Power BI, Microsoft’s business analytics and data visualization tool, has been a game changer for businesses looking to make data-driven decisions. And with the release of Power BI in March 2023, Microsoft is making it even easier to tell compelling stories with data. The new release will make story telling in Power Point generally available, allowing users to seamlessly integrate their Power BI visualizations into Power Point presentations.
One of the biggest challenges when working with data is communicating insights effectively. This is where data visualization comes in, as it allows us to present complex data in an easy-to-understand format. With Power BI, users can create interactive and dynamic dashboards and reports, but until now, it hasn’t been easy to integrate these visualizations into presentations or reports.
The new release of Power BI changes all of that. With the ability to export Power BI visualizations to Power Point, users can now create stunning presentations that combine the best of both worlds – the interactivity of Power BI and the storytelling capabilities of Power Point.
To export a Power BI visualization to Power Point, simply select the visualization you want to export and choose the “Export to Power Point” option. This will create a new Power Point slide with the selected visualization embedded in it. From there, users can customize the slide with additional text, images, or other visualizations as needed.
One of the key benefits of this new feature is that it enables users to tell a more complete story with their data. Rather than presenting static graphs or tables, users can create interactive and engaging presentations that allow their audience to explore the data in real time. This not only makes the presentation more engaging, but it also helps to drive better decision making by enabling the audience to see the data in context and make connections that might not be immediately obvious.
Another benefit of the new Power BI release is that it streamlines the process of creating presentations. Rather than having to manually copy and paste visualizations into Power Point, users can now export them directly from Power BI, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
Overall, the new release of Power BI is a game changer for anyone looking to tell a more compelling story with their data. With the ability to seamlessly integrate Power BI visualizations into Power Point presentations, users can now create dynamic and engaging presentations that drive better decision making and help their audience to understand the insights more clearly.
When I am working on, building and/or designing my Microsoft Power BI reports, I go back and forth between my desktop PC and my notebook. If my data source is a local file, like an Excel file, it can be tricky. Tricky, that is, if you do not use parameters for the file path. I use this feature now, EVERY time I work with local data. Saves me oodles of time and frustration! Check it out!
While hosting yesterday’s Power Platform Mix it up with New View Strategies, Microsoft Senior Program Manager Blazej Kotelko talked about using Microsoft Dynamics Business Central Data, specifically a dataset in Microsoft Power BI as a source for Data Types in Excel. Several of us hung out yesterday and tried to do it. We thought we missed something because it wasn’t working. Today though, I noticed it appeared and it works! My mind is blown!!!! Watch the end results.
The “How this is done” video will come soon. Thanks to the friends that hung out with me and worked on this:
Recently I was asked how to only show the data for the last date in a Microsoft Power BI dataset. I immediately said “DAX”, but ended up with some complexity that was not necessary. After some rounds with DAX and M, my “aha” moment occurred. Actually, it was more my “inner data modeler” saying “Belinda…. Get With It!”
Filters… Filters is all that is needed. Watch this video and see how easy it is
The Microsoft Power BI Matrix visual has more features waiting to be unlocked with formatting. In this Tiny tip, I will show you some of my preferred formatting options. Specifically, I will show:
Changing the Text size
Changing the alignment of a column
Conditional formatting for a column of values
Changing the values to display as rows rather than columns.
The last feature can be a real space saver when you have a lot of data, and it can allow you to have a larger font for easier reading without the need to scroll.
Microsoft Power BI has a cool feature in Preview, that allows you to split a single visual into multiple visuals based on a filter. In this video, I take Sales by Customer Class (Group/Category), create small multiples based on the class, and make the axis a class for Items sold. This feature works on several of the “out of the box” visuals. In the attached video, I will use a clustered column chart and a line and clustered column chart.
I love using this feature when the visual (using the small multiples) is the only visual on the page, taking the entire page.
I will also show you some formatting options for small multiples as well.
In this Tiny Tip, Belinda will uncover the secrets on getting only the (sub)totals that you want to see, using the Microsoft Power BI Matrix visual.
The most important thing to note is that the Grand Total is a Sub-total. This means if you turn off the Sub-Totals, the grand totals disappear as well.
The Grand Totals will only always stay visible on the visual if you have the Stepped layout on; but if you turn the Stepped layout off, you can alter the labels for the totals.
In this Tiny Tip, Belinda will show you how to use a new feature to do something cool, using Microsoft Power BI.
In this report, there is a page that is Sales by category, with a slicer that displays countries. There is a similar page, that displays a table with sales line details. The slicer on the detail page is sync’d with the first page.
Belinda will Insert > Shape, selecting a triangle. The April 2021 update has many more shape options. Another great option for this example, opposed to the Triangle, would have been right arrow or the chevron.
Belinda will format the triangle and add an Action to the shape, on the Format shape pane. The action assigned will be Page Navigation, then select the detailed page.
Now, with a simple click in the web service (or a Ctrl+click in the desktop), users can easily navigate from one page to the next.