AI/BI Dashboard Navigation: Nested Tabs, Page Structure, and Reusable Visuals

[sheeetal]

I have a few questions about AI/BI Dashboards:

1. Is there a way to create nested tabs (tabs within tabs), or are dashboards limited to a single level of page navigation?
2. For dashboards with many visualizations, what is the recommended approach to improve navigation and avoid excessive scrolling? Need hyperlinking solutions
3. Can users jump directly to a specific section/page within a dashboard?
4. Can visualizations/widgets be copied and reused across different dashboards, and are there any limitations to doing so?

I'd appreciate any guidance, best practices, or documentation references.

[emma_s]

Hi,

I've pulled together some notes on your questions, let me know if you have any follow up questions.

1. Can I create nested tabs (tabs within tabs)?

I'm afraid not. Dashboards only support a single level of pages — you get a flat tab bar across the top, and that's your lot. No sub-pages or nested hierarchy. (Author dashboards docs)

2. How do I improve navigation on large dashboards?

Some thoughts on dashboard navigation below, but I'd say you need to also think about the use of Genie Spaces  in your dashboards; this can help you cut down on the number of visualizations. No longer do I need to think about every combination, I just need the main ones, if a user needs something else they can ask for that .

• Multi-page reports — split your dashboard into logical pages (Summary, Details, Regional View, etc.). This is the most straightforward way to cut down on scrolling. (Dashboard concepts)
• Drill-through — users can right-click a data point and jump to a detail page, with filters carried over automatically. Works on most chart types and tables. (2026 release notes)
• Cross-filtering — clicking a bar, slice, or point filters the rest of the page instantly, no extra queries needed. (Interactivity blog)
• Bookmarks (new as of June 2026) — save filter combinations as named bookmarks that viewers can apply in one click. (2026 release notes)

Worth noting: there's no free-form hyperlink or "jump to widget" feature within a page. Drill-through combined with pages covers most use cases though.

3. Can users jump directly to a specific page?

Yes, in a few ways:

• Click any page name in the tab bar to go straight there
• Use drill-through to send users to a specific page with context
• Share a URL that preserves the current page and active filters

The limitation is that navigation works at the page level — you can't deep-link to a particular widget within a page. (Author dashboards docs)

4. Can I copy widgets between dashboards?

Yes, this works. Select a widget (or an entire page), Cmd/Ctrl+C, open the target dashboard in draft mode, Cmd/Ctrl+V. (2025 release notes)

A few things to be aware of:

• The target dashboard needs to be in draft mode
• Datasets get copied over as independent duplicates — they're not linked back to the original
• Standard dashboard limits on widgets, pages, and datasets still apply

Any other questions just let me know.

Thanks,
Emma

[balajij8]

You can follow below

1. Nested Tabs -  AIBI dashboards are currently limited to a single level of page navigation. You cannot create nested tabs. Each dashboard can have multiple pages that appear as tabs at the top, but those pages cannot themselves contain sub-tabs. All navigation happens at the top-level page selector. You can use below for organizing complex dashboards.

Filter widgets – Use dropdown or date filters to let users segment data within a single page without additional tabs
Multiple dashboards – Create separate dashboards for different sections and link between them (users can bookmark or create a folder of related dashboards)
Page naming strategy – Use prefixes in page names to group related pages (e.g., "Sales - Overview", "Sales - Regional", "Sales - Products")

2. Multi Page Organizations -  You can create multiple pages (instead of tabs) and use text widgets with markdown links at the top of the landing page as a "table of contents." Text widgets support links and you can  include links to Other pages within the dashboard, External Dashboards, Documentation or reports like below

• Overview page – High-level KPIs with navigation links to detail pages
• Domain-specific pages – Group related visualizations (Sales, Marketing, Operations)
• Drill-down pages – Detailed analysis pages linked from summary views

Filter-driven navigation - Use filter widgets to let users dynamically change views within a single page rather than creating separate pages for every combination.

Layout optimization - Place key metrics in counter widgets at the top. Use a 6-column grid strategically – place related charts side-by-side. Reserve top rows for navigation elements and primary KPIs

Dashboard linking patterns - Create a linking model where a main dashboard serves as a landing page with links to specialized sub dashboards for different teams or analysis areas.

3. Jump directly to a specific section/page within a dashboard

You can use bookmarks to save named filter combinations as shared bookmarks that all viewers can apply with a single click. More details here

Filter and parameters: Dashboard URLs also preserve filter values and parameters, you can share a link that opens a specific page with pre-set filters applied (parameter values)

Navigation Links - You can create links to other pages or external dashboards within a text widget where a landing page provides clickable links to detail pages, improving navigation for dashboards with many visualizations. You can use text widget links to reach a specific page

4. Visualizations/widgets be copied and reused across different dashboards - Visualizations and widgets can be copied and reused across different dashboards or within in same dashboard. All datasets used by the copied widgets are automatically created as new datasets in the target dashboard in case of cross dashboard copies.

Limitations 

• 100 widgets per page
• 100 datasets per dashboard
• 15 pages per dashboard
• Dataset dependencies – When copying widgets that use complex datasets (joins, parameters, custom calculations), the entire dataset definition is duplicated. This can lead to maintenance overhead if you need to update the same query logic across multiple dashboards
• No shared dataset library – Unlike queries or notebooks, datasets cannot be shared/referenced across dashboards they must be duplicated

More details here

Best Practices

• Use Unity Catalog metric views for consistent metrics across multiple dashboards (avoids dataset duplication)
• Consider dashboard templates by importing sample dashboards and modifying them
• Monitor dataset count when copying many widgets to avoid hitting the 100-dataset limit

More details here

You can use Databricks Apps if full hierarchical navigation with nested levels is required as it provides full control over UI structure and navigation patterns.