Easy Tech TutsHow to Change Slicer Style in Power BI (Dropdown, Tile & More) Easily 2026
By Impran M NLast checked against official docs
A Power BI slicer can take nine different shapes, all controlled by one Style setting in the Format pane. The right one depends on the field.
A slicer with fifty dates is unreadable as a row of tiles but fine as a searchable dropdown, and five product categories in a dropdown just add a click. What most guides skip is that the Style list changes with the field.
Tile only works with text and numeric columns, the range and relative styles only with dates or numbers, and several styles refuse hierarchies. This guide walks through the switch on a real date slicer, covers which style is available for which kind of field, and flags the Select all behaviour that surprises people after a data refresh.
01Add a slicer for the field you want to filter
The report here already has a line chart tracking a metric across Year, Quarter, Month and Day from a Date hierarchy. With nothing selected on the canvas, click the Slicer icon in the Visualizations pane, then pick the field in the Data pane.
The slicer fills with that field's unique values and filters the other visuals on the page. In the recording the date slicer arrived in Between style: a range slider with two handles and input boxes. Microsoft's current documentation gives Dropdown as the default for new slicers, so a text field will usually start out collapsed.
02Switch the style to Dropdown
Select the slicer, then in the Format pane open Visual, Slicer settings, Options and change Style to Dropdown. The slicer shrinks to one box showing the field name and All until someone opens it.
Of all the styles it takes the least canvas space, which makes it the usual choice for long lists. Turn on Search under Slicer settings so viewers can type to find a value. Choosing Dropdown also adds a top-level Dropdown section to the Visual formatting options, with border colour, rounded corners and an accent bar.
03Try Vertical list
Set the same Style option to Vertical list and every value appears as a checkbox row, here each date spelled out with its weekday and month. It shows every option at a glance, which suits a short list and becomes a lot of scrolling with hundreds of dates.
Search works in this style too. Vertical list and Dropdown both accept hierarchies, so a Year > Month > Day slicer can expand and collapse.
04Use Tile on a text or number field
Tile lays values out as a horizontal row of buttons, with scroll arrows when they overflow. It suits short labels like statuses or years, and bigger targets are easier to hit on a touch screen.
After choosing Tile, turn on Responsive layout so the buttons rearrange as the slicer is resized. Tile only supports text and numeric columns, and never a hierarchy.
On the date slicer in this report it won't appear in the Style list at all. Build a separate slicer on a category or number field to use it. If you want images, grids or more styling than Tile offers, Microsoft points to the separate Button slicer visual.
05Set selection behaviour and the header
Style is one setting among several. Under Slicer settings, Selection holds Single select (off by default; when on, vertical-list checkboxes become radio buttons) and Show "Select all" option (also off by default).
These selection controls only exist for Dropdown, Tile and Vertical list. In Slicer header, Title text shows the field name.
Edit it or switch it off once the label is obvious from context. Colours behave differently by style: Values > Background colour fills the input boxes on Between, the whole dropdown box on Dropdown, each row on Vertical list, and each button on Tile. The checkbox or radio colour for Vertical list and Dropdown sits in its own Selection icon section.
06Keep equivalent slicers consistent across pages
Once a style fits a field, use the same one wherever that field is filtered, so a viewer who learned the date filter on page one doesn't have to relearn it on page two. The tidiest way is to sync the slicer itself.
On the View ribbon, open Sync slicers, select the slicer, then tick the pages where it should apply (Sync) and where it should appear (Visible). Synced copies can be moved and resized independently on each page.
| Style | Field types | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Dropdown | Text, numeric, date, hierarchy | Long lists, tight layouts |
| Vertical list | Text, numeric, date, hierarchy | Short to medium lists, drill-down |
| Tile | Text, numeric (no hierarchy) | Short labels, touch screens |
| Between | Date, numeric (no hierarchy) | A start-to-end range |
| Before / After | Date, numeric (no hierarchy) | Everything up to, or from, a cut-off |
| Relative date | Date (no hierarchy) | Rolling periods like last 7 days |
| Relative time | DateTime (no hierarchy) | Rolling periods in hours or minutes |
| Date picker | Date (no hierarchy) | Calendar selection plus rolling ranges |
From Microsoft Learn's Slicer visual documentation, updated August 2026.
When it doesn't work
Tile is missing from the Style dropdown
Why: The slicer is built on a date field or a hierarchy. Tile supports only single text or numeric columns.
Fix: Put a text or numeric field in the slicer, or use Dropdown or Vertical list for dates.
Between, Relative date or Date picker isn't offered
Why: Those styles need a single date (or, for Between, Before and After, numeric) column. A text field or a multi-level hierarchy rules them out.
Fix: Use one date column in the slicer, not the whole Date hierarchy.
After a refresh the slicer includes values nobody selected
Why: Choosing Select all and then clearing a few items makes Power BI store an inverted "is not" filter. Anything new that arrives in a refresh is included automatically.
Fix: If the slicer must show only specific values, clear the selection and tick the values you want individually.
Frequently asked questions
Which slicer style works best for a long list?
Dropdown with Search turned on. It takes the least space on the canvas, and viewers can type to find a value.
How do I stop people selecting more than one value?
Turn on Single select under Slicer settings > Selection. In a vertical list the checkboxes become radio buttons.
What's the difference between Tile and the Button slicer?
Tile is a style of the standard Slicer visual. The Button slicer is a separate visual with grid layouts, images, icons and more formatting, and Microsoft suggests it when Tile isn't flexible enough.
Can one slicer filter several report pages?
Yes. Use the Sync slicers pane from the View ribbon and tick the pages it should filter. It can filter a page without being visible on it.
Sources and last check
Screens and the date-slicer example come from a walkthrough recording. The Style path, the field types each style accepts, selection and formatting options, Select all behaviour and Sync slicers were re-checked against Microsoft Learn's Power BI documentation in September 2026. That check corrected the earlier version, which implied Tile was available for this date slicer; Tile doesn't support date fields or hierarchies.
About the author
Impran M N
I've been hooked on technology for as long as I can remember — especially the new tools and AI apps that seem to land every other week. Easy Tech Tuts is where I write up whatever I've just worked out: I do the task in the real product, record the screen, and turn it into the guide I wish I'd found first.
