Power BI Matrix: Hide Column Headers, a Column or Blank Columns

I was building a sales dashboard for a client who wanted a clean, minimal look. Above one of the matrix visuals, I’d placed a text box with a custom title that already explained what the columns were, so the matrix’s own header row looked redundant.

The client asked me to remove it. I expected to find a simple on/off switch in the Format pane, the kind every other visual seems to have, and it wasn’t there.

It turns out Power BI doesn’t offer one for the matrix. You can still get the result you want, though, and the same goes for hiding a single column or getting rid of blank columns, which are the two other things people usually ask about next.

Quick answer: A Power BI matrix has no option to turn off column headers. To hide them, set Column headers > Text color and Background color to the visual’s background color, or cover them with a shape. To hide a column, remove its field or filter it out; to hide blank columns, turn off Show items with no data and filter out (Blank).

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through each workaround, explain how to hide one column or blank columns, and point out the Format pane settings that have moved since older tutorials were written.

Can you turn off column headers in a Power BI matrix?

Not directly. In the current Format pane, the Column headers card lets you change the font, text color, background color, alignment and text wrap, but it has no switch to turn the headers off. You can confirm this in Microsoft’s matrix format settings reference. So each method below is a workaround, and which one you choose depends on whether you want to hide all the headers or just some of them.

To show the effect of each workaround, I’ll use a simple matrix: Category and Product on rows, Year on columns, and Quantity as the value. The column headers are the row that shows Category, Product and the years:

Workaround 1: Make the header text match the background

This is the method I use most often. It hides every column header at once, and because it’s just formatting, it keeps working when you add fields or resize the visual.

Select the matrix, open Format visual > Visual, and expand Column headers > Text. Set Text color to the same color as the visual’s background, which is white if you haven’t changed it. Then set Background color to the same color as well, so you’re not left with a colored bar where the headers used to be.

The header row is now invisible, and the numbers sit directly below the title:

Keep in mind that the header row still takes up a little space. To make it as small as possible, set a small font size and turn off Text wrap in the same card. Also, the headers are only hidden visually: screen readers still announce them, and they still appear when someone exports the data, which is usually a good thing.

Workaround 2: Hide the header of one value column

Sometimes you only want to hide the header of a single measure, for example because the title above the visual already names it. For that, use the Specific column card.

In Format visual > Visual, expand Specific column and pick the measure in Series. Turn on Apply to header, and turn off the options to apply the change to values, subtotals and the total, so only the header is affected. Then set Text color and Background color to the background color, as in the first workaround.

This works for value columns only. The labels that come from the Columns field, the years in my example, can’t be targeted one by one, so they can only be hidden all together with Workaround 1.

Workaround 3: Cover part of the headers with a shape

If you want to hide only part of the header area, for example the Category and Product labels while keeping the years, the simplest trick is to cover it with a shape that matches the background.

Go to Insert > Shapes and add a Rectangle. Give it the same fill color as the matrix background and turn off its border. Then size and position it over the headers you want to hide, and make sure it sits in front of the matrix by using Format > Bring forward. Finally, select both visuals and group them, so they move together when you rearrange the page.

Here’s the whole process in action:

The one drawback of this method is that the shape doesn’t adjust when the matrix changes size. If you add columns or change fonts later, check that the shape still covers the right area.

How to hide a column in a Power BI matrix

There’s no “hide column” setting in the matrix either, so the right approach depends on what kind of column you want to hide. This table covers the cases I come across most often:

You want to hide	How
A measure column	Remove the measure from the Values well. If other measures need it, keep it in the model and only remove it from the visual.
One value of the Columns field (for example, one year)	In Filters on this visual, clear that value for the Columns field.
A column only on phones	In the Mobile layout, set that column’s width to 0. This doesn’t change the desktop layout.
The total of one column	Right-click the numeric column and select Customize total calculation > None.
All row or column totals	Turn off Row grand total, Column grand total or the subtotals in the Format pane.

If it’s the totals you want to get rid of, how to turn off grand totals in a Power BI matrix covers that in more detail.

How to hide blank columns in a Power BI matrix

Blank columns usually have one of two causes. The first is the Show items with no data option. It’s off by default, and in that state the matrix already leaves out columns where every value is blank.

If blank columns appear anyway, someone has probably turned it on. Select the field in the Columns well, open its menu and clear Show items with no data (Microsoft Learn). Note that turning it on for one field turns it on for every field in the same well.

The second cause is a column literally headed (Blank). It comes from rows in your data that have no value for the Columns field. To hide it, open Filters on this visual, expand that field and clear (Blank). The better long-term fix, though, is to fill in the missing values in Power Query, so the problem doesn’t show up in other visuals too.

If your issue is a measure showing blanks where you want zeros, that’s a different fix: see how to replace blank values with zero in a Power BI matrix.

What changed in the matrix Format pane

If you’re following an older tutorial and can’t find a setting it mentions, it has probably moved. These are the changes that confuse people most:

Old setting	Where it is now
Row headers > Stepped layout	Layout > Matrix layout > Layout: Compact (the old stepped look), Outline or Tabular
Column headers > Auto-size column width	Layout > Column width > Auto-size behavior: Fit to content, Grow to fit or Fixed width
Freeze row headers	Layout > Freeze > Row headers

For more on the tabular layout, see how to display a Power BI matrix in tabular format.

If you’re working on matrix visuals, these tutorials may also help:

• Create a Matrix Visual in Power BI
• How to Set Column Width in Power BI Matrix Visual?
• How to Sort a Power BI Matrix: Rows, Columns and Column Headers
• Display Average Instead of Total in Power BI Matrix Visual
• Calculate Percentage of Total in Power BI Matrix
• Power BI Matrix Visual Conditional Formatting

Frequently Asked Questions