To configure Power BI paginated reports to export PDFs with specific formatting (such as page breaks, font styles, and dynamic content), follow these steps:
1. Set Up Page Breaks
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Insert Page Breaks: You can control where the page breaks occur by grouping your data or inserting manual page breaks. For example, right-click a group or table in your report and go to Group Properties > Page Breaks tab. Select Between each instance of a group or set a specific condition.
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Dynamic Page Breaks: Use expressions for dynamic page breaks based on parameter values. For instance, insert a page break based on region or category selection to ensure clean breaks when the report is exported.
2. Apply Consistent Font Styles
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Font Customization: In Power BI Report Builder, you can define fonts for text boxes, headers, and other elements under the Properties panel. Select your report element, go to the Font section, and choose the font family, size, color, and weight.
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Global Styles: To maintain consistent formatting, use Report Styles to set default fonts across the entire report. This helps retain uniformity when exported.
3. Ensure Dynamic Content Adjustments
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Visibility and Layout: Ensure that dynamic elements, such as tables, charts, and images, adjust according to the data. You can use expressions to dynamically show or hide content based on parameters or filters. Right-click an element, go to Properties > Visibility, and set the condition for when it should be visible.
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Dynamic Row Heights and Text Size: Adjust row heights and text size dynamically to accommodate varying data lengths. This helps maintain a clean layout when exported, especially if the content expands or contracts based on user selections.
4. Set Up Margins and Page Size
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Margins: In the Report Properties window, configure the report margins (top, bottom, left, and right) to ensure proper spacing in the PDF export. This is important to avoid content being cut off at the edges of the page.
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Page Size: Ensure your report fits the desired page size for export. Set this under Page Setup in the Report Properties window, choosing standard sizes like A4 or Letter, or a custom size if needed.
5. Test PDF Export
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Preview the Report: Before exporting, preview the report in Report Builder to ensure that the layout, page breaks, and dynamic adjustments are working as expected.
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Export to PDF: Once the formatting is set, go to File > Export and choose PDF. Review the exported file to confirm that page breaks, fonts, and dynamic content are correctly preserved.
6. Deploy to Power BI Service
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Once satisfied with the formatting in Power BI Report Builder, deploy the paginated report to the Power BI Service or Power BI Report Server. When users export the report to PDF, the formatting will be retained based on the settings configured during report creation.
