Power BI Starter Guide

The Power BI Interface

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1. Office 365 App Launcher: Click the Office 365 App Launcher to see the list of your available apps. Click one to move to that application.
2. Power BI Home Button: Select the Power BI home button to return you to the dashboard that you viewed most recently.
3. Q&A Question Box: To add a tile to your dashboard, ask a question and let Power BI Q&A give you an answer in the form of a visualization.
4. Navigation Bar: Use the navigation bar to move between the Power BI building blocks in My Workspace or select another option as desired.
5. Get Data: Use Get Data to add datasets, reports, or dashboards to Power BI service. The data can be from a variety of sources.
6. Help and Feedback Buttons: Contains icons for notifications, settings, downloads, help, and providing feedback to the Power BI team.
7. Additional Dashboard Actions: Contains icons for interacting with the dashboard like adding a Tile or selecting options for refreshing data.
8. Dashboard: A single page collections of visualizations that are related to tell your story to others by sharing the dashboard.
9. Tiles: A single visualization, like a chart or map, that is part of a dashboard. Tiles can be moved, sized or deleted if no longer needed.

Tips in Power BI
• Power BI has three main parts: Power BI service, the windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop, and Power BI mobile apps.
• To bring up Power BI, type www.powerbi.com in the address bar and press Enter. Sign in to bring up Power BI service. Power BI Desktop needs to be
downloaded. Once downloaded, an icon will be displayed on the desktop. Power BI mobile needs to be installed on a device.
• The common flow of work in Power BI begins with Power BI Desktop where data is imported then modeled to created visualizations on a report. Once a
report is created, it is then published to Power BI service. In Power BI service the report is used to create single page dashboards. The dashboards are then
shared so user of Power BI mobile can view the visualizations and consume the valuable insight.
• Dashboards can be created in Power Bi service without going to Power BI Desktop if the data in the model does not need transformations.
• On the dashboard, any visualization can be clicked and it will automatically take you to the report page from which that visual was created.
• On the dashboard, make the most important information the biggest. For example, use a card visualization to show an important number.
• On the dashboard, put the most important information in the upper corners since most people read from top to bottom with details below.
• Choose the right visualization for the data. Avoid visualization variety. Add titles and labels and other customizations to help the reader.

Building Blocks of Power BI

Visualizations: A visual representation of data in the form of a chart, map, card or other items that represent your data visually.
Datasets: A collection of data that Power BI uses to create its visualizations. It can be a single table or multiple tables with relationships.
Reports: A collection of many visualizations that appear together on one or more pages with visualizations that are related to one another.
Dashboards: A collection of visualizations that fit together on a single page. Once created the dashboard is then shared with others.
Tiles: A single visualization that is in a rectangular box in a report or a dashboard. Tiles can be enlarged using focus mode to see the details.

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Power BI Desktop

The Power BI Desktop application screen has a ribbon across the top with tabs
and groups of icons. A navigation pane is displayed on the left to switch
between Reports, Data and Relationships views. The middle area also called
the canvas is the working area. On the right a Visualizations pane is displayed
with many types of visualizations that can be added to the report, then filtered
and formatted. The Fields pane on the right displays the tables and the fields
within the tables which are used to create the visualizations. Once the data is
imported, modeled, columns and measures added and relationships created,
then visualizations can be created. The illustration on the left shows a Report
page with several visualizations.

Get Data Edit Queries

Power BI Desktop can connect to a whole range of data sources including The Query Editor is used to transform and shape data. It can be selected from
cloud services, on-premises databases and Excel workbooks. Once a source is the Navigator by clicking Edit or from the Power BI Desktop ribbon by select
selected from Get Data, you will be prompted to select the source on your Edit Queries. Once in the editor, the ribbon has groups of icons to interact with
computer or network or log in to a service to authenticate your credentials. the data. The left pane has queries available for selecting, viewing and
After connecting, the Navigator window displays the tables or entities of your shaping. The center pane has the selected data. The Query Settings pane lists
data source. Click one to preview the data. The tables or entities can be the query properties and applied steps. Once transformed, select Close &
imported immediately by selecting Load. To transform the data before Apply from the ribbon and the query changes are applied to Power BI Desktop.
importing click Edit. Manage Relationships
Start Screen In order to use fields on visualizations from more than one table, relationships
The Power BI Desktop start screen is displayed when Power BI Desktop is need to be established between the tables. The relationships can be created
opened. It has a list of what’s new, forums, a link to the Power BI blog, by selecting the relationship pane on the left or by using the Manage
tutorials, and videos. Power BI is constantly changing and new and improved Relationships icon on the ribbon. Once created, fields from multiple tables can
features are being added so the start screen is a tool to keep you informed of be added to a visualization.
what is happening with Power BI. New Measure
New Column A measure is a calculation using the DAX (data Analysis Expression) language
A calculated column is a new column added to the selected table that that will be added to the data model. DAX has many functions and some that
combines two or more elements of existing data. For example, taking the are time-bases to get calculations such as Year Over Year. To create a
Quantity column and multiplying it by the Price column to get the Total Price. measure, select New Measure on the ribbon or New Quick Measure for a fast
Once created, these columns are used on visualizations. To create a calculated way to create a measure.
column, select New Column on the ribbon. Reports
Visualizations Reports contain related visualizations on a page. The report pages can be
Visualizations can be created in one of two ways. Drag the necessary fields on duplicated, renamed or deleted. The sizing of the visualizations is not
the canvas which will create a table then chooses the visualization or select the important here, they get sized when placed on dashboards.
visualization then fill in the fields. Sharing
Publish To have colleagues view the datasets, reports or dashboards, they need to be
When the reports have been completed in Power BI Desktop, they need to be shared. There are several ways items can be shared. The Share feature creates
published to Power BI service so dashboards can be created. To publish a list of people to share with, but is only available if Power BI Pro is installed.
reports, select Publish on the ribbon. If the report has already been published, Content packets that package the items can be created and shared. Groups
you will be prompted to replace the existing report. This is a way to manually can be added to have a set of users to access the information. Dashboards can
refresh your data. You can also setup a schedule to automatically update also be printed, saved to .pdf files, saved to SharePoint or viewed on a
dataset and reports. Scheduled refreshes require a gateway connection. website.
Questions & Answers Power BI Mobile
To ask a question of your data, open a dashboard. At the top of the screen Power BI Mobile is used to view reposts, dashboards and groups on a mobile
type in your question in the Q&A box. Power BI will prompt you with some device. Once the app is downloaded from the apps store, you will be prompted
suggestions. Click on a suggestion and Power BI will automatically crate a to login to Power BI. Once logged in you will to see the content to which you
visual based on your selection in real time. The visualization can be edited, have access. The app is touch-friendly so by tapping on a dashboard or report
flited or changed as desired. it will view it full screen

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