Question

How do I edit or modify a Smart Narrative once it has been generated in Power BI?
After Smart Narrative generates a summary based on report visuals, I’d like to refine the text to better match our business terminology or highlight specific points. What steps can I take to customize or manually edit the generated narrative in Power BI without losing its connection to the data?

Answer 1

To edit or modify a Smart Narrative in Power BI while retaining its dynamic link to the data, Power BI provides a flexible way to customize both the automatically generated insights and add your own manually written text. This allows you to tailor the narrative to match your business terminology, emphasize specific points, or align with stakeholder preferences—all without breaking its connection to the underlying data.

Here’s how to customize it:

1. Enter edit mode:
   Select the Smart Narrative visual on your report canvas, then click inside it to enter edit mode. You’ll see the narrative broken into text blocks and dynamic value placeholders (highlighted with brackets {}).

2. Edit existing text:
   You can directly modify the descriptive text around the dynamic fields. For example, change “Total sales increased” to “Net revenue showed positive growth” to reflect your internal language.

3. Add or remove dynamic values:
   Click the “+ Value” button within the visual to insert additional fields, measures, or dynamic values into your narrative. You can also delete values if they’re not needed.

4. Manually insert commentary:
   Type directly into the Smart Narrative visual to insert your own commentary. This lets you combine automated insights with static explanations, giving you control over tone and emphasis.

5. Preserve context with filters:
   Any dynamic fields will continue to respond to slicers and filters applied to the report, so even your edited narrative remains context-aware and interactive.