Dashboard tiles and pinning in Power BI - Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Dashboard tiles in Power BI let you show important visuals like charts or numbers in one place. Pinning means you choose which visuals from reports or Q&A to add as tiles on your dashboard. This helps you keep track of key info quickly.

When you want to see your sales chart and top products on one screen without opening the full report

When your manager asks for a quick view of monthly revenue and customer count

When you want to create a summary page with different visuals from multiple reports

When you want to monitor daily performance metrics in real time

When you want to share a snapshot of key data with your team on a dashboard

Steps

Step 1: Open the report containing the visual you want to pin

- Power BI Service report view

The report page with all visuals appears

Step 2: Hover over the visual you want to pin and click the pin icon

- Visual header on the report page

A pin dialog opens asking where to pin the visual

Step 3: Select an existing dashboard or create a new one in the pin dialog

- Pin to dashboard dialog

The visual is added as a tile on the chosen dashboard

Step 4: Go to the dashboard by clicking its name in the left navigation pane

- Power BI Service navigation pane

The dashboard opens showing the pinned tile

Step 5: Resize or move the tile by dragging its edges or dragging the tile itself

- Dashboard canvas

The tile changes size or position on the dashboard

Step 6: To pin a Q&A answer, type a question in the Q&A box and click the pin icon on the answer

- Dashboard Q&A box

The Q&A visual is pinned as a tile on the dashboard

Before vs After

Before

Dashboard is empty with no tiles, no visuals shown

After

Dashboard shows pinned tiles with sales chart, top products, and Q&A answer arranged and sized

Settings Reference

Tile size

📍 Dashboard canvas when editing

Adjust the visual space the tile occupies on the dashboard

Default: Medium

Tile details

📍 Tile menu (ellipsis ... on tile) > Edit details

Customize the tile's title and add links for more info

Default: Title from visual

Dashboard selection

📍 Pin to dashboard dialog

Choose where to pin the visual tile

Default: Last used dashboard

Common Mistakes

Trying to pin a visual from Power BI Desktop instead of Power BI Service

Pinning is done in the Power BI Service web interface, not in Desktop

Publish the report to Power BI Service, then pin visuals from the online report

Not selecting a dashboard when pinning a visual

The pin dialog requires a dashboard to place the tile; skipping this stops pinning

Always select an existing dashboard or create a new one in the pin dialog

Expecting pinned tiles to update automatically after report changes without refreshing

Tiles update only when the dashboard refreshes or data refreshes

Refresh the dashboard or wait for scheduled refresh to see updated tile data

Summary

Dashboard tiles let you show important visuals in one place for quick insights

Pinning adds visuals from reports or Q&A to dashboards as tiles you can arrange

Pinning happens in Power BI Service, and you must select a dashboard to pin to