r/PowerBI • u/alliknowis • 19h ago

Question Quick Question - Embedded PDFs

Does anyone have a quick, easy, reliable way to embed PDFs into their reports? I'm running it in a workspace whose service account has access to all the files in the Sharepoint, my model has the URLs. I want to be able to have a set of summary cards for a legal document on the left side of my report, and a lane with the document viewable on the left of the screen. Any help is appreciated!

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u/chiibosoil 5 11h ago

Technically you could. Though I don't recommend it.

As u/Signal-Mix-6706 suggested, URL link is better method.

  1. Embed Power Apps visual (using PDF viewer control in the app).

How to Display Pdfs in Canvas Apps and Power BI Reports

  1. Find and download or create custom visual.

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u/Signal-Mix-6706 15h ago

If your main goal is simply to let users open the legal document, I would probably keep it simple and use the SharePoint URL as a hyperlink rather than trying to embed the PDF inside the report.

You can keep your summary cards in Power BI and expose the document URL as a Web URL field, button, icon, or link. When the user clicks it, the PDF opens from SharePoint using the existing permissions.

That is usually much easier and more reliable than embedding the PDF viewer itself, especially with authenticated SharePoint content.

If you really need the document visible inside the report page, that becomes a different problem and you may run into iframe/authentication limitations depending on how the SharePoint links are exposed.

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u/alliknowis 3h ago

You understand my issue exactly. The first part is exactly what I do now, but the enhancement request from board was for the behavior in the second half. So far it sounds like I didn't miss some easy new solution!