If you have some visualizations in your Power BI report that you only want to be visible when users have selected a single item from one or more filters, this blog post just might be the inspiration you need.
In my scenario I have a hierarchical series of slicers which allow users to narrow down the dataset to a single location. Only at the point where a single distinct location has been selected do I want additional visualizations to be visible on the page. These are mostly cards which are set to display the 'First' value in my dataset. Everything looks fine when I have just one location selected, but until that point there are multiple possible values and only displaying the first is confusing and just plain ugly.
I hope Power BI matures to the point of this sort of thing not requiring a weird workaround, but for now my odd solution is akin to a window shutter. I've added in a card over the visualizations in question that will alternate between being transparent or being filled with white to blend in with the background.
To accomplish this, I added a new measure to my dataset that counts how many distinct locations are being returned. If there is only one being returned then it will display an empty string (because this is when I will be setting it to be transparent). This is how mine looks, you might need to adjust it based on your own needs. In my case I was concerned with the distinct number of location codes specifically:
Locations Selected = IF(DISTINCTCOUNT('MyTable'[LocationCode])>1,DISTINCTCOUNT(MyTable'[LocationCode]),"")
Next I'm using an Advance Card visualization, because it's free and I like the added features that aren't included in what Microsoft gives you. Add in one of those and position it over the visualizations that you want to show/hide. Use the new measure you just created as the data field. Now in the 'Format' tab for this visualization, go to 'Conditions' and make sure it is set to 'On'. For 'No. of Conditions' enter 1. Then set 'If Value Is' to '>', 'Value' to '1', 'Then Foreground Color' to white (or whatever colour blends in with your background), and 'Then Background Color' to white as well. Make sure 'Background' is set to 'On' and that the colour is set appropriately.
Now when you run this report you will see this card either fill or be transparent based on how many distinct items have been selected according to your measure. It's weird but it works.
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