your Power BI visualization in PowerPoint (Preview)

We have a new improvement in preview that allows users to make their presentations even more engaging by adding data point annotations to the visuals incorporated into their slides.

The Power BI add-in for PowerPoint significantly enhances presentations with live business insights, facilitating data-driven conversations and meetings.

Annotations enable users to add descriptive text directly to visualizations, offering contextual explanations or highlights that improve communication and understanding of the data being presented. This feature transforms data storytelling by allowing users to communicate insights with greater efficacy and enhance the engagement and informativeness of presentations.

Getting started with annotations

To utilize annotations, you first need to embed a single visual within the add-in in a slide. Then, simply select a data point on the visual, right-click, and choose ‘Annotate’, then you can begin typing your text.

You can reference the data point’s measure value and category values in the annotation text itself, ensuring the content you are adding is connected to the actual data point. Use the ‘/’ key to get a menu with the options that can be included in the annotation text.

When and where do the annotations show up?

Annotations that are added to your visualization are saved in the context of the add-in and the PowerPoint presentation. Each time you (or others) view this visualization in this slide the annotations will be loaded as well. But these annotations will not be presented when you are viewing the same visualization in Power BI service or in any other place; the annotations are at your aid in the context of the presentation they were created at. It also means that you can have multiple sets of annotations for the same visualization; each set provides content that is truly in the context of the presentation you are building.

Annotations will be displayed whenever the data point is visible. So, if the visual is filtered, resulting in the disappearance of the data point, the annotation will likewise disappear. Additionally, if the data updates and the data point is no longer part of the visual, the annotation will not be shown as well.

Although it is not possible to add new annotations in presentation mode, users can still manage the visibility of annotations during presentations, making the storytelling even more dynamic and engaging. A new action for annotations is now available in the footer (Data actions->Annotations) that allows users to hide or show annotations entirely. If annotations exist in the visual, but are currently hidden, you will see a badge notification indicating you that there are hidden annotations that you can reveal.

We hope you enjoy this new update and invite you to use annotation in your next business presentation. You can learn more about data annotations by referring to the add-in annotate documentation.