Introducción

Microsoft® Power BI® for Data- Driven Decision Makers

Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven

Decision Makers

Part Number: 095031

Course Edition: 1.2

Acknowledgements

PROJECT TEAM

Author Content Editor

Bob Carver Peter Bauer

Logical Operations wishes to thank the Logical Operations Instructor Community for their
instructional and technical expertise during the creation of this course.

Notices

DISCLAIMER

While Logical Operations, Inc. takes care to ensure the accuracy and quality of these
materials, we cannot guarantee their accuracy, and all materials are provided without any
warranty whatsoever, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The name used in the data files for this
course is that of a fictitious company. Any resemblance to current or future companies is
purely coincidental. We do not believe we have used anyone's name in creating this course,
but if we have, please notify us and we will change the name in the next revision of the
course. Logical Operations is an independent provider of integrated training solutions for
individuals, businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. The use of
screenshots, photographs of another entity's products, or another entity's product name or
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sponsorship or endorsement of the book by nor any affiliation of such entity with Logical
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Operations if you have any concerns regarding such links or External Sites.

TRADEMARK NOTICES
Logical Operations and the Logical Operations logo are trademarks of Logical Operations,
Inc. and its affiliates.

Microsoft® Power BI® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and
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Microsoft® Power BI® for

Data-Driven Decision

Makers

Lesson 1: Exploring Power BI Reports............................. 1

Lesson 1: Exploring Power BI Reports............................. 1

Topic A: Data Analysis Workflow with Power BI............................... 2

Topic A: Data Analysis Workflow with Power BI............................... 2

Topic B: Explore Reports in the Power BI Service........................... 13

Topic B: Explore Reports in the Power BI Service........................... 13

Topic C: Edit Reports.................................................................... 29

Topic C: Edit Reports.................................................................... 29
Lesson 2: Analyzing Data to Get Answers and Insights..53
Lesson 2: Analyzing Data to Get Answers and Insights..53

Topic A: Configure Data Visualizations......................................... 54

Topic A: Configure Data Visualizations......................................... 54

Topic B: Ask New Questions by Changing Summarization.............64

Topic B: Ask New Questions by Changing Summarization.............64

Topic C: Find Answers with Calculations.......................................79

Topic C: Find Answers with Calculations.......................................79

Lesson 3: Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and

Lesson 3: Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and

Reporting.............................................................103

Topic A: Sort Data...................................................................... 104

Topic A: Sort Data...................................................................... 104

Topic B: Group Data .................................................................. 112

Topic B: Group Data .................................................................. 112

Lesson 4: Filtering Visualizations................................ 127

Lesson 4: Filtering Visualizations................................ 127

Topic A: Filter Data to Refine Analysis........................................ 128

Topic A: Filter Data to Refine Analysis........................................ 128

Topic B: Create Slicers for Reports.............................................. 145

Topic B: Create Slicers for Reports.............................................. 145

Lesson 5: Preparing Reports............................................... 161

Lesson 5: Preparing Reports............................................... 161
Topic A: Format and Annotate Reports................................................. 162
Topic A: Format and Annotate Reports................................................. 162

Topic B: Emphasize Data in Reports......................................................168

Topic B: Emphasize Data in Reports......................................................168

Lesson 6: Troubleshooting, Sharing, and Collaborating...... 185

Lesson 6: Troubleshooting, Sharing, and Collaborating...... 185

Topic A: Troubleshoot Data Issues....................................................... 186

Topic A: Troubleshoot Data Issues....................................................... 186

Topic B: Collaborate in Power BI........................................................... 194

Topic B: Collaborate in Power BI........................................................... 194

Topic C: Collaborate with Non-Power BI Users...................................... 203

Topic C: Collaborate with Non-Power BI Users...................................... 203

Appendix A: Best Practices for Visual Design...................................... 211

Appendix A: Best Practices for Visual Design...................................... 211

Topic A: Best Practices for Visual Design.............................................. 212

Topic A: Best Practices for Visual Design.............................................. 212

Glossary............................................................................................. 221
Glossary............................................................................................. 221

Index.................................................................................................. 225
Index.................................................................................................. 225

Using the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data- Driven Decision Makers
Instructor's Edition
Using the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data- Driven Decision Makers Instructor's Edition
Welcome to the Instructor

Welcome and congratulations on your choice to use the finest materials available on the
market today for expert-facilitated learning in any presentation modality. You can utilize
the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven Decision Makers curriculum to present world-
class instructional experiences whether:

• Your students are participating with you in the classroom or virtually.

• You are presenting in a continuous event or in an extended teaching plan, such as an

academic semester.

• Your presentation takes place synchronously with the students or asynchronously.

• Your students have physical courseware or are using digital materials.

• You have any combination of these instructional dimensions.

To make the best use of the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven Decision Makers
materials in any or all of these dimensions, be sure to review the contents of the CHOICE
Facilitator's Guide for an orientation to all of the components of the CHOICE experience.

Preparing to Present the CHOICE Experience

Effectively presenting the information and skills in this course requires adequate
preparation in any presentation modality. As such, as an instructor, you should familiarize
yourself with the content of the entire course, including its organization and instructional
approaches.

You should review each of the student activities, exercises, and Mastery Builders so you can
facilitate them during the learning event. Also, make sure you review the tips for presenting
in the different dimensions; these instructor tips are available as notes in the margins of
your Instructor's Edition.

In addition to the curriculum itself, Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides, data files, and other
course-specific support material may be available by downloading the files from the
CHOICE Course screen. Be sure to obtain the course files prior to your learning event and
make sure you distribute them to your students.

Course Facilitator Icons

Throughout the Instructor's Edition, you may see various instructor-focused icons that
provide suggestions, answers to problems, and supplemental information for you, the
instructor.

Icon Description
A display slide note provides a prompt to the instructor to display a specific slide from the
provided PowerPoint files.

Content delivery tips provide guidance for specific delivery techniques you may want to
utilize at particular points in the course, such as lectures, whiteboard

sketching, or performing your own demonstrations for the class.

Managing learning interactions provide suggested places to interact with the class as a
whole. You might poll the class with closed-ended questions, check

comprehension with open-ended questions, conduct planned discussion activities, or take

notes and questions from the group to "park" and address at a later point in the class.

Monitoring learner progress notes suggest when you might want to monitor individual
students as they perform activities, or have private sidebar conversations

with specific individual participants.

Engaging learners notes suggest opportunities to involve the students in active ways with
the course presentation, such as enabling them to demonstrate their work

to the class as a whole, or checking in on the logistics of the presentation.

Incorporating other assets notes suggest when and how to include other types of media,
such as visiting CHOICE social media sites, accessing specific web resources,

or utilizing media assets provided with the course.

Digital Software Updates

The software vendor may at any time deploy software updates digitally, resulting in
changes that may not be reflected dynamically in this course. Stay up to date with product
updates and be ready to adapt the material to any changes in the user interface.

Presentation Tips for the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven Decision Makers

Course

Here are some useful tips for presenting the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven
Decision Makers

course. The screenshots in this course conform to Power BI Desktop and Online.

• This course is designed to get students thinking about data while using Power BI.
Read the activity scenarios, and spend time on the analysis steps to encourage students to
focus on the scenario data, which will help them build data analysis skills as well as
showcase the analysis capabilities of Power BI.
• The Power BI user interface can be complex, and the locations and names can be
subtle, so make sure to take time to get familiar with the Filters, Widgets, Format and Data
panes, as well as their tabs and sub tabs.

• Students can accidentally overwrite visualizations or change them by selecting them,

then

selecting a different visualization icon on the Suggest a visual widget. You can always press
Ctrl

+Z to undo actions like that.

Course-Specific Technical Requirements

Hardware

For this course, you will need one computer for each student and one for the instructor.
Each computer will need the following minimum hardware configurations:

• Sufficient processor speed, RAM, and storage space for good system performance when
running

Windows.

• Mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

• High-speed, stable Internet connection.

• For the instructor's computer, a method to project and/or share the screen as
needed for local and remote class participants.

Software

• Microsoft® Windows® 10

• Microsoft® 365 Business Premium (Trial)

Note: Students will need to be provided with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium trial email
address that they can access during the course.

• Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365™/2019

• Microsoft® PowerPoint® for Office 365™/2019

• Microsoft® Power BI® Desktop, latest version

• Any web browser.

• Students will need a valid work or school email address that they can access during the
course.
• If necessary, software for viewing the course slides. (Instructor machine only.)

Setting Up the Course

For the instructor:

1. Provide a system with Internet access and the given hardware requirements.

2. Install Windows 10.

a. Install without a Microsoft account; use a local account instead.

b. Name the computer (use Instructor or another preferred naming convention).

3. Sign up for the Microsoft 365 Business Premium trial edition.

a. Open a browser, and navigate to

b. Select Business.

c. In the Microsoft 365 Business Premium column, select Try free for 1 month.

d. Follow the steps to sign up for a trial normally, except where noted below.

e. For the User name, type <FirstName><InitialOfLastName>

An example user name might be PeterL

f. For the Company name, type

MFS<FirstName><InitialOfLastName><2DigitNumericalMonth><2Digit
NumericalDay><2DigitNumericalYear>

An example company name might be MFSPeterL090220

g. For the password, type and confirm

4. Install Microsoft 365.

a. On the Microsoft 365 admin center home page, install Office on your local system.

b. When the installation is complete, open the following apps, address any first-run
messages, and then close the apps:

• Microsoft Excel

• Microsoft PowerPoint

5. Create student accounts in Microsoft 365.

a. On the Microsoft 365 admin center home page, in the Your Organization section, on the
Users tab, select Add user.

b. Follow the steps to create a user account with default settings except where noted below.

c. Uncheck the Automatically create a password check box.

d. In the Password box, type

e. Uncheck the Require this user to change their password when they first sign in check
box.

f. Assign a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license to the user account.

g. Repeat steps a through f for each student account.

h. Sign out of the Admin Center and close the tab. For each student:

1. Provide a system with Internet access and the given hardware requirements.

2. Install Windows 10.

a. Install without a Microsoft account; use a local account instead.

b. Name the computer (use Student# or another preferred naming convention).

3. Install Microsoft 365.

a. Open a browser, and navigate to

b. Log in with the credentials provided to you for this course.

c. On the Office home page, select Install Office.

d. Follow the steps to install Office on your local system.

e. When the installation is complete, open the following apps, address any first-run
messages, and then close the apps:

• Microsoft Excel

• Microsoft PowerPoint

f. Sign out of Office and close the tab.

Install the Course Data Files

To install the course data files:

1. From the course Files tile on CHOICE, download the 095031Files<ver>.zip file to any
location that is convenient for you.
Note: The default download folder will vary depending on your browser version and local
settings.

2. Go to the download folder and locate and unzip (extract) the 095031Files<ver>.zip file.
This will create a local 095031Files<ver> folder.

3. Open the 095031Files<ver> folder. It contains separate subfolders with your course
overheads and the course data files.

Note: The data files folder contains all the lesson-specific subfolders and data files you will
need to run this course. There is a separate folder with the starter files for each lesson or
Mastery Builder, and there may be a Solutions folder with completed files students can use
to check their results.

4. Move or copy the 095031Data folder to the root of your C drive. This installs the data
files to the location specified in the course activities.

Note: If you prefer to place the data files in a different location, simply inform your students
that they will be accessing the files from that alternate path.

Continue Setting Up the Course

For the instructor and each student:

1. Create a Power BI Pro Online account.

a. Open your browser, and navigate to https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi-

pro/.

b. On the page, select Try free.

c. In the Email box, type your email address and select Submit.

Note: This needs to be a work or school email address. The instructor has created

Microsoft 365 accounts for all students.

d. If prompted, enter your password.

e. If prompted to stay signed in, select Yes.

f. Complete the sign up process using default options. You will not invite more people and
can skip if prompted to do so.

Note: You may be prompted for your phone number.

g. In the left navigation pane, select Workspaces.

h. In the Workspaces pane, select New workspace.

i. If prompted to upgrade to Power BI Pro, select Try free, enter the required information,
and select Start my free trial.

Note: You may need to accept some welcome messages and then repeat steps g and h.

j. In the Create a workspace pane, in the Name box, type My Footprint Sports<student
number>

Note: Organizations share workspaces, so each organization can have only one My

Footprint Sports workspace. To get around this, add the student number to the

workspace name.

k. Select Apply.

l. Close your browser.

2. Download and install Power BI Desktop.

a. Open a browser and navigate to

details.aspx?id=58494.

Note: If the link does not take you to the download page, go to microsoft.com and search for
Power BI Desktop to locate and download the app.

b. On the Download Center page, select Download.

c. On the Choose the download you want page, check the PBIDesktopSetup_x64.exe

check box for the 64-bit download.

d. Select Next.

e. Save the Power BI Desktop installation file to the computer.

f. Run the Power BI installation file.

g. In the Microsoft Power BI Desktop (x64) Setup dialog box, select Next.

h. If prompted, select Yes to allow the installation to make changes to the computer.

i. In the Microsoft Power BI Desktop (x64) Setup dialog box, select Next.

j. Check the I accept the terms of the License Agreement check box, and select Next.

k. Select Next, and then select Install.

l. If prompted, select Yes to allow the installation to make changes to the computer.
m. The install will take up to 3 minutes to complete.

n. In the Microsoft Power BI Desktop (x64) Setup dialog box, select Finish.

o. The Power BI Desktop window opens. Address any first-run messages and close the
welcome screen.

p. In the Power BI Desktop title bar, select Sign in.

q. In the Enter your email address dialog box, type the same email address you used to
create the Power BI Pro Online account.

r. Select Continue.

s. In the Sign into your account dialog box, select your account (it should be the same as the
email address you entered in the previous step).

t. Type your password and select Sign in.

u. Leave the Power BI Desktop window open.

3. Publish Report 1 to Power BI Pro Online.

a. In Power BI Desktop, select Open.

b. Select Browse this device.

c. Navigate to C:\095031Data\Setup, select Report L1.pbix, and select Open.

d. Select Home→Publish.

e. If prompted to save your changes, select Save.

f. If prompted to sign in, enter your email address and password, and select Sign in.

g. In the Publish to Power BI dialog box, under Select a destination, select My Footprint

Sports<student number>.

h. Select Select.

i. In the Success message, select Got it.

4. Enable the On-object interaction feature.

a. Select File→Options and settings.

b. Select Options.

c. In the Options dialog box, select the Preview features tab.

d. Check the On-object interaction check box, then select OK.

e. In the Feature requires a restart dialog box, select OK.

f. Close all Power BI Desktop windows.

5. Configure the Power BI add-in for PowerPoint.

a. Open PowerPoint and create a blank presentation.

b. Select Insert→Power BI.

• If Power BI successfully inserts a rectangle asking for a URL to a Power BI report,

then close PowerPoint without saving changes.

• If the Use Office connected experiences dialog box appears, then:

i. Select the File > Account > Account privacy link text.

ii. In the Privacy Settings dialog box, check the Turn on optional connected experiences
check box and select OK.

iii. In the Restart Required dialog box, select OK.

iv. Close PowerPoint without saving changes.

Presentation Planners

The lesson durations given in the course content are estimates based on a typical class
experience.

The following planners show examples of how the content could be presented in either a

continuous flow or separately across a multi-session seminar series. Your presentation flow
may vary

based on a number of factors, including the size of the class, whether students are in
specialized job

roles, whether you plan to incorporate other assets from the CHOICE Course screen into the

course, and so on. Use the samples and blank planners to determine how you will conduct
the class

to meet the needs of your own situation.

Continuous Presentation: Model Class Flow

This planner provides a sample presentation flow based on one day of training which
includes introductions, instruction time, breaks, and wrap up.
Continuous Presentation: Your Class Flow

Use this planner to plan the flow of your own training day based on the needs of your
students, the schedule for your own day, and/or any other modifications you choose.

Non-continuous Presentation: Model Class Flow

This planner provides a sample presentation flow based on separate sessions presented
over multiple days or weeks.

Non-continuous Presentation: Your Class Flow

Use this planner to plan how you will present the course content based on the needs of your
students, your conventions for the number and length of sessions, and any other
modifications you choose.

About This Course

As data acquisition, access, analysis, and reporting are interwoven with our businesses and
lives, more and more data is collected about business and personal activities. This
abundance of data and the computing power to analyze it has increased the use of data
analysis and data visualization across a broad range of job roles. Decision makers of all
types, including managers and executives, must interact with, interpret, and develop
reports based on data and analysis provided to them.

Microsoft® Power BI® software is designed for data analysis and the creation of
visualizations. Data analysts prepare data, perform initial analysis, and create visualizations
that are then passed to business data decision makers. These decision makers can use
Power BI's tools to explore the data, perform further analysis to find new insights, make
decisions, and create customized reports to share their findings.

Course Description
Course Description

Target Student
Target Student

This course is designed for professionals in a variety of job roles who receive Power BI data
visualizations and reports from data analysts or from data visualization engineers. These

data report recipients want to use the features and capabilities of Power BI to fully explore
the visualizations and initial analyses provided to them in reports, perform additional
analysis to ask next-level questions of the data, and to customize and create new
visualizations and dashboards in order to share new insights and create compelling reports.
Course Prerequisites
Course Prerequisites

To ensure your success in this course, you have experience managing data with Microsoft®
Excel® or Google Sheets™, which you could obtain by taking the following Logical
Operations courses:

• Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365 (Desktop or Online): Part 1

• Using Google G Suite™

Course Objectives
Course Objectives

In this course, you will explore, analyze, and customize reports and visualizations in Power

BI to discover new insights, showcase those insights, and share them. You will:

• Explore Power BI reports.

• Analyze data to get answers and insights.

• Sort and group data for analysis and reporting.

• Filter visualizations.

• Prepare reports.

• Troubleshoot, collaborate, and share reports.

The CHOICE Home Screen

Logon and access information for your CHOICE environment will be provided with your
class

experience. The CHOICE platform is your entry point to the CHOICE learning experience, of

which this course manual is only one part.

On the CHOICE Home screen, you can access the CHOICE Course screens for your specific
courses. Visit the CHOICE Course screen both during and after class to make use of the
world of support and instructional resources that make up the CHOICE experience.

Each CHOICE Course screen will give you access to the following resources:

• Classroom: A link to your training provider's classroom environment.

• eBook: An interactive electronic version of the printed book for your course.
• Files: Any course files available to download.

• Checklists: Step-by-step procedures and general guidelines you can use as a

reference during and after class.

• Assessment: A course assessment for your self-assessment of the course content.

Depending on the nature of your course and the components chosen by your learning
provider, the

CHOICE Course screen may also include access to elements such as:

• LogicalLABs, a virtual technical environment for your course.

• Various partner resources related to the courseware.

• Related certifications or credentials.

• A link to your training provider's website.

• Notices from the CHOICE administrator.

• Newsletters and other communications from your learning provider.

• Mentoring services.

Visit your CHOICE Home screen often to connect, communicate, and extend your learning
experience!

How To Use This Book

As You Learn

This book is divided into lessons and topics, covering a subject or a set of related subjects. In
most cases, lessons are arranged in order of increasing proficiency.

The results-oriented topics include relevant and supporting information you need to master
the content. Each topic has various types of activities designed to enable you to solidify your
understanding of the informational material presented in the course. Information is
provided for reference and reflection to facilitate understanding and practice.

Data files for various activities as well as other supporting files for the course are available
by download from the CHOICE Course screen. In addition to sample data for the course
exercises, the course files may contain media components to enhance your learning and
additional reference materials for use both during and after the course.

Checklists of procedures and guidelines can be used during class and as after-class
references when you're back on the job and need to refresh your understanding.
At the back of the book, you will find a glossary of the definitions of the terms and concepts
used throughout the course. You will also find an index to assist in locating information
within the instructional components of the book. In many electronic versions of the book,
you can click links on key words in the content to move to the associated glossary definition,
and on page references in the index to move to that term in the content. To return to the
previous location in the document after clicking a link, use the appropriate functionality in
your PDF viewing software.

| Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven Decision Makers |

As You Review

Any method of instruction is only as effective as the time and effort you, the student, are
willing to invest in it. In addition, some of the information that you learn in class may not be
important to you immediately, but it may become important later. For this reason, we
encourage you to spend some time reviewing the content of the course after your time in
the classroom.

As a Reference

The organization and layout of this book make it an easy-to-use resource for future
reference. Taking advantage of the glossary, index, and table of contents, you can use this
book as a first source of definitions, background information, and summaries.

Course Icons

Watch throughout the material for the following visual cues.

1 Exploring Power BI Reports

Lesson Time: 1 hour

Lesson Introduction

As a data-driven decision maker, you will receive a variety of reports that contain data,
visualizations, and related information relevant to your job. If you want to make sense of

the insights, arguments, and data provided, and then make recommendations and decisions,
you must be able to view and explore the reports you're given. In this lesson, you will
explore Microsoft® Power BI® reports.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Examine a data analysis workflow with Power BI.

• Explore reports in the Power BI Service.

• Edit reports and customize visualizations.

TOPIC A

Data Analysis Workflow with Power BI

If you want to make the best use of the data you have access to, derive the most insights,
and make the best decisions with it, you must understand the role data analysts play, and
the workflow around how data is generated, captured, and reported. In this topic, you will
examine a data analysis workflow with Power BI.

Data Analysis for Decision-Making Flowchart

Datasets have been renamed in Power BI and are now called semantic models.

Data Analysis for Decision-Making Flowchart

Data analysis for business purposes typically follows the following pattern:

The business or organization:

• Defines a problem that must be solved or an opportunity it wishes to seize and

develops questions about the nature or the issues, their causes, and potential ways to
respond to the needs raised.

For example, a healthcare provider may wish to improve patient satisfaction with their
services, or an online retailer may wish to spin up a new line of business selling new
products to a new set of customers.

• They then develop an understanding of the data required to answer the questions being
asked.

In the case of the healthcare provider, they may find that interviewing their current patients
in conjunction with data published on patient satisfaction in general will provide good data.
The retailer may conduct focus groups and buy additional data about the audience they
intend to target.

• Data is then collected. This can happen through online forms, paper-based forms,
the purchase of digital data, and through many other methods. The data collected is then
put into some digital format such as a database or spreadsheet.

Data is passed onto the data analyst who:

• Cleans and prepares the data by removing unwanted data, combining data from
multiple sources, and creating a new semantic model with the data needed for analysis.
In the case of the healthcare provider, answers from their current patients might be
combined with trend information from published studies. The retailer may combine
information from their current customer database with information about the audience
they wish to target, creating new data to score current customers that may be interested in
their new product offerings.

• Analyzes the data to answer the questions put forth by the business or
organizations, and to identify any trends, patterns, and insights that explain behaviors,
justify recommendations, raise additional questions, or identify unforeseen issues or
opportunities.

• Creates reports to showcase their findings. These reports are made up of different
types of visualizations, including charts, graphs, tabular data (spreadsheets), maps, and
interconnected dashboards.

Reports are passed to decision makers who:

• Evaluate reports, visualizations, and data from the data analyst. In addition to
examining the overall findings and answers to big picture questions, individual decision
makers look to see how the findings relate to and impact their specific role and function in
the organization.

For the example of the healthcare provider, a decision maker responsible for patient
hospitality may take note of complaints about there not being vending machines near
patient rooms, while the legal team may look at how empathy training for doctors reduced
the number of malpractice complaints. For the online retailer, the sales team may focus on
the number of existing customers that may be interested in the new products being
developed, while the product team may focus on feedback and trends related to similar
products.

• Perform ad hoc analysis using the data and visualizations provided and may add
comments or annotations or create new visualizations to answer questions and show
insights specific to their role.

For example, the healthcare provider patient hospitality decision maker may put a comment
next to the percentage of patients requesting vending machines. The healthcare provider
legal team decision maker may create a new chart correlating malpractice complaints to
patient satisfaction, and another chart showing a rise in patient satisfaction in a published
study after doctors took empathy training. The sales team decision maker for the online
retailer may create a chart showing existing customers that are good candidates to get
digital coupons for new products, while the product team decision maker may annotate
reports showing how their team is addressing popular trends for similar products.

• Once ad hoc analysis is complete, and existing reports have been customized or new
reports created, they are distributed to team members and supervisors. They often present
the findings in meetings with supervisors and executives along with recommended courses
of action.

• Finally, decisions are made.

While analyzing data and reports, both data analysts and decision makers may discover
new questions they would like answered. Those questions may alter the data requirements
and data collection as the data analysis work flow lifecycle starts over.

This course is focused on the activities of decision makers who receive reports,
visualizations, and data from data analysts and must interpret, navigate, and refine that
analysis and those reports based on their unique role and perspective in the organization.

Figure 1-1: Data analysis decision-making workflow.

Data-Driven Decision-Maker Tasks

Data-driven decision makers may do any or all of the following when working with reports,
visualizations, and data provided by data analysts.

• Evaluate reports:

• Explore reports, visualizations, and data to verify the information on which reports
are based, and if their conclusions are valid. To do this, they need to be able use data
analysis tools, navigate reports and data, and interact with the visualizations provided.

• Determine if role-specific questions have been answered.

Data-Driven Decision- Maker Tasks

• Identify role-specific insights or new questions to ask.

• Perform ad hoc analysis:

• Perform ad hoc analysis by altering the visualizations provided to look at data in a

different way, and review data to ensure it supports conclusions.

• Customize visualizations and create new ones to answer questions and show
insights specific to their role, and ask new questions discovered during analysis.

• Update reports or create new ones with role-specific findings:

• Add role-specific comments and annotations.

• Export reports and visualizations, and embed them in other documents, slide decks,
and presentation software for distribution to team members, managers, and executives.

• Present findings, and make recommendations based on analysis.

• Make decisions based on analysis.

Figure 1-2: Data-driven decision-maker tasks.

What Analysts Send to

You: Reports

What Analysts Send to You: Reports

Data decision makers get many different types of reports from data analysts, and these
reports contain visualizations.

Figure 1-3: Data analysts may send these types of visualizations of data.

These might include:

• Maps, which may be interactive, allowing you to select areas of the map to see data
about the selected area.

• Data, which may be presented in a table or spreadsheet, that allows you to review
numbers in rows and columns. Tables may be formatted with color to create a highlight
table to show higher versus lower values.

• Graphs and charts, which graphically show value trends over time or based on some
other criteria.

• Charts such as bar charts that visualize the relationships between values.

What Analysts Send to You: Dashboards

Many times data analysts will combine maps, charts, graphs, and other types of data
visualizations to create a dashboard. Dashboards are used in many different types of
business scenarios to visualize data for comparison; provide "at-a-glance" updates for key
performance indicators; and to share data with team members, partners, clients, and others.
Dashboards are typically made up of multiple charts to show different discrete pieces of
information about a topic.

For example, a sales dashboard may have a map and several charts that each show
something different related to sales data such as orders, shipping costs, profit, and so forth.
When an individual area of the map is selected, each of the charts will update to show
information about that area of the map.

Figure 1-4: Data analyst may send a dashboard.

Data-Driven Decision-Maker Challenges

Data decision makers must, you guessed it, make decisions. Sometimes the decision makers
may be empowered to make decisions unilaterally; sometimes they must present findings
and recommendations to a supervisor or working group. Each decision maker must
evaluate the data and visualizations sent to them by data analysts using their unique
perspective based on the goals and challenges faced by their specific team.

For example, when viewing the sales dashboard, the sales manager may look at the
performance of the sales rep in each region, while the logistics decision maker may look at
shipping costs and inventory supply.

Each decision maker has specific domain knowledge based on their role in the organization
that will inform their insights, recommendations, and decisions based on data presented to
them. There are three key challenges working with data in this way:

What Analysts Send to

You: Dashboards

Data-Driven Decision- Maker Challenges

• Data analysts may not have domain-specific insights. Data analysis may not reflect
domain- specific analysis needed by decision makers. Organizations tend to have only a few
data analysts to serve many departments, and they may present data analysis,
visualizations, and findings based on their understanding of the broad-based needs of the
organization as a whole. Decision makers might need different analysis to get to the insights
they need to make good decisions for their

role. They might need to do deeper analysis of data that impact their function, or ask slightly
or entirely different questions of the data.

• Limited analyst time. Data analysis is an iterative process. You need to look at the
initial data and visuals, make some changes, look at the results of that, make more changes,
look at those results, and so on. While data analysis is the best choice to do a deep dive
analysis, or refactor visualizations in this way, the length of the process and the workload of
the data analyst often makes this approach prohibitive. It takes too long for decision makers
to pass their specific domain knowledge to the analyst, and the analyst may be too
backlogged to provide updated data and visuals in a timely manner. This means decision
makers must be able to perform ad hoc analysis themselves, going deep where needed
based on their domain knowledge, and asking new questions of the data as needed.

• Lack of tool familiarity for data-driven decision makers. While decision makers have
domain knowledge, they may not be familiar with data analysis and tools like Power BI. If a
decision maker doesn't know how to analyze reports in Power BI, they will often simply
export data to tools they do know like Microsoft® Excel®. Likewise, decision makers need
to report their findings, and, if they don't know how to create visualizations in Power BI,
and can't export the visuals already created for their personal reports and slide
presentations, they have to find an alternative solution for that.
This course aims to make you familiar with Power BI and to provide the skills for
performing ad hoc data analysis, visualization creation, and export.

Data Analysis and Visualization Tool Choices

Data Analysis and Visualization Tool Choices

Since we're talking about data analysis and visualization tools, it's a good idea to explore the
differences between various types of tools. Two of the most widely used are Microsoft Excel
and Google Sheets™, which:

• Capture and store data.

• Show data in tables of rows and columns.

• Store data in cells, which can be manipulated through formulas.

• Create some visualizations to show data in charts, graphs, pivot tables, and some
other visualizations.

Power BI is a true data visualization tool. It's not designed to capture or store data, only to
visualize data for analysis and reporting. Power BI can:

• Connect to over 100 types of data sources.

• Create a variety of visualizations for data analysis and exploration.

• Combine data from different sources to create complex reports and dashboards.

• Filter data from sources and in visuals.

• Run calculations on data.

• Store and share configuration information about data connections and visualizations.

• Utilize advanced AI features for analysis and visualization.

Power BI is built with executive reporting in mind. Its visualization creation and self-service
functions allow decision makers to access reports and dashboards, and to freely explore,
analyze, compare, and drill into information. Power BI is often a better choice for deeper
analysis, showcasing role-related insights, and building and maintaining recurring reports
that must be updated frequently in real time. Data analysts may also use tools like Power BI,
but may use other tools like Python® or R for data preparation and analysis.

Other Data Visualization Software

Other data visualization software available includes:

• Qlik Sense®: see more at

• SAP® Crystal Reports®: see more at

• Domo: see more at

• Tableau®: see more at https://tableau.com.

Microsoft Power BI Versions and Licenses

There are three types of licenses for using Power BI as a consumer.

License Description Cost

Power BI Versions and

Free You can download, install, and use Power BI Desktop to analyze data and create
visualizations.

Pro Lets users share and collaborate on reports and dashboards, access multiple
workspaces, and get report and dashboard updates via subscription.

Premium Provides access to self-service data preparation from big data sources, as
well as large scale, on-premises deployment capabilities and advanced AI services.

Free

$10 per user, per month

$20 per user, per month

Licenses (2 Slides)

Note: The Power BI Premium edition provides dedicated compute support starting at
$4,995 for very large data analytics and BI processing needs, which are beyond the scope of
this course.

The following table compares data analysis tasks between the Free and Pro versions, and
identifies which type of license is required.

Data Analysis Task License Type

Connect to data Free & Pro Clean and transform data

Free & Pro Create reports Free & Pro

Publish to My Workspace in the Power BI Service

Free & Pro

Collaborate on reports and create dashboards Pro Share reports and dashboards via
email or link Pro Create and share apps Pro

Publish to any workspaces with permissions in the Power BI Service

Pro

Additional Information

For additional information on versions, capabilities, and pricing, see: https://

powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/
fundamentals/service-features-license-type.

Power BI Desktop vs. Power BI Service

Power BI Tasks Related to Roles

Microsoft Intelligent Data

Platform

Power BI Desktop vs. Power BI Service

The Power BI Desktop app is the primary tool for Power BI users to connect to data sources,
clean and prepare semantic models, and create reports based on their analysis using those
semantic models. All Power BI license levels give you access to the Power BI Service, also
called Power BI Online, which can be accessed at https://app.powerbi.com. The Power BI
Service is the default collaboration platform for Power BI that lets Power BI users publish
and share semantic models, reports, and dashboards and collaborate on them. Your Power
BI license determines the access and capabilities you have with the Power BI Service. For
example, users with a free license can only publish to their personal workspace which only
they have access to, while users with a Pro license or better can create and publish to
shared workspaces.

Power BI Tasks Related to Roles

Data analysts will use both Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service to publish semantic
models used for reports and dashboards, as well as reports and dashboards they create
containing visualizations for analysis. Decision makers will likely use Power BI Desktop to
review and analyze reports and dashboards, and will use the Power BI Service to share and
collaborate with other decision makers, and to publish reports and dashboards they create.

Data-driven decision makers typically:

• Explore reports and dashboards.

• Create new reports and visualizations based on semantic models prepared by data
analysts and publish those to the Power BI Service.

• Change data types and some data features in new semantic models for reports they
create.

• Create and customize calculations, summarizations, dimensions, and measures to

show new insights.

• Sort, filter, and group data and create hierarchies in new reports.

• Format and annotate visuals to showcase insights and prepare visualizations for
presentation.

• Publish, share, and export visualizations and data.

• Reorganize data to create new visualizations.

Data analysts may do everything that data-driven decision makers do. They will also:

• Work with data directly to connect to data sources and create semantic models.

• Clean, prepare, and join data from different sources, or add calculations.

• Edit or change semantic model connection parameters.

• Create reports and dashboards in the Power BI Service, and publish and share
semantic models to the Power BI Service.

Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform

The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform (MIDP) brings together Microsoft cloud and local
solutions to provide operational databases, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and data
governance. There are four key elements to the MIDP, with components that may change
over time:

• Databases: These include Azure® SQL, Azure Cosmos DB®, Synapse Links for Cosmos DB
and

SQL, Arc-enabled data services, SQL Server® 2022, and SQL developer tools.

• Analytics: Azure Synapse Analytics, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure Databricks.

• AI and machine learning: Azure AI Services and Azure Machine Learning.

• Data governance: Microsoft Purview®, a unified data governance solution.

Power BI is part of the analytics suite of tools and can connect to, analyze, and visualize data
stored in Azure data sources. Power BI also integrates with Azure Synapse Analytics and
Databricks to analyze and visualize petabytes of data. Power BI Embedded enables analytics
to be embedded in Azure apps. Power BI can also use Azure AI to find insights and build
visuals.

Figure 1-5: Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform.

SQL Server Analysis Services, Azure Analysis Services, and Azure Synapse

Analytics

All these products are still available and in use. SQL Server Analysis Services is designed for
data analysis of large databases on premises. Azure Analysis Services is essentially SQL
Server Analysis Services in the cloud. Azure Synapse Analytics is SQL Server Data
Warehouse plus machine learning, plus Power BI that integrates with Azure Data Lake
Services, and Azure Databricks.

Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Microsoft Fabric

Both of these solutions are part of the analytics suite of the IDP but are slightly different
flavors of analytics services. Microsoft Fabric is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering that
is fully managed, but offers less control and flexibility to end users. Azure Synapse Analytics
is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that provides more control and flexibility to end
users, but also requires more responsibility for configuration, and maintenance of the
solution.

Power BI and the Microsoft Power Platform

Power BI integrates with the Microsoft Power Platform to provide analytics for apps
deployed using the Power Apps component framework.

Access the Checklist tile on your CHOICE Course screen for reference information and job
aids on How to Log In to the Power BI Service.

ACTIVITY 1-1

Accessing the Power BI Service

Before You Begin

You are logged into your student computer for the class.

Scenario

You've been hired as the Senior Vice President in charge of My Footprint Sport's Apparel
division. Apparel is the weakest product line behind footwear and the juggernaut sporting
equipment. You've been hired to improve sales and profit, and grow the product line. The
company uses Microsoft Power BI for data reporting and you are evaluating it to see if it will
fit your needs.

1. What types of licenses will data analysts need if they wish to work with data sources, and
create reports and visualizations for decision makers?

A: To work with data sources, data analysts will need a Power BI Pro or Premium license.

2. For decision makers that won't need to work with data, but wish to create visualizations
and reports using data sources published by data analysts, and share their findings with
others, what type of Power BI license will they need?

A: They will need a Power BI Pro or better license.

3. What is the default platform people can use inside an organization to collaborate with
Power BI?

A: Power BI Service, also called Power BI Online.

4. Log in to the Power BI Service.

Activity

Become familiar with the questions in this activity so you can engage students in a
conversational discussion of them.

a) Open your web browser and navigate to app.powerbi.com.

b) If prompted, in the Sign in window, type the email address you're using for this class and
select

Next.

Direct students to dismiss any Welcome messages.

Note: If you are not logged into a Microsoft account, you will be prompted to enter a valid
email address for login.

c) If prompted, in the Enter password window, type your password and select Sign in. d) In
the Stay signed in window, select Yes.

e) Remain signed in.

TOPIC B

Explore Reports in the Power BI Service

If you want to review the analysis supplied by data analysts in Power BI, you will have to
explore reports. In this topic, you will explore reports in the Power BI Service.

Power BI Service UI

When you're viewing, sharing, and collaborating on reports, it's likely you'll be using the
Power BI Service. The Power BI Service user interface (UI) is organized into two sections,
the navigation bar on the left side of the page, and the content area on the right side of the
page. At the top of the page, the top bar gives you access to other Microsoft apps, your
profile, and account settings. When you open a report, semantic model, or other object, a
button bar appears above the content area to provide access to relevant functions such as
sharing, editing, commenting, and subscribing.

The Power BI Service UI elements are as follows.

Power BI Service UI

UI Element Description

Top bar The top bar in the Power BI Service Online contains the standard Microsoft
hamburger menu on the left that allows you to access other Microsoft apps, a search box
that you can use to find content, settings, download, and help from the more options menu,
and access to the profile for your account.

Content area The main part of the content area will show recommended content,
content you've recently accessed, and other relevant links and content.

Navigation Pane

Navigation Pane Contains shortcuts to access different objects in the Power BI Service.

Home Your home page for your Power BI Service site with links to your favorite content.

Create Lets you select or publish a semantic model and create a new report.

BrowseLets you browse semantic models, reports, and other objects you've recently used,
that are your favorites, or that have been shared with you.

OneLake data hub

Lets you browse, manage, and access the semantic models published to the

Power BI Service in your organization.

Apps Collections of reports and dashboards relevant to a particular topic, project, or

solution. Apps created and published in your organization are listed here.

MetricsLets you create scorecards to track specific information from reports published to
the Power BI Service.
Monitoring hub Lets you create filters to track the status of activities across all workspaces
you have access to.

Deployment pipelines

Automate management and deployment of workspace content for continuously updated

data. The deployment pipelines area lets you create and manage pipelines in your
organization.

Learn Lets you explore learning content available to you for Power BI.

Workspaces An area in the Power BI Service for organizing semantic models, reports, and
dashboards for sharing and collaboration, and app deployment.

My Workspace Your private workspace.

Figure 1-6: Power BI Service UI.

Workspaces

Reports and Pages

Workspaces

Workspaces are like folders in the Power BI Service. They are used to organize semantic
models, reports, and dashboards for access and to build apps. Permissions can be
configured on workspaces to determine who has access to them, and what rights they have.
There are two types of workspaces in the Power BI Service:

• Workspaces: These are set up and configured by administrators to organize project

related semantic models, reports, and dashboards for sharing, collaboration, and app
deployment.

• My Workspace. This is your private workspace, tied to your Power BI Service

account for storing content you don't share. Only you have access to your workspace. If you
have the free version of Power BI, My Workspace is the only workspace you have access to
in the Power BI Service.

Figure 1-7: A workspace in the Power BI Service.

Reports and Pages

In the Power BI Service, when you open a report, you see a list of the pages in the report,
and can select a page to view the visualizations on it. Pages are listed to the right of the
navigation pane, and the left of the content area. When viewing a page from a report, you
can hover over individual data points to view tooltips that show details about the data
point.
Figure 1-8: A page in the Power BI Service.

Power BI Service Button Bar

When a page is open, a button bar appears above the content area with buttons that do the
following.

Note: Depending on the resolution of your screen and the size of your Power BI Service
browser window, there may be more or fewer buttons on your button bar. Additional

commands are available on the More options menu.

Power BI Service Button

Bar

Button Bar Button Description

File Save a copy of the page, download files, manage permissions, get code to embed the
report in a web page, or generate a QR code to access the report, and adjust report settings
such as the name of the report.

Export Export to Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF.

Share Share the report with other Power BI users in your organization with a link through
email, Teams, or PowerPoint.

Chat in Teams Start a conversation in Microsoft Teams about the dashboard, report,
visual, or semantic model. You will be prompted to share with a person, group, or channel.

Explore this data

This provides a lightweight experience to explore the data used in the report. In the Explore
window, you can add fields from the data pane to build a table to examine the data used for
the report.

Get insights Launches the Insights feature, which uses AI to identify anomalies and
trends in your data and attempts to report insights and provide explanations for them. It is
designed to work out of the box with all reports.

Subscribe to report

Subscribe yourself and others to Power BI reports and dashboards. Notifications include an
image of the report and a link, and are delivered via email based on a schedule you define.

Set alert Set an alert to notify you when data in reports meet conditions you specify.

Button Bar Button Description

Edit Open the report for editing in the Power BI Service. This will change to the Editing
UI in the Power BI Service, which is similar to the Power BI Desktop UI.

See related content

Open lineage view

Open usage metrics

Pin to dashboard

View semantic model

Lets you browse a list of content that uses the same semantic model as the content you're
looking at.

Shows a graphic view of the relationships, data flows, and dependencies between semantic
models, reports, and dashboards in your current workspace. It allows you to search for a
data object or report, refresh semantic models

and data flows, examine the impact and utilization of a semantic model or data source
across the workspace, and send notification to contacts for semantic models.

Shows how much the report is used by creating a report with views per day, unique viewers
per day and other information, and allowing you to break out information like distribution
methods and platforms.

Lets you pin the current report to a dashboard published in your organization.

Shows information about the semantic model the visualization is based on, including time
last refreshed, and allows you to share the semantic model and create a new report based
on the semantic model.

Data Points and Tooltips

Data Points and Tooltips

When analyzing reports and pages in either Power BI Desktop or the Power BI Service,
you'll be working with the data points in visualizations and will often be able to get more
information by hovering over or selecting an individual data point.

• Data points are the data elements in a visualization. They can be the bars of a bar
chart, the slices of a pie chart, the text in a table, or the individual plots on a scatter plot. In
Power BI, if a plot has 15 shapes on an axis, you have 15 data points in your visualization.

• Tooltips are the details that appear when the mouse pointer hovers over a data point in a
visual.
Figure 1-9: Data points and tooltips.

Scorecards and Metrics

Metrics are key data and information you track against business and performance
objectives. For example, the VP of apparel for a retailer might track metrics such as total
sales for the apparel line, total profit for apparel, and current inventory. Metrics being
tracked by a single person, for a single purpose, or for a single project, are combined on
scorecards.

Scorecards and metrics are defined in the Power BI Service and give you a place to quickly
and easily track the data that is most important to you. You create scorecards and metrics in
the Metrics section in the Power BI Service. Each element is described here:

• Scorecards are a container for metrics. Before you can define a metric, you must
create at least one scorecard. Scorecards are displayed in the metrics container in the
Power BI Service. Open a scorecard to create and manage the metrics for that scorecard. To
create a scorecard, you just need to supply a name for the scorecard.

• Metrics are defined on scorecards and can be created in the Power BI Metrics
container. You define a metric by connecting to a report or semantic model, selecting a
metric, often by selecting a data point on a report to set the current value of the metric. The
current value will be refreshed every time the metric is opened based on the report or
semantic model connected to it. You can also set a final target value, which is the goal you're
trying to achieve. For example, if sales are currently $2 million, your goal may be $5 million.
You can also set a start and due date and assign a status such as not started, completed,
overdue, or at risk. You can also define other statuses in the Power BI Service. When
viewing a metric, you can check in and change the status assigned to the metric. You can
follow any metrics with a Teams notification when the metric definition is updated, a check-
in is added, or an automated status rule changes the status of the metric.

Figure 1-10: Metric on a scorecard.

Subscriptions

Where metrics give you at-a-glance information from a scorecard you define, subscriptions
email you a snapshot of a report or page, as well as a link to that report or page at defined
intervals, so that you can see the data you're interested in without having to open Power BI
Desktop or log into the Power BI Service. You can subscribe yourself and other users if, for
example, you wanted your entire team to keep up with specific pages or reports, and grant
permissions for users who are

subscribed to a report or page in Power BI. You can configure notification frequency from
hourly to monthly.

Scorecards and Metrics

Subscriptions

Figure 1-11: Subscription configuration window.

Comments

Comments

The Power BI Service is a collaboration platform for Power BI users in your organization. As
such, users can add comments to reports and dashboards by opening the Comments pane
with the Comment button

Figure 1-12: Individuals can add comments to reports and dashboards.

Guidelines for Exploring Reports in the Power BI Service

Follow these guidelines when exploring reports in the Power BI Service.

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

Explore Reports in the Power BI Service

When exploring reports in the Power BI Service, consider the following guidelines:

• When looking at reports in the Power BI Service, use the left nav bar to navigate
back to the originating workspace.

• Select a single data point in a visualization to fade other data points and focus on the
highlighted data point and see its tooltip.

• Set metrics to provide quick, at-a-glance views of key performance indicators, and
other important information.

Guidelines for Exploring Reports in the Power BI Service

ACTIVITY 1-2

Exploring Reports in the Power BI Service

Activity

Before You Begin

You are logged into the Power BI Service.

Scenario

Now that you're settling into your position as SVP of Apparel, you've met with your
directors and discussed the problems with sales, and gotten feedback from them about
what they think is going well, and not going well. Now you want to look at the data and see
what insights you can glean for yourself. You've logged in and looked around in Power BI
and are confident it can help you extract the information and insights you need. You asked
the data analyst to send you reports comparing sales of the three product lines across the
company, and comparing sales and profit for all products by region. You've also asked to be
given access to all the underlying data.

1. Observe the Power BI Service UI.

a) Observe the home page of the Power BI Service. A navigation menu is on the left, and the
home page has recommended workspaces and objects, as well as recently opened
workspaces and reports.

Note: Some reports have been uploaded to your Power BI Service in preparation for the
class.

b) In the left navigation menu, select Workspaces→My Footprint Sports<student number>.

c) Observe the report and semantic model in the workspace.

2. Open a report.

a) In the My Footprint Sports <student number> workspace, select the link for the Report
L1 report to open it.

Note: Select the Report L1 report and not the semantic model.

The report is opened online showing you the three pages contained in the report, and the
first page of the report, Sales by Year, is visible.

b) If necessary, select the Sales by Year page.

3. Explore the Sales by Year report.

a) In the Sales by Year report, hover over the white space in the visual to make the
visualization menu appear, then select the Focus mode icon to enlarge the report.

b) Observe the report.

This chart shows the reason you were hired. Apparel is a distant third after footwear and
the company's juggernaut sports products line. It's your job to increase sales, and you need
to examine the data to find what's working, what's not, and formulate a plan to transform
the apparel product line.
c) In the Sales by Year report, hover over the apparel line for the month of October, wait for
the tooltip to appear, and observe the numbers.

Apparel has never outsold any of the other product lines in the company in month-to-month
sales. It is interesting to see that all product lines had a sales drop in October and then came
back in November. In December, apparel had sales growth while sporting equipment and
footwear saw declining sales. Advertising might help sell more apparel over the holidays
but more investigation is necessary.

4. On the Sales by Year report Focus mode page, on the top left, select Back to report.

5. Explore the Sales by Region report.

a) To the left of the report, under Pages, select Sales by Region.

Note: The chart colors you see may differ from what's shown in the screenshots.

b) Mouse over the white space of the visual and then select the Focus mode button to
expand it. c) Observe the report.

This visual shows sales data for all the categories of products. Note that the Western US
region data is represented by the right-most bar. The bars are stacked, and the legend
denotes each of the

three categories of products. It is difficult to gauge apparel sales between the regions with
all the other information in the visualization.

d) At the top of the report, select the Apparel category.

e) Hover over the apparel data for Western US and view the numbers for the data. f) Hover
over the other apparel data points and compare the numbers.

While you can see some differences, to do more thorough analysis, you will need to remake
this chart to focus only on apparel. You will do that a little later.

6. Explore the Sales by Product Line report.

a) On the Sales by Region report Focus mode page, on the top left, select Back to report. b)
Under Pages, select Sales by Product Line to open the report.

c) Mouse over the white space of the visual and then select the Focus mode button to
expand it.

d) Hover the mouse over the Footwear bar in the report and observe the tooltip that
appears.

Note that footwear sales are $80,494.44. At a minimum, you want apparel to meet or beat
that in the next 12 months.
7. Subscribe to get updates when the report changes.

a) In the Sales by Product Line report, in the button bar, select Subscribe to report

Note: Depending on the resolution of your monitor, the Subscribe button may not be visible.
If it isn't, select the ellipsis and then select Subscribe.

b) In the Subscriptions window, select Create a subscription.

c) In the Subscription name box, verify Sales by Product Line is the selected report . d) In
the Recipients box, verify your student email address.

e) In the Attach full report box, verify None is selected.

Note: You must be a Power BI Premium user to attach a full report.

f) For Start Date, select today's date.

g) Leave End date blank so that reports will be sent indefinitely.

h) For Repeat, verify that Daily is selected. i) For Scheduled time, configure 8:00 AM.

j) For Time zone, configure your time zone.

Note: You may need to scroll down to access the frequency settings.

k) In the upper-right corner of the subscriptions box, select the X to close the subscription
without saving.

Note: If you save and close the subscription, you will have to go back into this account later
to shut it off, so you're going to cancel at this point.

l) When prompted to Discard your changes?, select Discard.

8. Add a Comment.

a) In the button bar, select the Comment button.

If you don't see the Comment button on the Power BI Service Button Bar, expand your
window horizontally and it should become visible.

b) Observe the Comments side bar and that there are no comments currently. c) If
necessary, under Start a conversation, select Got it.

d) In the Enter your comments here... box, type Great job! I'm going to make a copy to
customize for

apparel.
e) Select Post and observe your comment.

f) Select Close to close the comments pane.

g) Close the browser to close the Power BI Service.

TOPIC C

Edit Reports

After exploring visualizations, if you want to customize them, or create new visualizations,
you likely have to edit the reports containing the visualizations. In this topic, you will edit
reports.

Power BI Desktop UI

The Power BI user interface (UI) consists of the following elements:

• At the top of the UI is the menu, or ribbon, similar to other Microsoft apps. Menu and
tab options may change depending on what's selected and what you're working with.

• On the left side of the UI are the four view selection buttons for selecting Report
view, Table view, Model view, and DAX Query View.

• In the center of the screen is the canvas, where you can configure reports and
visualizations in Report view, the data that makes up the semantic model in Table view, the
semantic model itself in Model view, and any DAX querying code in DAX Query View.

• On the right side of the UI are several configuration panes that you can expand or
collapse as needed.

• In Report view, you may see the Filters pane, the Format pane, the Build pane, and the

Data pane, as well as the pane manager.

• In Data view, you may see the Data pane.

• In Model view, you may see the Data pane and the Properties pane.

Figure 1-13: The Power BI Desktop UI.

Reports

You will likely be working a lot with Power BI reports, exporting them to analyze data and
find insights, and creating or modifying them to showcase insights that are important to
your role. A Power BI report consists of one or more pages. Each page contains
visualizations (also called visuals). At the bottom of the report are page tabs that you use to
navigate from page to page.

Power BI Desktop UI
Reports

Visualizations are typically charts, graphs, or other visually plotted data. All visualizations in
a report come from the data model. You can create visuals manually, or you can import
them from dashboards and reports that other Power BI users have shared with you, and
from other apps and tools that have pre-made reports.

By default, you can edit any report you open with Power BI. When you access reports in the
Power

BI Service, the permissions assigned to reports will govern who can read and who can edit
reports.

Figure 1-14: A report in Power BI.

On-Object Interaction

On-Object Interaction

On-object interaction is a significant change to how visualizations are created in Power BI,
and to the Power BI user interface (UI). Prior to On-object interaction, Power BI only used a
series of configuration panes on the right side of the UI to provide controls for creating
visualizations, managing data, and setting filters. These panes are still available, but On-
object interaction now duplicates the functionality for creating and configuring
visualizations. These duplicated functions are added to the menu and to the visuals on the
canvas through widgets adjacent to the visuals. This means you have the option to configure
visuals directly within the same area of the interface as

those visuals, rather than have to rely on the panes that are docked to the right of the
interface. You can choose to use the panes, the On-object widgets, or a mix of both.

From the Home tab, you can configure the following:

Option Description

New visual Places a new visual on the canvas and opens the Suggest a visual

widget, prompting you to select the type of visual you desire.

Option Description

Visual type Selects a visual from the drop-down box to insert it onto the
canvas and opens the Suggest a visual widget, prompting you to select data for the visual.

Text box Inserts a text box onto the canvas and opens a formatting control
panel.
More visuals Finds more visuals on AppSource®, or uploads visuals from your
local files.

Figure 1-15: On-object interaction in Power BI.

Note: At the writing of this course, On-object interaction is a feature preview.

Global Options and Preview Features

There are a number of features, options, and settings you can enable or disable in Power BI.
Access these options from File→Options and settings→Options. Options has two sections,
GLOBAL and CURRENT FILE. Settings in GLOBAL are applied to all Power BI Desktop files
created or accessed by the user and the Power BI Desktop application. CURRENT FILE
settings must be configured for every file. Options you can configure range from data
loading options, to options related to tools like the Query Editor, security and privacy
options, regional settings, update settings, diagnostics capture, and save and recovery
settings. Some GLOBAL settings can be altered or

added to by CURRENT FILE settings.

One set of options that can be configured in GLOBAL options is Preview features. Power BI
Desktop is updated regularly, and users can begin using new features before they are
officially released through Preview features. Some Preview features are enabled by default.
You can turn Preview features on or off as you wish. Some Preview features may need to be
enabled by a Power BI administrator.

After you enable or disable a Preview feature, you might need to restart Power BI Desktop.

Additional Information

For more information about On-object interaction, see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/

power-bi/create-reports/power-bi-on-object-interaction.

Visualization Widgets and Panes

Visualization Widgets and Panes

Power BI has the following widgets and panes to configure visualizations.

Widget/Pane Description

Suggest a visual Available as a widget. Allows you to select the type of visual to
display and to add data to be shown on the X-axis, the Y-axis, in the Legend, in Small
multiples, and in Tooltips.

Build pane Available as a pane through the pane manager. This pane offers
much of the same options as the Suggest a visual widget.
Add to your visual Available as a widget. Allows you to enable or disable the
visualization's Title, Y-axis, X-axis, Zoom slider, Data labels, and Trend line. It also has a
button to configure More options, which opens the Format pane.

Format pane Available as a pane through the pane manager or can be launched
by selecting More options from the Add to your visual widget. This pane allows you to
configure the visual by adding text for titles and labels, selecting fonts, adding backgrounds
and gridlines, tooltips, reference lines, and more.

As you can see, most of the basic visualization configuration capabilities such as
visualization type, whether to include titles, legends, and which axes to include, are
configured through the Suggest a visual widget, Build pane, and Add to your visual widget.
Fine-grained control of text, fonts, colors, backgrounds, labels, and so forth is configured
from the Format pane.

Figure 1-16: Visualization panes and widgets.

Visual Headers and

Focus Mode

Visual Headers and Focus Mode

Each visual on the canvas has its own header. The visual header enables you to perform
specific tasks with the visual.

When on-object interaction is enabled, and you select Focus mode for a visual, both the
Suggest a visual and Add to your visual widgets disappear, although their options are stil
accessible through the panes. When you exit Focus mode, the widgets reappear, attached to
the visual.

Figure 1-17: A visual header on a report visual.

Depending on the selected visualization, its visual header enables you to perform some or
all of the actions described in this table.

Action Description

Activate Focus mode When you select the Focus mode icon , the visual expands to the
size of the canvas so that you can see it more clearly. You can return to the full canvas by
selecting Back to report in the upper-left corner of the expanded visual.

Export data Select More options→Export data to export the visual and the data
from which it is generated.
Show as a table Select More options→Show as a table to show the data from which
the visual is created, directly below the visual (this automatically puts the visual in Focus
mode).

Remove Select More options→Remove to remove the visual from the canvas.
Sort axis Select a field by which data in the visual should be sorted, and a sort

order, ascending or descending.

Sort ascending/

descending

Sort the selected data by field in either ascending or descending order.

Sort by See a list of the fields included in the visual and select one to sort by.
Spotlight Select More options→Spotlight to highlight the currently selected

visual, and fade out other visuals on the screen, enabling you to analyze

the spotlighted visual with less distraction. You can also bookmark a

spotlighted visual to return to the spotlight configuration later.

View filters and slicers Select the Filter icon to see the filters and slicers affecting the
visual.

Data Pane

Data Pane

The Data pane provides access to the data in the semantic model you're working with. It
lists the tables available, and you can expand any table to see individual field names. Tables
that have fields displayed in the visual you're working with have a green check mark over
them, and, once the table is expanded, any fields from the table in the visual have a green
check box next to them.

Figure 1-18: The Data pane.

To add data to visuals, you drag fields from the Data pane onto the canvas to create a new
visualization or to add data to an existing visualization through the Suggest a visual widget
or Build pane. You can also add a check mark next to a field to have Power BI add the field to
the active visualization. When you add a field to a visualization, Power BI decides if the field
belongs in a legend, axis, or value. You can change the designation later if need be.

Different icons represent different types of fields in the Data pane. Some common field
types and their icons are listed in the following table.
Field Type Description

This is a numeric value that is summarized in some way such as being summed or averaged.

Calculated column for non-numeric data

Calculated column for

numeric data

The contents of these fields are non-numeric and are calculated based on a formula.

Calculated columns that contain numeric data.

Measures A data field based on a hard-coded DAX formula.

Calendar date field with a date table

A date table used in the semantic model.

These are location fields containing geo-coordinates or geo-identifiable data used to create
map visualizations.

Hierarchy A hierarchy field.

Note: For a comprehensive list of field-type icons and changes to icons, see: https://

learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-field-list.

Suggest a Visual Configuration

On the Suggest a visual widget or Build pane, you can select a type of visual to create a new
visual, or change the type for an existing visual. You can also use the toggle the Arrange data
for

me switch to have Power BI arrange the data automatically based on the data you've
configured. For each configuration box, you can drag and drop fields from tables in the Data
pane to

. You can also select and select a field from the list of tables and

Suggest a Visual

Configuration

fields.

Figure 1-19: Suggest a visual configuration.

You can configure the following visual elements in the Suggest a visual widget and Build
pane.
Element Description

Y-axis Choose data to be displayed on the Y, or vertical axis of the visual.

X-axis Choose data to be displayed on the X, or horizontal axis of the visual. Legend
Choose data to help visually explain or segment the data displayed.

Element Description

Small multiples Small multiples allows you to create multiple versions of the same
visualization based on a dimension you choose. For example, if you had a visual showing
apparel sales, you could use Small multiples to create visuals that compare Women's and
Men's lines. Add the desired dimension to this configuration box.

Tooltips Choose data to be included in tooltips in the visual.

Add to Your Visual

Configuration

Add to Your Visual Configuration

The Add to your visual widget lets you add the following elements to the visualization. Note
that it does not let you configure these elements, change default text, fonts, or other
configuration of the element. It simply turns them on or off. Additional configuration is done
though the Format pane.

Figure 1-20: Add to your visual configuration.

You can turn the following on or off (options will vary depending on the type of visual being
configured):

• Title

• X-axis

• Y-axis

• Zoom slider

• Data labels

• Trend line

You can also select More options to open the Format pane.

Format Pane – Visual Tab

The Visual tab of the Format pane is accessible once a visualization on the canvas is
selected. The following table lists the options that may be available for configuration.

Figure 1-21: Format pane – Visual tab.

Options vary depending on the type of visualization and the type of data displayed on each
axis.

Format Pane – Visual

Tab

Tooltips are covered in greater detail later in the course.

Option Description

Title Specify a title for the visual.

X-axis and Y- axis

Secondary Y- axis

Turn the X-axis on or off, and depending on the type of data on the axis, set font and color
options, select the maximum area the title should consume, and enable or disable label
concatenation. You can also give the axis a title and style the font and color. For Numeric
data, you can set minimum or maximum ranges, turn on a logarithmic scale, invert the
ranges, and adjust units and decimal places.

Adjust axis properties for a secondary Y-axis, if one is present.

Option Description

Legend Configure the position of the legend as well as text and title options.

Small multiples Configure the small multiples charts including rows, and columns per
small chart, padding, borders, title, and background.

Gridlines Configure horizontal or vertical gridlines including line style, colors, width,
and rules.

Zoom slider Turn the zoom slider on or off. Then, if turned on, turn axis specific sliders
on or off. Turn on slider labels and tooltips.

Bars/Columns Set colors and spacing for bars and columns, and optionally reverse the stack
order.

Data labels Turn data labels on or off, choose how they apply to series in the
visualization, their position, fonts, colors, units, and decimal places. Choose to allow
overflow text and custom labels, and add data for the labels. Turn on data label
backgrounds, and set a color and transparency.

Total labels Turn total labels on or off, set fonts, colors, units, decimal places, and
choose

to split positive and negative numbers. Turn on total label backgrounds, and set

a color and transparency.

Plot area background

Add an image to use as the background for the visualization, configure the fit and
transparency of the image.

Reference line Add reference lines to the visualization.

Note: Reference lines are covered in more detail later in the course.

Format Pane – Properties Tab

The Properties tab of the Format pane allows you to configure the following properties.

Format Pane – Properties Tab

Option Description

Header icons To turn header icons on or off in Reading view. This does not apply
when editing pages and visuals.

Tooltips Turn tooltips on or off. Configure the type of tooltip for the visual, the pages,
if using a report page for the tooltip, text, and background.

Alt text To configure alternative text for screen readers.

Advanced options To configure making visuals responsive, maintaining layer order,

and whether or not to use high-density sampling.

Figure 1-22: Format pane – Properties tab.

Save Changes in Power BI Desktop

You can save Power BI files by using the File→Save as or File→Save command.

• When you save a report, the file is saved with a .pbix file extension. PBIX files are
saved in Office XML format. The file stores semantic model and visualization information in
a collection of files and folders in a compressed zip package. You can actually view the
contents of the compressed PBIX file by changing the file extension to .zip and viewing the
file with a zip extractor.

• You can also save files as templates by using the .pbit file extension. Templates
include the color scheme used, as well as the data model, report definition, and queries—
everything from the original report that the template was created from (except the data).
Use templates to reduce the time needed to create reports and to ensure reports are
standardized. You can either save a report as a template or export a report to a template.

• You can also export Power BI visualizations to PDF files.

Save Changes in Power

BI Desktop

Access the Checklist tile on your CHOICE Course screen for reference information and job
aids on How to Edit Reports.

ACTIVITY 1-3

Editing Reports

Data File

C:\095031Data\Exploring Power BI Reports\Report L1.pbix

Activity

Notify students of any

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows.

Scenario

Now that you've looked at the initial reports provided by the data analyst, you need to make
some reports that focus on the apparel sales and products. Hopefully this will give some
insights about what problems exist with apparel sales, and provide some ideas for turning
things around.

Note: Activities may vary slightly if the software vendor has issued digital updates. Your
instructor will notify you of any changes.

changes to activities

based on digital software

updates issued by the software vendor.

1. Open Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

Depending on the computer you are using, Power BI might take a minute to start up.

b) If necessary, close the welcome screen. If a note pops up to alert you of new features, you
can close it.

c) Select Open, then select Browse this device.

d) Browse to C:\095031Data\Exploring Power BI Reports. e) Select Report L1.pbix and

then select Open.

2. Save a copy of the report.

a) Select File→Save as.

b) Under Recent, select Exploring Power BI Reports. c) In the Enter file name box, type My
Report L1

d) Select Save.

3. Review the pane manager.

a) To the right of the Data pane, observe the pane manager.

The pane manager allows you to access the different panes you need to create or modify a
visual. You can switch between the panes or display multiple panes at once.

b) In the pane manager, select the Customize button.

c) In the Pane manager settings pane, observe the options for what panes can be accessed
from the pane manager.

This pane allows you to control which buttons are visible on the pane manager.

Note: If at any point during this course you do not see the button you need in the pane
manager, you can customize the pane manager to display the button

you need.

d) Ensure that the following buttons are toggled to On:

• Data

• Build
• Format

e) Select the Customize button to close the Pane manager settings pane.

f) In the pane manager, select the Format icon and observe that the Format pane is
displayed. g) Collapse the Data pane and the Build pane; you will open them again when
necessary. Leave the

Format pane and open.

4. Duplicate the Sales by Region page to create the Apparel Sales by Region page.

a) Observe that the navigation tabs are now at the bottom of report below the
visualizations.

b) Select the Sales by Region tab at the bottom of the report and observe the chart. c)
Right-click the Sales by Region tab and select Duplicate.

When creating a new page, sometimes it's easier to start with an existing one and modify it
rather than creating it from scratch. In the previous activity, you looked at the Sales by
Region visualization and know you want to modify it to focus on apparel only, so you'll
duplicate the page to preserve the visualizations, then modify it to focus on apparel.

A new page named Duplicate of Sales by Region is created.

d) Right-click the Duplicate of Sales by Region tab and select Rename. e) Type Apparel
Sales by Region and press Enter.

f) On the Apparel Sales by Region page, select empty space within the visual to select the
visual entirely.

Caution: Make sure not to select any specific element of the visual, like a bar.

g) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Title, and for Text, type Apparel Sales by
Region

h) Observe that the title of the visualization has now changed.

5. Configure the Apparel Sales by Region page to determine the best selling apparel product
lines.

a) Above the visualization, select Focus mode to expand the visual.

b) Expand the Filters pane and observe the filters applied to the visual.

There are currently three fields in the visualization—Category, Region, and Sales—and
nothing is filtered. All data for each field is displayed.

c) In the Filters pane, select Category and check the Apparel check box.
Data points for footwear and sporting goods have been removed from the visual, leaving
only apparel.

d) Collapse the Filters pane.

6. Analyze Apparel Sales by Region to answer the question, "Which regions are selling
which apparel products the best?"

a) Observe the bars in the visual.

Looking at apparel sales in this newly filtered visual, it's easier to see that the Western
region is leading apparel sales by a large amount. The Central region is next strongest, while
the Eastern and Southern regions are performing less well. If you were only looking at this
bar graph, you might decide it may be time to fire the Southern sales director and put the
Central and Eastern sales directors on a performance improvement plan. But, you will be
doing further analysis, so you'll keep those options under consideration for now.

b) On the Apparel Sales by Region sheet, in the pane manager, open the Data pane, and
expand the orders table.

The Data pane shows the data sources that provide the fields used in visualizations. c) In
the pane manager, select the the Build icon. to open the Build pane.

d) In the pane manager, in the Build pane, drag Category from Legend to the X-axis box,
dropping it below Region.

In order to keep the filter that you've applied to Category in place, you must keep the field in
the visual. Placing it as a secondary field on the X-axis will do that.

Note: If the Category field ends up above Region in the X-axis box, simply drag it below
Region.

e) From the Data pane, drag SubCategory to Legend in the Build pane.

Now the visual shows the desired information, the men's, women's, and youth apparel
product lines, but the stacked bars aren't the best for comparing the performance of each
line side-by-side.

f) In the Build pane, select Clustered column chart.

7. Analyze the Apparel Sales by Region visualization.

a) Observe the newly modified visualization.

This visualization now provides an entirely different set of insights. Across all regions, the
youth product line is performing dismally. The other apparel products are performing about
the same across regions, with one exception. Women's apparel is performing very well in
the Western region. At this point, you think cross training may be in order, with the director
of sales for the Western region explaining how they're selling the Women's line, and seeing
if lessons learned can be applied to the Men's or Youth's lines. More analysis is needed, but
you're getting more data and insights,

and that is informing your plan for improving sales.

b) On the Apparel Sales by Region page, select Back to report.

8. Create an Apparel Product Sales page to discover which products are selling well and
which aren't.

a) Right-click the Apparel Sales by Region worksheet and select Duplicate. b) Rename the
new sheet to Apparel Product Sales

c) On the Apparel Product Sales page, select the Apparel Sales by Region visualization.

Remember to select the entire visualization and not any one element.

d) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Title, and for Text, type Apparel Product
Sales

e) Above the visualization, select Focus mode to expand the visual.

9. Configure the Apparel Product Sales sheet to find the best selling items across all
subcategories.

a) In the Build pane, in the X-axis box, delete the Region field.

To analyze products, you're not interested in how well each region is selling the products,
but rather on each product's popularity across all regions.

b) In the Data pane, drag Product Name to the X-axis box in the Build pane, and then drag
Category below Product Name.

Note: You can also use the +Add data button to add fields if you wish.

c) In the Legend box, delete the SubCategory field.

You're interesting in seeing which products, regardless of subcategory, are the best sellers.
d) Observe the change in the visual.

The visualization now shows all products across all subcategories in the apparel product
line.

10.Analyze the visual.

a) Observe the visual and product sales by using the horizontal scroll bar.

Many of the men's and women's products are strong sellers; youth apparel products don't
seem to be selling at all.
b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

If students have trouble getting Product Name above Category when dragging, remind them
that they can move Category down to rearrange the order.

11.Save and close the report.

a) Select File→Save.

b) Close Power BI Desktop.

Note: There is no way in Power BI Desktop to close an individual report; the entire app
instance that is accessing the report must be closed.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned how Power BI is used by data decision makers and data analysts,
their different roles, and how Power BI licenses and features are related to those role tasks.
You also explored data visualizations in the Power BI Service, and edited reports to perform
deeper, custom analysis.

What license type do you think will work well for you when using Power BI?

A: Answers will vary, but may include the Power BI Free license to create visualizations on
your own, or the Power BI Pro license to share and collaborate on Power BI visuals
throughout the organization.

Which do you think you will do more of: analyzing visualizations created for you or creating
new visualizations?

A: Answers will vary, but may include exploring visualizations in order to comment on
reports created by the data analysis, or creating new reports and visuals in order to do
deeper analysis in specific areas.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

2 Analyzing Data to Get

Answers and Insights

Lesson Time: 2 hours

Lesson Introduction

Decision makers must analyze the data and visualizations they are given to find insights
related to their role and incorporate the unique perspective they have. In this lesson, you
will analyze data to get answers and find insights.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Configure data visualizations.

• Change summarization to ask new questions.

• Answer questions in data with calculations.

TOPIC A

Configure Data Visualizations

If you want to analyze data effectively and customize visualizations, you'll need to be able to
change how visuals look, the types of data points that are used, the types of charts
presented, and add text and other elements to emphasize key data and insights. In Power BI,
this is done with the Format pane. In this topic, you will configure data visualizations.

Color Configuration

Color fx

Color Configuration

Data points are blue by default. If there are multiple data series, then Power BI will assign
each series a different color. You can configure what colors are used for data points in the
Format pane, Visual tab. You configure color as part of the configuration for the type of data
visualization being displayed. For example, if your visualization is a bar chart, color is
configured in the Bars configuration. If your visual is a column chart, color is configured
under Columns. If your visual is a line chart, color is configured under Lines, and so forth.

In the Colors configuration for the type of visualization, you can apply a color for each data
series displayed by selecting colors from a drop-down box. You can also create unique
colors by selecting from a spectrum, or using hex or RGB color codes.

When you create or customize a visualization, you can change colors for many reasons:

• Highlight one data series for emphasis.

• Use two specific colors to highlight two data series for comparison.

• Use colors defined by your company's branding guidelines.

• Use colors to enhance accessibility for visualizations.

Figure 2-1: Color configuration for column charts and bar charts in Power BI.

Color fx

In many types of visualizations, you can also use the fx button to dynamically apply color to
data points based on criteria you specify. When you select the fx button, a dialog box
appears allowing you to configure how data points will be colored. You can select from
three format styles:

• Gradient. You specify a field that will determine how data points will be colored, and
set the summarization that will be used to determine values. You then choose a lowest and
highest

value, which can be minimum and maximum present in the data, and a color for each. A
gradient will be created between the two colors and data points will be colored according to
where the value sits on the gradient. You can also add a middle color to use as a midpoint.
For example,

you might use a two-color gradient to show product profitability, with products with higher
profitability shown in a darker shade of blue, and those with less profitability in a lighter
shade of blue.

• Rules. You specify a field that will determine how data points will be colored, set the
summarization that will be used to determine values, then create rules and assign colors to
them. For example, you might use the Sales field with the Summation summarization to
show products with total sales over $50,000 in one color, products with sales between
$25,000 and $50,000 in another color, and products with sales less than $25,000 in a third
color, to make it easier to see the different sales strata of products.

• Field value. You specify a field or custom field on which the data points will be
colored, and data points will be colored accordingly. This option may be used for custom
measures that will use code you write to calculate criteria.

Figure 2-2: A color gradient used to show highly profitable products, and a set of color rules
to show products that fall into specific sales tiers.

Data Labels

Data labels let you display textual information for each data point in the visual and are
configured in the Format pane's Visual tab, in the Data labels section. The information
displayed by the data label is typically the value of the data being displayed by the data
point, although on some visualizations this can be configurable. Data labels are turned off by
default in most visualizations,

so you have to turn them on using the slider next to the Data labels configuration object
header. You can also configure the following for data labels:

• Options. To configure what position labels are placed on the visualization relative to
the data point, and the orientation, either horizontal or vertical. For example, for a column
chart you might want vertical labels so that they align to the vertical columns; for a bar
chart you might want a horizontal orientation to align to the bars.

• Values. To configure the text font, text color, units to display for numbers, as well as
decimal places and overflow text. These are all set to auto by default and are chosen based
on the data type being displayed.

Data Labels

• Background. To turn on and configure a color background for labels to make them
more visible in the visualization. You can set a color and a transparency.

Figure 2-3: Data labels configuration in a column chart.

Tooltip Configuration

Tooltip Configuration

The Tooltips configuration allows you to configure what additional information is displayed
in the tooltip for each data point. Using the tooltip, you can make more data available when
you hover over a data point than is displayed in the visualization itself. Add fields to tooltips
in the Suggest a visual widget or Build pane, in the Tooltips section. You can add any field
from Data to the +

Add data box under Tooltips, and data for that field will appear in the tooltip when you
hover over a data point in the visualization.

You can format tooltip style, text font, colors, and background in the Format pane,
Properties tab, in the Tooltips section.

Figure 2-4: Tooltip showing the fields added in a visualization.

Guidelines for Configuring Visual Elements

Follow these guidelines when configuring visual elements.

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

Configure Visual Elements

When configuring visual elements, consider the following guidelines:

• Duplicate pages before altering them so that you can always go back to the original.

• Configure color to emphasize, compare, or segregate data.

• Configure labels to add text information to visuals for an "at-a-glance" reference.

• Add fields to tooltips so that information will appear in tooltips when data points are
selected.

Guidelines for Configuring Visual Elements

ACTIVITY 2-1

Configuring Visual Elements

Data File

C:\095031Data\Analyzing Data to Get Answers and Insights\Report L2.pbix

Activity

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows and Power BI Desktop is closed.

Scenario

Now that you've looked at the initial reports provided by the data analyst, you need to make
some reports that focus on the apparel sales and products. Hopefully this will give some
insights about what problems exist with apparel sales, and provide some ideas about how
to deal with them. You also want to make sure key information in visualizations is easy to
read.

1. Open Report L2 in Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

b) Select Open, then Browse this device.

c) Browse to C:\095031Data\Analyzing Data to Get Answers and Insights. d) Select Report

L2.pbix and then select Open.

2. Save a copy of the report.

a) Select File→Save as.

b) Under Recent, select the Analyzing Data to Get Answers and Insights folder. c) In the
Enter file name box, type My Report L2

d) Select Save.

3. Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Apparel Sales and Profit

In addition to examining products by sales volume, you want to look at how profitable
products are as part of your evaluation.

b) Select the visualization on the page, and select Focus mode to enlarge the visual.

c) Open the Format pane, and on the Visual tab, expand Title, and in the Text box, type
Apparel Sales and Profit

d) Collapse the Title configuration.

4. Use color to answer the question, "What products are profitable?"

a) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Columns→Color.

b) In the Color configuration area, select fx.

The Color - Categories dialog box appears.

c) In the Color - Categories dialog box, from the Format style drop-down menu, select
Gradient.

d) From the What field should we base this on drop-down menu, expand Orders and select
Profit.

e) Observe the other boxes in the dialog box and their settings and select OK.

f) In the Format pane, collapse the Columns configuration. g) Observe the visualization.

Some data points are now darker and some lighter with the color range shown at the top of
the visualization with darker data points indicating higher profit.

h) Scroll through the list of products in the visual to see which ones are the most profitable.

The most profitable products are also some of your best sellers from the Men's and
Women's line. This visualization is useful, but with so many products, it's very busy. You
want to customize it to make data points easier to understand.

5. Configure labels to make data points easier to understand.

a) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Data labels and toggle the slider from Off to
On.
b) In the Data labels configuration area, under Options, from the Orientation drop-down
menu, select

Vertical.

c) In the Format pane, collapse the Data labels configuration. d) Observe the visualization.

The sum of sales for each product now appears as a text label on or above the bar for each
product.

6. Configure the tooltip to show additional information in an easy-to-read format.

a) Mouse over one of the bars in the visualization and observe the tooltip that appears.

The tooltip gives you the basic details for product name and sum of sales. The top fields in
the X- and Y-axis boxes are included automatically in the tooltip, but you want to see more
information about each product in the tooltip, such as the number of orders and quantity.

b) In the Build pane, locate Tooltips and observe the +Add data box below it.

c) In the Data pane, expand the Orders table, then drag Profit to Tooltips in the Build pane.

d) Add Quantity from the Data pane to Tooltips below Profit to show the total quantity of
the product that has been sold.

e) Mouse over one of the bars in the visualization and observe the tooltip that appears.

The tooltip now shows product name, sum of sales, sum of profit, and quantity.

7. Format the tooltip color.

a) In the Format pane, select the Properties tab.

b) Expand Tooltips→Text and for Label color, select light yellow.

Note: There are several yellows to choose from; choose one or a different color if you like.

c) For the Value color, select light blue. d) Collapse the Tooltips configuration.

e) Mouse over one of the bars in the visualization and observe the tooltip that appears.

The tooltip now has the information you want and is easier to read. f) In the Apparel Sales
and Profit visualization, select Back to report.

8. Create a Product Line Comparison sheet to compare product lines and to validate your
assumptions about youth apparel and to see if there are potential synergies between
apparel and other product lines.

a) Duplicate the Sales by Product Line page and rename it to Product Line Comparison
b) Select the visualization on the page, and select Focus mode to enlarge the visual.

c) In the Format pane, change the title of the visualization to Product Line Comparison

9. Configure the Product Line Comparison sheet to see differences and potential synergies
between product lines.

a) In the Build pane, locate the X-axis configuration box, and delete the Category field. b)
From the Data pane, drag SubCategory to the X-Axis box in the Build pane.

c) Observe the new visualization.

This visualization shows the subcategory or products in each product line and confirms
what you learned earlier, that youth apparel is truly dragging down performance of apparel.
You also note that youth products are the second best seller for the footwear product line,
right after running shoes. There might be an opportunity to piggyback off youth footwear
sales events and advertise, or to rearrange online shopping prompts and in-store displays
and put youth apparel closer to youth footwear. This is good information, but you'd still like
to see how each product individually

contributes to sales in each product line.

Note: In this chart, the youth subcategory provides information in a stacked bar for the
footwear and apparel categories because both categories contain

the word "youth".

10.Save the report.

a) In the Product Line Comparison visualization, select Back to report. b) Select File→Save.

TOPIC B

Ask New Questions by Changing Summarization The data presented by a data analyst is
designed to provide answers and insights to a specific question. If you are looking for
different insights, or seek different answers, you have to be able to

change the question being asked of the data. In Power BI, one way to change the question
being

asked is to change summarization. In this topic, you will ask new questions of the data by
changing

summarization.

Dimensions and

Measures
Summarization

Change Summarization to Change the Question Being Asked

Dimensions and Measures

Generally speaking, data to be analyzed typically falls into two categories: dimensions and
measures. Both serve different purposes in data analysis.

• Dimensions contain qualitative values such as names or dates. You can use
dimensions to categorize or segment data. Dimensions often contain discrete information;
that is, information that is separate and distinct. If you're looking at data about sales at a
chain of retail stores, then region, product names, and store locations might be discrete data
and examples of dimensions. For example, there are only a few stores in each region. In the
Data pane, dimensions are blue.

• Measures contain measurable quantitative data such as gross sales, profit, quantity,
and so forth. Measures tend to contain continuous data—data that goes on without
interruption. Again, if you're looking at data about sales at a chain of retail stores, Sales and
Profit are continuous data and are measures. For example, while there are only a few stores
in each region, each store will continuously generate sales. In the Data pane, measures are
green.

Summarization

Summarization, also called aggregation, is a mathematical operation that takes many

numbers and transforms them into a single number for analysis. You summarize numbers
every day. When you buy groceries, the bill is summarized using summation to determine
the price at checkout. That is,

the price for all the items in your cart is added up to determine the bill. To set a weekly
grocery budget you might perform summarization to find the average using your previous
12 weeks grocery bills and dividing them by 12 to see how much, on average, you spend per
week.

In data analysis you're typically working with rows and rows of values. If you want to find
total sales for the year, you must perform a summation summarization to add up all the
sales for the year. To find the average sale, you need to first perform summation, then
divide the sum by the number of sales.

Change Summarization to Change the Question Being Asked

When stated with concrete examples, the mathematics is easy to understand, but you must
also understand the impact of changing the summarization. Changing the summarization
changes the question being asked of the data. When applied to groceries, summation asks
the question, "How much do I owe for the groceries in my cart?" Averaging the weekly bills
asks the question, "How much should I set aside in my budget?"

In Power BI, measures added to visualizations are summarized by default. The type of
summarization performed depends on the type of visualization, but the summarization
applied may not be the best for the analysis you're performing. Power BI might be asking
the wrong question. To ask a different question of the data, you change the default
summarization.

Types of Summarization Supported in Power BI

Power BI supports the following types of summarization.

SummarizationDescription Example for a Measure Containing

the Numbers 1, 2, 2, 3

SUM Sums all numbers in the measure, ignoring nulls. 8

Types of Summarization

Supported in Power BI

Average Shows arithmetic mean of all numbers in the measure, ignoring nulls.

Minimum Shows the smallest number in a measure or continuous dimension, ignoring

nulls.

Maximum Shows the largest number in a measure or continuous dimension, ignoring

nulls.

Count (Distinct) Shows the number of unique values in the dimension or measure.

Count Shows the number of rows in the dimension or measure. Numbers, dates, booleans,
and strings can be counted.

Std. Dev Shows the standard deviation of all values in the given expression based
on a sample population. Use this option if your data represents a sample of the population.

Variance Shows the variance of all values in the given expression based on a sample
population. Use

this option if your data represents a sample of the population.

MedianShows the median of all numbers in the measure, ignoring nulls. This is not available
for some data sources. Those data sources require extracts to use median summarization.

2
1

.8165

.6667

Additional Information

For more information on summarization types and how they are used, see: https://

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-aggregates.

Standard Deviation and Variance

Two commonly used principles of statistical analysis used when analyzing data are
standard deviation and variance. Standard deviation tells you how dispersed or distant data
is from the mean or average data. Variance describes how widely data in a semantic model
may vary; in other words, if the data in the semantic model is more contained, or more
spread out.

You also have to look at your sample size to know which summarization to use. Population
standard deviation estimates the variability in values within an entire population, when you
have all the data, whereas standard deviation estimates the variability between values
when you're working with a sample of a much larger set of data. The same is true when you
are using variance.

Put another way, use population standard deviation and population variance when your
semantic model consists of all the data on the subject (the entire population). If your data
uses a sample of a much larger population of data, consider using standard deviation and
variance.

Examples: Customizing

Summarization to Ask

Examples: Customizing Summarization to Ask Different

Questions
The following are some examples of how changing summarization changes the question
asked and the analysis you can perform with the data.

Question You're Asking Summarization to Use

Different Questions

What's the difference in sales and profitability of the apparel product line to the footwear
product lines?

What individual products are the most profitable?

How much is profitability of a product impacted by the cost to ship it to customers?

Use the summation (SUM) of sales and the SUM of profit to see the overall sales and
profitability of each line of products.

Use average (AVG) of sales and AVG of profit to get an idea of sales price and profit per
product.

Use the average (AVG) summarization on shipping cost data to see which items cost more to
ship and how that impacts profit.

Which products do customers order the most? Use the count (CNT) summarization for
orders to see the number of orders for each product.

Which products are purchased by lots of different customers, and which are only purchased
by a few customers?

Use count distinct (CNTD) summarization for customer names to see how many unique
customers purchased a product.

These are just a few examples of how changing summarization changes the question being
asked and the data presented for analysis.

Change Summarization in Power BI

Change Summarization in Power BI

As stated earlier, measures are summarized when they are brought into a visualization.
Once there, you can change the summarization of any measures by selecting the Field menu
of the measure in the Suggest a visual widget or Build pane, and selecting a new
summarization from the context menu.
Figure 2-5: Summarization options for the Sales field.

Change Column Charts to Bar Charts and Vice Versa

Another way to ask new questions when working with data visualizations is to swap the X-
and Y- axis, and place the data from the Y-axis onto the X-axis, and vice versa. This
effectively moves fields that are Columns in the semantic model to Rows, and fields in Rows
in the semantic model to Columns. This can help you visualize the data in new ways. In
Power BI, there is no way to simply swap rows and columns on a per visualization basis;
transposing rows and columns has to be done when working with the data. However, for
some visualizations such as bar and column charts, you can effectively swap axes by
changing the visualization type. To swap the X- and Y-axes on a

column chart, select the chart then select one of the bar chart options from the visualization
list. To swap axes for a bar chart, select the bar chart and change it to a column chart.

Figure 2-6: Changing a clustered column chart to a clustered bar chart in Power BI.

Guidelines for Changing Summarization to Ask New Questions

Follow these guidelines when changing summarization to ask new questions.

Change Summarization to Ask New Questions

When changing summarization to ask new questions, consider the following guidelines:

• Remember that Power BI summarizes measures brought into visualizations

automatically, but it may not choose the best summarization for the analysis you wish to
perform.

• You can change the summarization of any measure in a visualization.

• The summarization of each measure in a visualization must be changed separately.

• Be sure to change all related summarization in a visualization as needed for the

analysis you're performing. For example, don't change some sales data to average but leave
the axis or labels showing the SUM of sales because that will be confusing for people using
the visualization.

• Consider updating page names and visual titles to show summarization to make it
clear to people using the visualization what it is designed to show.

Change Column Charts to Bar Charts and Vice Versa

Guidelines for Changing Summarization to Ask New Questions

ACTIVITY 2-2

Changing Summarizations to Ask New

Questions

Activity

Before You Begin

Power BI is running on the desktop with My Report L2 open and the Product Line
Comparison

page visible.

Scenario

You've been analyzing the total sales for apparel products. You think it likely that you're
going to need to recommend that some products, the poor sellers, be cut. In order to make
sure you're giving the best recommendations, you need to calculate average sale price,
average profit, and average quantities in order to analyze which products are providing the
best return for the company. You also want to create a visualization that compares sales to
profit, and, as always, you want to keep looking for insights and ideas to turn up apparel
sales.

1. Add Count of Order ID to the Apparel Sales and Profit Tooltips so that you can see how
many orders there are for each product.

a) On the Apparel Sales and Profit page, select the visual, then open the Suggest a visual
widget.

b) In the Data pane, drag Order ID to the Tooltips configuration box below Quantity in the
Suggest a visual widget.

Note: You may have to scroll down in the Suggest a visual widget to see the

Tooltips configuration box.

The Order ID field is added to the configuration box as First Order ID.

c) Select the Suggest a visual widget to close it, then hover the mouse over one of the data
points in the visual and observe the tooltip.

The default summarization for Order ID is First Order ID, which shows the first value in the
table for each product. You want to see a count of all the values in the table so that you
know how many orders there are for each product. Therefore, you must change the
summarization.

d) Open the Suggest a visual widget, and, in the Tooltips configuration box, select the right-
caret icon next to First Order ID.
The Data box is displayed.

In this semantic model, there is no difference between the summarization of count, and
count distinct because each order has a unique order ID.

e) In the Data box, from the Summarization drop-down, select Count.

f) Close the Suggest a visual widget, hover over one of the data points in the visualization,
and observe the tooltip.

The tooltip now shows the count of each order for each product.

2. Create an Average Apparel Sales page to answer the question, "How do the average
product sales compare to gross product sales?"

a) Duplicate the Apparel Sales and Profit page and rename it to Avg Apparel Sales and Profit

b) Select the visualization on the page, and select Focus mode to enlarge the visual. c) Set
the title of the visualization to Avg Apparel Sales and Profit

3. Change to averages to see which products are highly profitable regardless of sales and,
therefore, might be products to build a profit-driven sales plan around.

a) In the visualization, observe the label on the Y-axis.

b) In the Build pane, in the Y-axis box, select the caret next to Sales to open the Data box,
and observe the summarization configured.

The Sales field is using the Summation summarization. c) From the Summarization drop-
down, select Average.

d) Observe that the name of the field in the Y-axis box has changed, as has the Y-axis label,
and the data points in the visualization.

e) In the Build pane, scroll down to the Tooltips configuration box, and configure the Profit
field to use the average summarization.

f) Observe the color code indicators at the top left of the visual and note the range of
numbers displayed.

g) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Columns→Color and select fx.

The Color - Categories dialog box appears.

h) Verify that What field should we base this on is set to Sum of Profit.

This chart is using the profit field to color the bars. You need to change the summarization
from summation to average.
i) From the Summarization drop-down menu, select Average.

j) Select OK.

k) Observe the change in the number range in the color code indicator at the top left of the
visual.

4. Observe the visual to analyze average sales.

Things have changed considerably. Many apparel products are generating good profit on
average. That means it may be worth the effort, training, and advertising to sell more of
them, rather than just discontinuing the products, but more analysis is needed. You'd like to
see which products are

purchased in bulk, and how shipping costs affect profit.

5. Configure bulk purchase and shipping cost information for the tooltip to see if some
products might perform better when sold in bulk to organizations, rather than to individual
customers.

a) In the Build pane, scroll to the Tooltips configuration box.

b) In the Tooltip configuration box, set Quantity to use a summarization of Average.

You not only want to see the average quantity of the items that are orders, but you also
want to see which items are purchased in bulk. To get an idea of that, you'll need to see
minimum and maximum quantity.

c) In the Data pane, drag Quantity to the Tooltip box below the Avg of Quantity field in the
Build pane, and configure its summarization for Minimum.

Note: Expand the orders table if necessary.

d) In the Data pane, drag Quantity to the Tooltip box below the Min of Quantity field in the
Build pane, and configure its summarization for Maximum.

e) In the Data pane, drag Shipping Cost to the Tooltip box below the Max of Quantity field in
the Build pane, and configure its summarization for Average.

f) Hover over one of the bars in the visualization and observe the tooltip.

6. Analyze Average Sales and Profit.

a) View the tooltip for the Men's Pants Red bar focusing on the quantity information.

This is one of the best selling and most profitable apparel items, and since the minimum
quantity sold is 3 and the average is 5, it is obvious that people tend to buy several pairs
when shopping.
b) View the tooltip for the Women's Pants Black bar focusing on the quantity information.

Again, looking at the average quantity, people tend to buy more than one pair.

c) View the tooltips for Youth's Pants White, Youth's Shorts Red, Youth's Shorts Yellow, and
Youth's T- shirt Yellow focusing on the number of sales and the average quantity per sale.

Those four items show good average sale price and profitability in the Youth line. The total
sales for each is low, only one sale each, but each sale was a bulk sale, perhaps to a school,
gymnastics program, or other organization. One strategy to increase Youth sales might be to
focus on bulk sales to youth sports organizations. These insights are helpful, but you still
need to see a more direct comparison of total sales and profit to average sales and profit.

d) In the visualization, select Back to report.

7. Create an Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison worksheet.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Sales and Profit page and rename it to Apparel Sales and Profit
Comparison

Students should be careful to duplicate the Apparel Product Sales and Profit page, not the
average sheet they just configured.

Note: In this case, do not enlarge the visual by going into Focus mode.

There's also no need to retitle the visual on the page as you will use it with its current title
settings.

8. Swap rows and columns to enable side-by-side analysis of sales and profitability.

a) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, select the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization. b) In the menu, in the Visual types drop-down box, select the Stacked bar
chart icon to swap the rows

and columns of the visualization.

In order to compare total sales to average sales, you need to view both Apparel Product
Sales and Avg Apparel Product Sales side-by-side. That will be easier to do using bar charts
rather than column charts. Since Power BI can't show both sets of information on a single
chart, you will put both charts side-by-side on this page.

c) Select the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit page.

You're going to copy the visualization on this page and paste it onto the Apparel Sales and
Profit

Comparison page.
d) Press Ctrl+A to select all charts on the page. e) Press Ctrl+C to copy all charts on the
page.

f) Select the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page.

g) Press Ctrl+V to paste the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit visualization onto this page.

Note: The Avg Apparel Sales and Profit visualization will be pasted onto the page on top of
the existing visualization.

h) With the Avg Apparel Sale and Profit visualization selected, select and drag the side and
corner widgets to resize the visual.

i) Resize both visuals on the page and use the mouse to select and drag them so that they
are next to each other with Apparel Sales and Profit on the left, and Avg Apparel Sales and
Profit on the right.

j) Select the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit visualization.

k) From the menu, select Stacked bar chart to swap the rows and columns of the
visualization.

Now the data can be compared side by side.

9. Save the report.

TOPIC C

Find Answers with Calculations

Sometimes the answer you seek or the insights you desire aren't contained in the data you
have available, but must be extracted from it. You may not know what your profit is, but if
you know your sales price and your costs, you can calculate profit. If you wish to draw out
answers and insights from raw data, you have to use calculations. In this topic, you will find
answers with calculations.

Calculations

In many instances, the data source you are working with either won't have all of the data
you need to perform analysis, or show the insights you wish, or the data that exists will
need to be refined. In those cases, you can use calculations to obtain the data you need to
perform your analysis. You can use calculations to create calculated columns that will store
new data as part of the table, and new measures for use in your analysis of summarized
data. You can then use this new information to create visuals that show new insights.

Calculated Columns

A calculated column is a column whose data is populated based on a calculation using other
data from the semantic model. Calculations are performed per-row and the results for each
row are stored in a new column in the data model. Calculated columns can be helpful when
you want to use the data you have from the data source to calculate new data, or filter based
on a specific value or complex formula. For example, if you wished to track the cost to
produce each product, you might have to create a calculation that factored in many
expenses and then stored the result in a new calculated column, making it available for
future analysis of each product.

When you create a new column, it becomes part of the table that is currently selected in the
Data pane. In fact, you can see the new column and its data in Table view, which means that
the calculations get added to the data model. The values in calculated columns are evaluated
when you first define them and whenever you refresh your semantic model. Once evaluated,
the values are stored in the data model, which means the data model's size increases and it
consumes more memory. If no table is selected, the top table in the Data pane is expanded,
and the column is placed there. However, this could provide unexpected results, so be sure
to select the appropriate table before creating your calculated column.

Additional Information

For more information on creating calculated columns, see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-

us/

power-bi/transform-model/desktop-tutorial-create-calculated-columns.

Calculated Measures

While calculated measures are constructed in a way that is similar to calculated columns,
there are differences. While calculated columns store results per-row in a new column,
measures are calculated on the fly, with each context change. Calculated measure data is not
stored in any table and always uses summarized data in the context of the cell evaluated in a
report or in a DAX query. For example, if you want to calculate a percentage of profit margin
for a product, you will need to

take into account the SUM of Sales for all products, and the SUM of Profit for each unique
product.

The new calculated measure will be visible in the Data pane of the selected table, and can be
added to visualizations like other fields.

Calculations

Calculated Columns

Calculated Measures

Additional Information

For more information on how to create calculated measures, see: https://

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-tutorial-create-measures.

Quick Measures

The Power BI Formula

Bar

Quick Measures

When creating calculated columns and measures you must write the formula or code that
the calculation will use, but quick measures are designed to write the formula for you. When
you create a new quick measure, a dialog box appears allowing you to choose from a list of
calculations you could perform. The calculations range from standard addition and
subtraction to common business calculations such as quarter-over-quarter change and
rolling average. Once you select the calculation, field boxes appear that you must populate
with fields from the data model. You can select the fields and drag them to the appropriate
boxes to create the calculation. Power BI takes care of writing the equation and any code
required.

Figure 2-7: Creating a quick measure to calculate rolling average.

Additional Information

For more information on creating quick measures, see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/

power-bi/transform-model/desktop-quick-measures.

The Power BI Formula Bar

If you're not using a quick measure, when you create a new measure or column, the formula
bar is displayed at the top of the canvas. The first part of the calculation specifies the type of
element you're creating, such as:

Column =

or

Measure =

This is populated for you in the formula bar. You can then complete the rest of the formula
by adding functions, fields, operators, and so forth, by using Data Analysis Expressions
(DAX)

syntax. The Power BI formula bar drop-down lists field and function names as you type, and
provides a brief description of how each function works to aid you in constructing your
formula.
When you are constructing a formula in the formula bar, you can keep simple formulas on a
single line or press Shift+Enter to add lines or keep your formula syntax well organized. To
expand the formula bar, select the arrow in the upper-right corner. For example, if you
wanted to create a text statement used to show profitability for orders, you could use
Shift+Enter to create a formula that looks like the following:

Profitable = IF(Orders[Profit]>0,"Profitable", IF(Orders[Profit]<0, "Unprofitable"))

Figure 2-8: A measure being edited in the Power BI formula bar.

DAX

DAX is the language used to create formulas for calculated columns and measures in Power
BI. It is also the language used by Power BI to execute queries and perform quick
calculations. DAX is also used in Microsoft Power Pivot and other Microsoft apps. DAX uses
functions to perform calculations. When you are constructing formulas in DAX, you must
call the correct functions to perform the calculations you need.

Note: DAX conversions can create unexpected results, so it's best to know the types of data
you're mixing. Experiment with results to make sure you're getting the output you're
looking for.

Additional Information:

For more information on DAX, see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dax-overview.

DAX Function Examples

Functions provide the main computational power of DAX and can be part of conditional
statements, can be passed values and variables, and may have their execution adjusted by
parameters. They can also contain other functions. DAX supports the following commonly
used functions.

Note: This table is not a comprehensive list of all available functions.

DAX

DAX Function Examples

Emphasize that DAX functions and Excel functions are not the same.

Function Type Description

Aggregation Lets you set the granularity of the data you're working with. For example,
you might want to see the SUM of all sales, or the AVERAGE of all sales. Example functions
include:

• SUM: Sums numbers in the data.

• AVERAGE: Shows the arithmetic mean of the data.

• MIN and MAX: Shows the smallest or largest number in the data.

Counting Provides a count of rows in a column or table that meet criteria you specify.
You can run an expression against store profitability and count the stores in your chain that
are currently profitable. Functions include:

• COUNT: Counts the number of cells in a column that contain numeric values,
skipping nulls, text, dates, and logical values.

• COUNTA: Counts the number of cells in a column that are not empty, including rows
that contain numeric, string, dates, and logical values.

• DISTINCTCOUNT: Counts the number of unique rows in a column.

Logical Designed to determine if a condition expressed in a formula is true or false.

Functions include:

• IF: For determining if a statement is true such as "Profitability is greater than zero."

• AND: For specifying additional conditions.

• OR: For specifying contrasting conditions.

Information Helps you determine the type of data in fields so that you can construct
formulas that provide predictable results or convert data as needed. Functions include:

• ISBLANK: Returns true or false depending on whether the value of an expression or

cell is blank.

• ISNUMBER: Returns true or false depending on whether the value of an expression

or cell is numeric.

• ISTEXT: Returns true or false depending on whether the value of an expression or

cell is a string.

Text Searches and manipulates string data. Functions include:

• SEARCH: Searches for a specific string.

• REPLACE: Replaces a specific string.

• UPPER: Converts text to uppercase.

Date and Time Allows you to perform calculations on dates. Functions include:

• NOW: Returns the current date and time.

• DAY: Returns the numeric day of the month (1 - 31).

• DATEDIFF: Returns the interval between two dates.

Note: You don't have to put function names in CAPS, but it helps make your formula code
more readable.

DAX Functions

The previous table lists a small number of DAX functions. For more information on the
functions available in DAX, see the DAX function reference at
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/ dax-function-reference.

DAX Syntax

A DAX formula must have a name and a minimum of one expression, but may include
multiple expressions. A DAX formula is made up of the following elements.

Item Description

Name The name of the column, measure, or table being created. The default names for
columns and measures are 'Column' and 'Measure', respectively. You should change the
default to a descriptive name so that you and others will know the intended purpose of the
calculated column or measure.

Equals Sign This operator indicates the start of the formula. The named
calculation is the result of executing the formula.

Functions Functions are predefined formulas that perform calculations by using

specific values and called arguments, in a particular order. For example:
Sum(OrderID[SalesAmount] - ProductID[Cost]).

Parentheses Parentheses ( ) surround expressions that are made up of one or more

arguments. Arguments can include other elements listed in this table.

Columns and Measures Calculations are often performed using columns of data from the
data source. Column names must be enclosed in brackets, and can be uniquely identified by
associating with the name of the table the field is from. For example, an unqualified column
name [SalesAmount] can be used if there are no other instances of a field named
[SalesAmount] in the report. If there are, specify the fully qualified name by adding the table
using the syntax OrderID[SalesAmount]. If you select from the formula bar drop- down, fully
qualified names are added for you.

Tables Table names are used to fully qualify field and measure names. If a table has a space
in the name, it must be surrounded by single quotes. For example, a fully qualified column
name from the table 'Order Number' would be written in DAX as 'Order Number'[Sales].
Values Values are results returned by a DAX expression. Those values can be referenced in
other DAX expressions. For example, you may have an expression that subtracts [SalePrice]
from [Cost] to show [Profit]. You can then use a different expression to subtract the
[ShippingCost] from the value [Profit] to get [Order Profit].

Constants Constants are numbers entered into an expression that don't change. For
example, if salespeople receive a 2% commission, the expression would include the
constant 0.02, as Sum(OrderID[Sales] * 0.02)

Operators These can be numeric and non-numeric operators such as: (, ), +, -,

*, /,

^, =, >, <, > =, < =, < >, &, &&, ||

Note: & is the text concatenation operator used by Power BI to combine text data. && and ||

are logical operators. && is an And statement, while || is an Or statement.

DAX Syntax

Figure 2-9: DAX syntax.

Additional Information

For additional information on DAX syntax, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dax-

syntax-reference.

Error Checking

Guidelines for Creating

Calculated Fields

Error Checking

You can use the X icon at the far left of the formula bar to close it. If you haven't completed
your formula, then work to that point will be lost. Use the check mark to check the formula
entered for completeness and accuracy. If the formula has problems, Power BI will identify
the issue and provide you with guidance on how to fix it.

Figure 2-10: Error checking.

Guidelines for Creating Calculated Fields

Follow these guidelines when creating calculated fields.

Create Calculated Fields

When creating calculated fields, consider the following guidelines:

• Give calculated fields names that indicate their purpose and function.

• While not required, it's recommended to put logic statements in all CAPS to make
them easier to pick out in formulas.

• Watch the error indicator to help you see when there are errors in formulas.

ACTIVITY 2-3

Answering Questions with Calculations

Before You Begin

Power BI is running on the desktop with My Report L2 open and the Apparel Sales and
Profit

Comparison page visible.

Scenario

You've decided to continue analyzing the products themselves. You have a good idea of how
profitable each product is on average, but you're planning to ask for some products to be
discontinued and the board will want to see hard numbers. You need to calculate and show
the average profit percentage for each product. You also want to show the weighted average
of profit for each product so you can make sure of which products are contributing most to
the revenue

apparel is bringing in, and so that you don't cut any products with strong potential. Finally,
you want an easy way to show which products should be kept, and which should be cut.

1. Create a calculated field to show profit percentage.

a) With the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page selected, select Home→New
measure.

By creating a new measure, Power BI will calculate profit percentage. You can add the
measure and view profit percentage for each product in the visualization.

b) In the calculation box, replace the existing text with AVG Profit % =

This will rename the field to reflect the calculation being performed.

Note: Be careful to put a space between the percent symbol and the equal sign.

c) In the calculation box, place a space after the equal sign and type AV. The syntax helper
will appear as you type, showing available DAX functions. Select fx AVERAGE.
To calculate profit you need to divide profit by sales, so you will use DAX to build the
calculation. d) Observe that the AVERAGE function has been added to the calculation with
an opening

parenthesis. At this point, the calculation should look like: AVG Profit % = AVERAGE(

Activity

If students type calculation statements incorrectly, DAX will display an error. Have students
refer to the statement examples to verify their statements are correct.

e) After the opening parenthesis, type pro and select Orders[Profit] from the syntax helper.

This captures profit data from the orders table for use in the calculation.

At this point your calculation should look like: AVG Profit % = AVERAGE(Orders[Profit]

f) In the calculation box, type ) / (

This will add a closing parenthesis to close the numerator statement, add the division
instruction to separate the numerator statement, and add an opening parenthesis to start
the denominator statement.

At this point your calculation should look like: AVG Profit % = AVERAGE (Orders[Profit])/(

g) Continue to build your formula by adding functions, fields, and operators.

When you are done your formula should look like this: AVG Profit % = AVERAGE
(Orders[Profit])/ (AVERAGE (Orders[Sales])-(AVERAGE(Orders[Shipping Cost])))

h) In the menu bar, in the Formatting group, select the percent symbol.

i) Select in the white space below the visuals on the page to close the calculation box.

j) In the Data pane, in the Orders table, observe the new AVG Profit % calculated measure.

2. Add the AVG Profit % to the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit visualization.

a) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, select the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization.

b) Open the Suggest a visual widget and scroll down so that the Tooltips box is visible. c) In
the Data pane, drag the AVG Profit % field to the Tooltips box.

d) In the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit visualization, hover over one of the bars and observe
the tooltip that appears.

You can now see average profit percentage for each product.

e) Select an area of whitespace on the page to close the Suggest a visual widget.
3. Create a Weighted Average of Profit Quantity calculated field.

a) With the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page selected, select Home→New
measure. b) In the calculation box, replace the existing text with Weighted AVG =

c) Enter the following calculation by typing it or using a combination of typing and syntax
helpers:

Weighted AVG = (SUM(Orders[Quantity]) * SUM(Orders[Profit]))/ SUM(Orders[Profit])

d) Select in the white space below the visualizations to exit Measure creation. e) Verify the
Weighted AVG field is visible in the Data pane.

Now you have a calculated field to show weighted average for each product. This could also
be added to the tooltip, if you feel it's more important to see it.

4. Create the Weighted Avg by Product Name visualization to answer the question, "Which
apparel products contribute most to high profitability?"

a) In the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, verify that none of the visuals are
selected.

Note: If a visual is selected when you insert a new visual, the selected visual will be replaced
by the new visual.

b) On the Home ribbon in the Visual type drop-down box, select the stacked bar chart icon..

c) Observe that a new, stacked bar chart is added to the page.

d) From the Data pane, drag the Product Name and Category fields to the Y-axis box in the
Build pane, and make sure Product Name is on top.

Note: You may need to expand Orders to see the fields.

e) In the Data pane, drag Weighted AVG to the X-axis box.

f) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Bars→Color and select fx.

The Color - Categories dialog box appears.

g) In the Color - Categories dialog box, from the Format style drop-down menu, select
Gradient.

h) From the What field should we base this on drop-down menu, expand Orders and select
Weighted

AVG.

This will show products with a higher weighted average with darker color. i) Select OK.
j) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, collapse Bars, and expand Data labels and select
the slider to turn them on.

5. Filter the visual to show only apparel items.

a) Expand the Filters pane, then expand the Category configuration box and check the
Apparel check box to filter out all entries but apparel items.

b) Collapse the Filters pane.

6. Position, sort, and format the visuals on the page.

a) Move and resize the visuals so they are all side-by-side with Apparel Sales and Profit on
the left, Avg Apparel Sales and Profit in the middle, and Weighted AVG by Product Name on
the right.

b) In the Weighted AVG visual, select More options→Sort axis→Product Name. c) In the
Weighted AVG visual, select More options→Sort axis→Sort ascending.

d) Select one of the bars in any one of the visualizations in the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization and observe that the same bar is highlighted in the other two visualizations.

7. Analyze the data

a) Observe the Weighted Average by Product Name visual using the vertical scroll bar to
view products.

You see some products that show a high weighted average of profit, despite low sales
figures. Men's T-Shirt White and Men's T-Shirt Orange are two examples. When you scroll
down to look at youth apparel, you find several products that show a high weighted average
for profit and a strong profit percentage. This makes you re-evaluate your approach to
cutting youth apparel. The products may be highly profitable, and the product line may be
worth saving if sales can be brought up. At a minimum, you need to visualize which
products have a strong profit ratio and which don't so that you can see what products might
need to be cut.

8. Create an Apparel Profit Ratios worksheet to answer the question, "Which products have
a profit ratio of over 52 percent?"

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Apparel Profit Ratios

b) Select the visualization, change to Focus mode, and retitle the visualization to Apparel
Profit Ratios

9. Configure the Apparel Profit Ratios page to highlight high profit apparel products.

a) On the Apparel Profit Ratios page, in the Visual type drop-down box, select the Stacked
bar chart icon.
b) In the Build pane, in the X-axis box, change the Sales summarization to Average. c) In the
Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Bars→Color and select fx.

d) In the Color - Categories dialog box, from the Format style drop-down menu, verify that
Rules is selected.

e) From the What field should we base this on? drop-down menu, expand Orders and select
AVG Profit %.

f) Observe that one rule has been added by default.

g) Configure the first rule so that it applies to values that are >= 0 Number and < .429
Number

and for the color, select a blue of your choice.

This will color products with less than a 43% profit percentage in blue. h) Select + New
rule.

i) Configure the second rule so that it applies to values that are >= .43 Number and <= 1.5

Number and for the color, select an orange of your choice.

This will color products with more than 43% profit percentage in orange. These rules will
help you visualize which products fall into each category.

j) Select OK.

10.Analyze the data.

a) Observe the Apparel Profit Ratios visualization, and scroll through the data.

Some products like Men's Tank Top Red have very low sales, but generate high profit. You'll
need to factor this in when considering whether or not to cut products.

b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

11.Save the report.

Weighted Average

Weighted average is a way of assigning importance, or weight, to numbers in a semantic

model (e.g., data that appears more frequently). Weighted average can sometimes be more
meaningful than the simple average. For example, if you're calculating profitability of the
products you sell, and orange widgets and green widgets have the same profit, a simple
average will show their profit equal. However, if you sell 100 orange widgets, and 10,000
green widgets, green widgets clearly contribute more to the overall profitability of the
widget product line.
When analyzing profitability, weighted average is often used to determine contribution,
how much a product contributes to the bottom line, which can be profit, growth, or other
key performance indicators. One common calculation is weighted average contribution
margin, which is the average amount a product, group of products, or services contributes
to the business. It's a key calculation for breakeven analysis and is used to forecast profits.
Weighted average calculations can be complicated, but generally take into account the
number of units sold, giving more weight to items that sell better.

Waterfall Chart

A waterfall chart is useful in contribution analysis. It shows positive and negative values in a
visualization, and helps visualize how the items being charted contribute.

For example, if you want to see which products contribute to profit, a waterfall chart will
show those products that contribute positively (add to profitability) and those that
contribute negatively (take away from profitability).

Waterfall charts start at some beginning value, such as a sales balance at the start of the
year, and show how you arrived at the final value you're analyzing by showing the
intermediate actions that contribute to the final value. The way the data points are
displayed often has the appearance of a waterfall, hence the name.

For example, you can visualize and analyze which products are most profitable by using a
waterfall chart to see how much each product contributes to the profit generated by a
product line.

Figure 2-11: A waterfall chart showing profit contribution of products.

Weighted Average

Waterfall Chart

Matrix Table

Visualization

Matrix Table Visualization

You can customize how data is displayed in tables in Power BI. One way to highlight
differences in data is with a matrix visualization. A matrix visualization, sometimes called a
highlight table, is created by selecting the matrix icon from the visualization list. The
difference between a matrix and a standard table is that each cell in a matrix is color coded
based on criteria you define. You define the color palette and the criteria as a range. Power
BI then colorizes the cells of the table based on the palette, adjusting the color and the color
intensity based on where the data of each cell falls in the range.
For example, if your visualization showed product sales by month, you could create a
palette from light blue to dark blue. The cells with the lower sales figures for a given month
would display in light blue, while products with higher sales numbers for a given month
would display in dark blue. You can even create multicolored palettes. In that case, you
might show profit and loss by store for each month, displaying months with losses in red,
and months with profits in green, with the intensity of each color dependent upon how good
or bad each month was.

Matrix visualizations are a good way to accentuate differences in table data using color.

Figure 2-12: In this highlight table, the lower sales numbers are colored light blue and the
blue gets darker the higher the sales number.

ACTIVITY 2-4

Analyzing Data with Waterfall Charts and Matrix

Tables

Before You Begin

Power BI Desktop is open with My Report L2 open for editing, and the Apparel Profit Ratios
sheet

visible.

Scenario

You want to finish your analysis of the products in the apparel product line. To be able to
recommend what products to keep and which to cut you will need to make sure you
understand and can explain how each product is contributing to the profit generated by the
apparel line, because you don't want to cut any products that are generating a good return.
You will create a waterfall chart to do this. You also want to see how products have
performed historically in case product sales can be revived for items that have fallen off.

1. Create an Apparel Profit Waterfall sheet.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Apparel Profit Waterfall

Note: Use the navigation carets at the left of the list of tabs to reveal tabs that have scrolled
out of view.

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode. c) Retitle the visualization
Apparel Profit Waterfall

2. Configure the Apparel Profit Waterfall chart to answer the question, "Which products are
contributing the most to apparel profitability?"

a) In the Build pane, in the Y-axis box, delete the Sales field.
b) In the Data pane, in the Orders table, drag Profit to the Y-axis box. c) Observe the visual.

Configured as it is now, this visualization shows the total profit generated by each apparel
product.

3. Create a waterfall chart.

Activity

a) On the menu, in the Visual types drop-down box on the pane, select the Waterfall chart
icon.

4. Analyze the Apparel Profit Waterfall sheet.

a) Observe data points for the products on the Apparel Profit Waterfall sheet and use the
scroll bar to see all products.

Now you clearly see which products are contributing the most to the profit generated from
the apparel product line; those with longer bars. Conversely, you can also see which
products aren't contributing. This will be helpful in deciding which products are the stars of
the apparel line and which have potential, and help you decide which products to cut. You
still want to see how each product has performed historically.

b) In the visualization, select Back to report.

5. Create an Apparel Annual Sales page.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Apparel Annual Sales

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode. c) Retitle the visualization
Apparel Annual Sales

6. Configure a crosstab to answer the question, "How are different products contributing to
total sales each year?"

a) In the Build pane, under Visual types, select the Matrix icon.

b) Observe the matrix.

Currently, the matrix shows the product name, and the sales for that product. You want to
see the sales figures for each year so that you can figure out which products have generated
the most sales regularly, and which products have sold best over the last two years.

c) In the Build pane, observe the configuration for Rows, Columns, and Values.

Currently, Rows are configured to show Product name and category, which is filtered to
apparel. There are no fields defined as columns, and Sales are the values to be shown. To see
sales by year, the order year must be added to columns. You can also clean up the matrix by
removing the Category field.
d) In the Rows configuration box, delete the Category field.

Note: The filter on the Category field to show only apparel will remain in place.

e) In the Data pane, drag the Order Date hierarchy to the Columns box. f) Observe the
matrix.

Since Order Date is a hierarchy, all entities from the hierarchy are added to Columns, but
you only want to see year.

g) In the Columns box, delete Day, Month, and Quarter. h) Observe the matrix.

Now you have the information you want to see—product names along the left side of the
matrix and yearly sales totals for the preceding five years in columns for each product,
followed by totals. The information would be easier to understand if you added color to the
matrix tied to sales totals.

7. Format the cells of the matrix to make it easier to read.

a) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, scroll down and expand Cell elements. b) For
Background color, select the slider to turn it On.

This will allow you to configure background color for the cells in the matrix. c) Under
Background color, select fx.

d) In the Background color - Background color dialog box, review the configuration settings
and verify that it looks like the following image.

e) Select OK.

8. Analyze the Apparel Annual Sales table.

a) Observe the table and scroll through the products to identify which have been strong
sellers recently and in the past.

The strongest sellers historically are the Men's White Pants, the Green and Red Men's
Shorts, and the Green, Red, and Black Women's Pants. There are other products that have
been strong sellers in past years, and that should be taken into consideration when
determining which products to keep and which to cut.

9. Save the report and close Power BI Desktop.

Summary

In this lesson, you configured the color, size, text data labels, and tooltips for data points in
visualizations. You then changed the question being asked about the data by changing the
summarization of measures in visualizations. Following this, you created calculated fields to
answer new questions about the data, then used table calculations to answer different
questions with the data.
What's a common calculation you have to make in your line of business that might work as a
calculated field in Power BI?

A: Answers will vary, but may include calculating running average, weighted average, and
various types of statistical analysis that is organizationally specific or industry-related.

What types of summarizations do you think you'll work with most in your job role?

A: Answers will vary, but may include summation (SUM) and average (AVG), but may also
include count, count distinct, standard deviation, and variance.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

3 Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and Reporting

Lesson Time: 30 minutes

Lesson Introduction

If you need to work with large and complex semantic models in Microsoft® Power BI®,
you're going to need to adjust, organize, sort, and group data to analyze it effectively and to
create meaningful visualizations. In this lesson, you will sort and group data.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Sort data for analysis and reporting.

• Group data for analysis and reporting.

TOPIC A

Sort Data

If you want to perform least to greatest comparisons, organize data alphabetically, and so
on, you will have to sort data. In this topic, you will sort data in Power BI.

Data Sorting in Power BI

Sort Configuration

Data Sorting in Power BI

In Power BI Desktop, you can sort the data points in a report visualization from the More
options menu by selecting sort options. The sort options that are available are determined
by the type of visualization selected and its configuration. You may be able to apply the
following sorts:

• Sort axis. If the report has fields dropped onto the X-axis or Y-axis configuration
boxes, those columns will appear in the list of fields that can be sorted for the axis.

• Sort legend. If the report has a field dropped onto the Legend configuration box, that
column will appear in the list that can be sorted for the legend.

Note: Legend configuration only supports a single field.

• Sort small multiples. If the report has fields dropped onto the Small multiples
configuration box, those columns will appear in the list of columns that can be sorted for
small multiples.

The visualization can also be sorted on any fields dropped onto the Tooltips box. Those
columns will appear in the Sort axis column list unless the Small multiples contains a field.
Since configuring small multiples creates separate visualizations for each unique entry in
the Small multiples field, when those small multiples are configured, tooltip columns appear
in the Sort small multiples list.

Figure 3-1: Power BI visualization with sort options from the More options menu shown.

Sort Configuration

To configure sorting, you must select a column to sort on from one of the sort context
menus. You must then select the sort direction, ascending or descending, at the bottom of
the sort context

menu. Only one column from each type of sort can be sorted on, but one column from each
available sort type can be applied at the same time. For example, if there are four fields
available in the Sort axis list, the visualization axis can only be sorted on one of them.
However, if that same visualization also has a legend, then sorts can be applied to a field
from the Sort axis list and the Sort legend list.

Applying sorts is a two-step process in Power BI where you must select the sort column,
and then the sort order if you wish to change the sort order. If the existing sort order works
for the new sort, then it does not need to be changed.

Figure 3-2: Two examples of sort configuration options in Power BI reports.

Interpretation of Sort Results

You should keep the following rules in mind when applying sorts to reports and
interpreting sort results:

• The sort will update as the underlying data is updated and the report is refreshed.

• You must understand the context of the column you're sorting to understand how
an ascending or descending sort will be applied. Ascending is smallest to largest, and
descending is largest to smallest. Each of these is applied differently depending on the type
of field you're working with:

• For numeric fields such as Sales, ascending is least to greatest, lowest sales to highest
sales.

• For string fields such as Product Name, ascending is sorted alphabetically, A to Z.

• For date fields, ascending is sorted oldest to newest.

Sort Considerations for Reports

Sort order greatly impacts how data points are displayed in a visualization. A column chart
showing sales for each product when sorted descending by sales, shows the best selling
product on the left of the visual, with smaller columns moving right for every other product.
The same visual sorted by Product Name shows product alphabetically. If you're designing
visuals and reports for

presentations or for others to consume, it's a good idea to add text or a note to explain sort
options and how the visual is sorted by default to make sure the audience knows what
they're looking at in the report.

Guidelines for Sorting Data

Follow these guidelines when sorting data.

Interpretation of Sort

Results

Sort Considerations for

Reports

Guidelines for Sorting

Data

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the
CHOICE Course screen.

Sort Data

When sorting data, consider the following guidelines:

• Use sorted data to show greatest to least comparisons in the data.

• In some cases, use sorting to show trends, such as the strength of one product line
compared to others.

• If you have multiple visuals on a dashboard, each visualization is sorted

independently of the others.

• If you wish to use sorts to showcase insights or discoveries, then leave data sorted
when sharing reports and visualizations.

• If you wish to pass data along without any analysis bias, then explain your sort
preferences in a text block when sharing them.

ACTIVITY 3-1

Sorting Data

Data File

C:\095031Data\Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and Reporting\Report L3.pbix

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows and Power BI Desktop is closed.

Scenario

While you're still considering how apparel product sales in each region differ, you need to
continue your analysis of the products themselves by sorting sales and profit visualizations
to determine which are best sellers and most profitable. You then would like to segment
sales data by region to visualize the best selling products for each region, and how sales for
a single product compare across regions.

1. Open Report L3 in Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

b) Open C:\095031Data\Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and Reporting\Report

L3.pbix.

2. Save a copy of the report.

a) Select File→Save as.

b) Save the file in the Sorting and Grouping Data for Analysis and Reporting folder as My
Report

L3.pbix

3. Sort the Sales by Region page to put most profitable product lines on top.

a) Use navigation arrows next to the page tabs to select the Sales by Region page.

Note: Since you have so many pages in your report, you may have to use page navigation
arrows to access pages that are not visible.

b) On the Sales by Region page, select the visualization on the page and enter Focus mode.
c) Observe the report.

This chart compares Apparel, Footwear, and Sports product sales across each region.
Currently, Apparel data is shown at the top of the stacked column chart. You want to
revisualize it to see the stronger product line at the top, and weaker product lines at the
bottom.

Activity

d) Observe the Category header for the visualization and that the categories are listed by
Sports, Footwear, then Apparel.

Note: The colors might be different from those shown in the images.

e) In the visualization, select More options→Sort legend→Sort ascending.

The visualization now shows Apparel data at the bottom of each column, and Sports data at
the top. The Category header list order is also reversed, listing the categories as Apparel,
Footwear, then Sports.

f) In the visualization menu, select More options→Sort axis→Sales.

g) In the visualization menu, select More options→Sort axis and verify Sort ascending is
selected.

4. Analyze the report page.

a) Observe the report page.

The visualization now lines up each region's data based on their sales numbers, least to
greatest, which makes it easier to see what product lines are selling better.

b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

5. Sort Apparel Sales and Profit by best selling products.

a) Select the Apparel Sales and Profit tab, select the visualization, and enter Focus mode. b)
Observe the visualization.

This chart shows the sales for each product and the columns are colored darker for
products with higher profit.

c) Select More options→Sort axis and observe that there is no sort currently applied to the
visualization.

d) On the More options→Sort axis menu, select Sales.

e) Use the horizontal scroll bar to observe the data in the report.

Now the report shows the best selling products from left to right, making it easy to identify
the best selling products for apparel.

f) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

6. Sort Avg Apparel Sales and Profit by the most profitable products.

a) Select the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit tab, select the visualization, and enter Focus
mode. b) Observe the visualization.

This chart shows the average sales and profit for each product with darker columns for
products with higher profit.

c) Select More options→Sort axis and observe the sort options.

All of the fields added to the tooltip are available for use in sorting. d) On the More
options→Sort axis menu, select Average of Profit.

e) Observe the report.

Now the report shows products that generate the most profit left to right from greatest to
least. When deciding which products to keep and which to cut, this chart and sort will make
it easier to identify more profitable products.

f) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

7. Create a Bulk Apparel Sales page.

a) Duplicate the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit page and rename it to Bulk Apparel Sales

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode.

c) Open the Format pane and retitle the visualization as Bulk Apparel Sales

8. Sort Bulk Apparel Sales to show Apparel products sold in bulk.

a) Select More options→Sort axis and observe that the Average of Profit sort is currently
applied to the visualization.

b) On the More options→Sort axis menu, select Average of Quantity. c) Observe the report.

The report appears unsorted at this point, but that's because the columns show average
sales and average profit.

d) Mouse over the left-most column in the report and observe the Average of Quantity on
the tooltip.

e) Repeat substep 8d to observe the Average of Quantity for the left-most eight columns in
the report.

The report is sorted, descending by average of quantity. The left-most column has an
average quantity of 8, dropping steadily as you move right. This visualization is not easy to
read.

f) In the Build pane, in the Y-axis box, delete Average of Sales.

g) In the Data pane, expand the Orders table, and drag Quantity to the Y-axis box and
configure it to use the Average summarization.

9. Analyze the report page.

a) Observe the report.

Now the critical information in the report is much easier to read. The report shows the top
four bulk items are Youth Apparel items. This will help you make your case more effectively
that some Youth Apparel items should be marketed as bulk purchases for teams and
organizations.

b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

10.Sort Apparel Profit Ratios by products with the best profit ratio.

a) Select the Apparel Profit Ratios tab, select the visualization, and enter Focus mode.

b) Observe the visualization.

Some bars in this chart are colored based on the AVG Profit % of the product; it would be
nice to sort by that same field.

c) Select More options→Sort axis and observe the sort options.

AVG Profit % is not a field that is displayed in the visualization or the tooltip and cannot be
sorted on.
d) In the Data pane, drag AVG Profit % to the Tooltips box in the Build pane. e) Select More
options→Sort axis→AVG Profit %.

11.Analyze the report page.

a) Observe the report.

Now the products with an average profit percentage over 52% are displayed at the top of
the visualization. This will make it easier for you to argue to keep more profitable products
and cut products that don't generate as much profit.

b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

12.Save the report.

TOPIC B

Group Data

If you wish to organize data classes or categories for comparison purposes, then you will
need to create groups. In this topic, you will group data points for analysis.

Data Grouping

Group Creation

Data Grouping

In Power BI Desktop, you can group data points to change the analysis you're performing
and look for different insights. For example, instead of including all Apparel products in a
visualization, you may wish to create groups to compare types of Men's and Women's
apparel so that you can analyze the different groups for products within the Apparel
product line.

When you create a group, Power BI Desktop creates a calculated column according to the
parameters you specify. It also adds the group to the Data pane. You can then add that field
to any of the appropriate configuration boxes on the Suggest a visual widget or Build pane
to add to a visualization.

Figure 3-3: Edit group window.

Group Creation

You can create a new group from the Data pane by right-clicking a field you wish to group
and selecting New group. As stated earlier, groups you create are displayed in the Data pane
and you
can edit any group by right-clicking it and selecting Edit group. When you create or edit a
group, the Groups dialog box appears where you can give the group a descriptive name, and
view the members of the field in the Ungrouped Values window in the dialog box. You can
use Ctrl+click and Shift+click to select multiple ungrouped members, and use the Group
button to create groups.

Once groups are created, they appear in the Groups and Members window. Groups are
named by default based on their membership, so it's a good idea to rename groups to
shorter, more meaningful names based on the analysis you wish to perform. You can expand
and collapse groups in the Groups and Members window in order to see their membership.
You can also remove groups by selecting a group or any of its members and selecting the
Ungroup button.

Figure 3-4: Creating groups in Power BI.

The Other Group

When you create a group, you have the option to Include Other group. Checking this box
puts all members of the field that are not assigned to a group you created into the Other
group. This can make it much easier to use the group in a visualization. For example, if you
group Men's and Women's apparel, and add the grouped column to a visualization, the
ungrouped members are still a part of that column so you would see the data points for the
two groups you created for Men's and Women's apparel, plus data points for each individual
Youth product since those aren't part of any defined group. If you enable the Other group,
then your visualization will include data points for Men's, Women's and Other.

The Other Group

Figure 3-5: Other group.

Bins

Bins

In addition to creating groups, you can create bins to place values from grouped numerical
or time fields into equally sized units that enable you to visualize your data in more
meaningful ways. When you create a group based on a numeric or time field, you can
configure a bin size. Then you can use the group as you would any other group. For
example, you might create a group for sales data and create bins with a size of 250 to
analyze sales data by $250 increments.

Figure 3-6: Bin configuration in a Power BI group.

Small Multiples
You can add a dimension to the Small multiples configuration box in the Suggest a visual
widget or Build pane to split a single visualization into multiple versions. For example, if
you have created groups for Men's, Women's, and Youth apparel to analyze, you can create a
visualization to compare the sales totals for each group. If you added the Region field to the
Small multiples box, a copy of the visualization would be created for each region, allowing
you to see which product groups sell the best in each region, and allowing you to analyze
regional sales performance.

When a dimension is added to small multiples, the visualization is duplicated in a 2x2 grid
on the same page of the report. Typically you can view a 4x4 grid of visualizations on a
single page, and if there are more small multiples than can be displayed at once, a vertical
scroll bar is added so that you can scroll through the additional visualizations.

Small Multiples

Figure 3-7: Small multiples used to display separate regional visualizations.

Access the Checklist tile on your CHOICE Course screen for reference information and job
aids on How to Group Data.

ACTIVITY 3-2

Grouping Data

Before You Begin

Power BI Desktop is open with My Report L3 open for editing, and the Apparel Profit Ratios
sheet

visible.

Scenario

Now that you've got the data sorted the way you want, you see the need to group some data
together to make certain types of analysis easier. Specifically, you want to analyze Men's,
Women's, and Youth apparel as groups. It's becoming clear that you must identify products
to keep and products to cut. You have to find the best products, those with both strong sales
and profit, so you can make recommendations. Once you do, you need a clear way to show
this to other stakeholders when you make your presentation.

1. Create an Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo page to compare how subcategories of apparel products

sell in each region to see if some regions may have sales methodologies or insights that
might help other regions.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Sales by Region page and rename it to Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode. c) Retitle the visualization
to Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo
2. Create groups for each of the products by region.

a) In the Data pane, right-click Product Name and select New group.

The Groups dialog box appears.

Activity

b) In the Groups dialog box, under Ungrouped values, scroll through the list and select all
items that include Men's Pants and Men's Shorts in the name. You can hold down the Ctrl
key to select the first item of a contiguous group, and the Shift key to select the last
contiguous item. To add additional noncontiguous items, hold down Ctrl and select each
additional item as needed.

Note: The list is alphabetical, so you will have to scroll down further to find

Men's Shorts once Men's Pants are selected.

c) In the Groups dialog box, select Group and observe the new group in the Groups and
members window.

d) Select the caret next to the group name to collapse the list of members.

e) Select in a blank area to deselect the group you created.

Note: If the group is still highlighted when you select additional items and select Group, the
items are added to the existing group. If the items are added to the existing group, select
Ungroup to remove them from the existing group, then select a blank area and select Group
again.

f) Repeat steps 2b through 2e to create a group containing all Men's Tank Tops and all
Men's T-Shirts, and collapse the new group.

g) Repeat steps 2b through 2e to create a group containing all Women's Pants and all
Women's

Shorts, and collapse the new group.

h) Repeat steps 2b through 2e to create a group containing all Women's Tank Tops and all
Women's

T-Shirts, and collapse the new group.

i) Create two more groups, one containing all Youth's Pants and Youth's Shorts, and one
containing all Youth's Tank Tops and Youth's T-Shirts, and collapse those.

j) Observe the Groups and members window.

Now that all the product lines are grouped, you can make a visualization to analyze which
regions do the best job of selling each group of products.

Note: In this case you don't need to use the Other group because all non- apparel items will
be filtered out of the visualization.

k) In the Groups and members window, double-click the top group and type Men's Pants
and Shorts to rename it.

l) Double-click the second group on the list and rename it to Men's Shirts and Tops

m) Rename the third group to Women's Pants and Shorts n) Rename the fourth group to
Women's Shirts and Tops o) Rename the fifth group to Youth Pants and Shorts

p) Rename the sixth group to Youth Shirts and Tops

q) Select OK to close the Groups dialog box.

r) In the Data pane, observe the new Product Name (groups) field directly below Product
Name.

The original Product Name field contains the name of each product, while the Product Name

(groups) field contains the groups you just created.

3. Configure Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo to see how well each region sells product groups.

a) In the Build pane, under Visual types, select the Stacked bar chart icon.

b) In the Build pane, in the Y-axis box, delete the Region and Category fields. c) In the Data
pane, drag the Product Name (groups) field to the Y-axis box.

Now the visualization shows each of the six groups you created.

d) Verify that the X-axis contains the Sales field, and the Legend contains the SubCategory
field. e) In the Data pane, drag the Region field to the Small multiples box.

f) Observe the visualization.

The visualization is now broken out into four segments, one for every region showing the
sales figures for each group of products in that region, but it will be helpful to see the sales
figures for each bar.

g) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, in the Data labels section, select the slider to turn
data labels on.

That chart has the information you're looking for, but bars are currently being colored
based on the subcategory of the members of each group. You'd prefer the bars to be colored
based on the amount of sales.
4. Create a custom field to showcase sales over 600.

a) In the Build pane, in the Legend box, delete the Subcategory field. b) Observe the visual.

Now all the bars on the charts are blue.

c) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Bars. d) Under Color, select fx.

The Color - Categories dialog box appears.

e) In the Color - Categories dialog box, verify that the Format style drop-down box is set to
Gradient, and the What field should we base this on? drop-down box is set to Sum of Sales.

f) From the Minimum drop-down menu, select Custom.

g) In the Enter a value box, type 599, and set the color to medium blue.

h) From the Maximum drop-down menu, select Custom.

i) In the Enter a value box, type 600 and set the color to orange.

j) Select OK to save changes.

5. Analyze the visual.

a) In the Western US pane, select the data point for Youth Pants and Shorts to highlight it.

b) Observe the visual.

Any groups of products that sell less than 600 are in blue, while those above 600 in sales are
in orange, making it easy to see poor performing groups of products. While most Youth
Apparel data points are blue, the Western Youth Pants and Shorts data point is orange. More
than that, Youth Pants and Shorts in the West performed better than Women's Shirts and
Tops in the South. It's still clear that Youth Apparel has lots of problems, but there is
potential there. It may be time to bring in the director of sales for the West and find out
what they're doing to sell so many Youth Pants and Shorts, and pass that strategy to the
other regions. But for now, you also need to identify which products are strong sellers and
which are not.

c) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

6. Create an Apparel Top Performers page to identify all products that have high sales and
high profitability.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Apparel Top Performers

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode. c) Retitle the visualization
Apparel Top Performers

7. Configure the Apparel Top Performers visualization to visually group products by sales.
a) In the Build pane, under Visual types, select the Stacked bar chart icon. b) In the Format
pane, in the Visual tab, expand Bars.

c) Under Color, select fx.

d) In the Color - Categories dialog box, from the Format style drop-down menu, verify that
Rules is selected.

e) From the What field should we base this on drop-down menu, expand Orders and select
Sales.

f) Under Rules, create three rules that look like the following, coloring the first rule gray,
the second rule orange, and the third rule blue:

The first rule will color the bars for any products with sales from $1 to $299.99 gray. The
second rule will color bars for any products with sales from $300 to 699.99 in orange. The
third rule will color

bars for any products with sales over $700 in blue. g) Select OK.

h) In the visualization, select More options→Sort axis→Sales.

i) In the visualization, select More options→Sort axis and verify it is sorted descending.

The visualization now displays the products from best to worst sellers from top to bottom.

8. Analyze the Top Performers.

a) Observe the product list.

The blue bars are the group of products that have high sales, the orange group are products
on the edge and may be worth keeping if they can be turned into high-performing products.
The other products, the gray bars, may need to be cut, depending on other analysis.

b) Select Back to report to exit Focus mode.

9. Save the report and close Power BI Desktop.

Summary

In this lesson, you sorted data to showcase it in ways that made sense in your visualizations.
Finally, you grouped data to bring together data from similar fields.

How will you organize the data you work with and why?

A: Answers will vary, but may include grouping fields and renaming them to more
meaningful names.

Which ways would you use grouping or sorting in data you work with?
A: Answers will vary, but may include combining fields to showcase the data needed for a
visualization, and sorting data in visuals to emphasize trends.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

4 Filtering Visualizations

Lesson Time: 1 hour

Lesson Introduction

Having extraneous information in your reports and visualizations can detract from the
insights and story you're trying to tell with the data. If you want to keep visualizations and
reports focused so that you can perform better analysis, it's necessary to filter what you
don't want to see so that you can focus on what you want. In this lesson, you will configure
worksheet filters, apply advanced filtering options, and create interactive filters.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Filter data to refine analysis.

• Create slicers for reports.

TOPIC A

Filter Data to Refine Analysis

If you want to deeply analyze views and data, and be able to pick specific data to compare,
you're going to need to use filters in Power BI. In this topic, you will filter data to refine
analysis.

Data Filtering in Power

BI

Data Filtering in Power BI

You can apply filters in Power BI to restrict what is shown in visuals, reports, and
dashboards. Filters don't remove data from the semantic model; they remove data from
visualizations, allowing you to create visuals and reports that show the specific information
and insights that you wish to focus on. In Power BI, you can configure four types of filters:

• Visual level filters. These filter a single visual in a report or dashboard, and apply
only to the selected visual. You must select the visual first, then configure the filters for the
field you wish in the Filters pane. Existing fields in the visual and in tooltips are displayed
here. By default, no filters are applied to these fields. You must configure any filters that you
wish to apply to the existing fields using the Filters pane. You can add a new field to filter on
by adding it from the Data pane to the Add data fields here configuration box.

• Page level filters. These filter all visuals on the report page. Add page level filters by
selecting a field from the Data pane and adding it to the Filters on this page configuration
box in the Filters pane.

• Report level filters. These filter all pages in a report. Add report level filters by selecting a
field

in the Data pane and adding it to the Filters on all pages configuration box in the Filters
pane.

• Drillthrough level filters. These filter a single entity in a report and open a
destination page with additional information and visuals about the entity.

Note: Fields in the Filters pane that have filters configured are shaded gray, while fields
without any filtering configured are white.

Figure 4-1: Filters pane options and fields in a Power BI visualization.

Most filters are configured in the Filters pane except for drillthrough filters.

Drillthrough Filters

Unlike visual and page filters, a drillthrough filter enables you to create a target page with
visuals that show relevant data in your report that focuses on an entity of data such as a
customer or manufacturer. To drill through from a visual, right-click a data point that has
drillthrough enabled, select Drill through and select the target page you wish to view. For
example, you can create a target page with information about customers, including visuals
that show their year-to-date orders, spending trends, year-over-year comparisons, and so
forth. When someone drills through, they can get insights about the customer from the
target page.

Note: In both the Power BI UI and in Power BI documentation online, the term "drill
through" is spelled drillthrough, drill through, and drill-through. In this course, we use the
spelling "drillthrough" unless referencing a UI element where it is spelled differently, in
which case, we use the spelling as it appears in the UI.
The target page includes a back button to allow users to return to the original page. A target
page is similar to a tooltip page, except with a tooltip page, the page visuals are contained
within a tooltip. With a drillthrough filter, the user is taken to the target page to view the
visuals there.

To create a drillthrough filter, create a report page to serve as the target page. Add and
configure the visuals you want for that page. Once the page is configured, drillthrough
configuration is completed from the Format pane of the target page. Select a blank space on
the page, switch to the Format pane and expand Page information. Type a descriptive name
for the page and select a Page Type of Drillthrough. Then, under Drill through from add
fields from the Data pane to Add data. Once a field is added in any report page, when a data
point from that field is right-clicked, you have the option to drill through and can select any
available drillthrough pages in the report. You can add multiple drillthrough pages, and it's
recommended each page be specific to the type of information you're wishing to analyze
more deeply. For example, you might have a drillthrough page with customer information
and another with cost information. Only fields that have been added to the Drill through
from configuration box on a drillthrough page have the Drill through option on right-click.
All drillthrough pages are available to all drillthrough-enabled fields.

Both tooltip pages and target pages are a way to use visuals to showcase additional relevant
information about specific data elements by using rich visuals. The key difference is the
amount of data you can show. A tooltip is typically limited in size to a small number of
visuals. A drillthrough filter provides an entire page full of visuals for additional relevant
information.

Filter Views and Behavior

Filters have two views in Power BI.

View Description Behavior

Filter Views and

Edit In Edit view, when you're creating, building, or editing a report and dashboard,
creators can add and configure filters and save filters with the report. Report authors can
see filter behavior when viewing the report in Reading view.

Filters and their settings are saved with the report when the report is saved.

Behavior

View Description Behavior

Filter Configuration
Reading (only available in the Power BI Service)

Configuration

Object

Reading view is how most users will interact with the report in the Power BI Service. They
can adjust interactive features on filters, but they cannot

add new filters.

Options Description

Changes made by users to filters are kept so that any filter actions applied by users are
saved for them when they leave the report. When users come back to the report, from their
desktop or mobile device, the same filter actions will be applied, allowing them to pick up
where they left off. These

filter settings are tied to each user's ID.

Filter Type Advanced

Allows you to configure what data to display using

Figure 4-2: Power BI filter configuration.

Advanced Filtering

Advanced filtering allows you to configure logic operations to determine how data is
filtered. When you select Advanced filtering as the filter type, you need to configure the
following options.

Configuration Object Description

Advanced Filtering

Show items when the value: (Text data)

Show items when the value: (Numeric data)

For text data, select logic operators such as 'contains,' 'does not contain,'

'is,' 'is not,' 'is blank,' and others to filter the data in the visual.

For numeric data, select logic operation such as 'is less than or equal to,'

'greater than or equal to,' 'is,' 'is not,' and others to filter data in the visual.
And Select and add another logic operator and value to create an "And"ed logic
statement. For example, you could filter products by the Footwear and Sports categories to
show only products from those categories.

Or Select and add another logic operator and value to create an "Or"ed logic statement.
For example, you could filter by products whose shipping cost is less than or equal to one
dollar, or items whose shipping costs are greater than or equal to 10 dollars.

Apply filter Although other types of filters are automatically applied once the
configuration is set, for advanced filters you must select Apply filter in the bottom-right
corner of the advanced filter configuration area to enable an advanced filter.

Note: You can 'And' or 'Or' a maximum of two logic statements on the Filters pane in the
user interface.

Figure 4-3: Dimension filter window.

Access the Checklist tile on your CHOICE Course screen for reference information and job
aids on How to Filter Reports in Power BI.

ACTIVITY 4-1

Filtering Data

Data File

C:\095031Data\Filtering Visualizations\Report L4.pbix

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows and Power BI Desktop is closed.

Scenario

Now that you've got a good general idea of what's going on with Apparel, you need to refine
your analysis by filtering for data from recent years and focusing on specific products. You
hope to use filters to show the data you need, while removing the data you aren't interested
in. Specifically, you want to see sales trends for only the most recent data to see what
products have been strong

recently, and you'd like to use filters to compare Youth Footwear sales to Youth Apparel
sales to see if that will give you any insights.

1. Open Report L4 in Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

b) Open C:\095031Data\Filtering Visualizations\Report L4.pbix.

2. Save a copy of the report as My Report L4.pbix in the same folder.

3. Observe the Category filter in the Apparel Annual Sales page.

a) Select the Apparel Annual Sales page, select the visualization, and enter Focus mode.

Activity

b) Expand the Filters pane, and observe the filter options available.

Every field that has been added to rows, columns, and values is available to be filtered. The
same is true of visualizations that use an X- and Y-axis.

Note: The Category filter is applied with either "is Apparel" or "not Footwear or

Sports."

c) In the Filters pane, select the Category box to expand the filter and observe the filter
settings.

This is a filter you've been using on many visualizations to show only apparel related data
for analysis.

d) Observe that when you hover the mouse over the Category filter box, additional filter
configuration objects become available.

e) Observe the product names in the visualization.

Currently, only data for Apparel products is listed in the table.

f) In the Category filter box, select the eraser icon to clear the filter.

g) Observe that Sporting Equipment and Footwear products are now listed in the table.

h) In the Category filter box, check the Apparel check box, and verify that the Footwear and
Sports check boxes are unchecked.

i) Observe that, once again, only Apparel products are listed in the table.

j) In the Category filter box, select the up caret to collapse it.

4. Filter a visual by year, sales, and average profit percentage to answer the question,
"Which products are strong sellers since 2021 with good average profit?"

a) In the Filters pane, expand the Order Date - Year filter. b) Observe the filter.

The table incorporates all data from the last five years, from when the apparel product line
was started. The product line matured a lot in the first two years, and you'd like to focus the
analysis on the most recent data.
c) In the Order Date - Year filter, verify the Filter type is Advanced filtering.

d) From the Show items when the value drop-down menu, select is greater than or equal to,
and in the value box, type 2021

This will filter out sales data from 2019 and 2020, leaving only the most recent data. e)
Select Apply filter, and collapse the Order Date - Year filter configuration.

f) Observe that the table now only shows data for 2021 and later. g) Scroll through the list
of items.

All items are shown regardless of the amount of sales they generate; you want only the best
sellers.

5. Filter to show only items with $250 in sales starting in 2021.

a) In the Filters pane, expand the Sales filter.

b) From the Show items when the value drop-down menu, select is greater than or equal to,
and in the value box, type 250

c) Select Apply filter.

d) Scroll through the list of products in the table and observe that fewer products are listed.

The list of products has been filtered to show only those products that have generated $250
in sales for 2021 and later combined. These are not your best sellers, but your top products
also generate good profit.

6. Filter to show items with more than 50% average profit percentage.

a) In the Data pane, expand Orders, and drag AVG Profit % to the Add data fields here box
in the Filters pane. Be sure to drag it to the Add data fields here box directly under Sales so
it applies the filter to the visual and not to the page or all pages.

The AVG Profit % filter will be added to the top of the Filters pane.

b) Scroll to the top of the Filters pane, then in the AVG Profit % filter, from the Show items
when the value drop-down menu, select is greater than or equal to, and in the value box
type .4

c) Select Apply filter.

d) Observe the products in the table.

The table now only shows those products that have sales of $250 or over for 2021 and later,
and that have an average profit percentage of 40%. That's a very small list and you feel that,
to justify a bigger marketing budget, you'll need to choose more top products.
e) In the Filters pane, in the AVG Profit % filter, in the Show items when the value value
box, type .3

f) Select Apply filter.

7. Analyze Apparel Annual Sales.

a) Observe the results.

The table now shows products with over $250 in sales during 2021 and later, that have
30% profit. Now, when you're talking to stakeholders about products to keep, products to
cut, and products to spend marketing dollars on, you can show these top products and their
sales and profit data. With over 40 products in this list, this will be enough to justify a larger
marketing budget.

b) In the visualization, select Back to report.

8. Create a Youth Product Sales page to compare Youth Apparel sales to Youth

Footwear sales.

a) Duplicate the Apparel Product Sales page and rename it to Youth Product Sales

b) Select the visualization on the page and go into Focus mode.

c) Open the Format pane and retitle the visualization Youth Product Sales.

9. Configure the Youth Product Sales sheet to see if there might be opportunities for
synergy between the two youth product lines.

a) In the Build pane, under Visual type, select Stacked column chart.

You won't be using the clustered column chart features for this visualization, so a stacked
column chart is a better choice.

b) In the Filters pane, expand Category, and verify Apparel is selected.

As in most of the other reports, this report is filtered to show only Apparel products, but for
this analysis, you want to see Youth products for both the Apparel and Footwear product
lines.

c) In the Category filter configuration, check Select all.

d) Observe the visualization.

The visualization now shows all products from all product lines. e) Collapse the Category
filter.

f) In the Filters pane, expand the Product Name filter.

g) In the Product Name filter, from the Filter type drop-down menu, select Advanced
filtering. h) From the Show items when the value drop-down menu, verify that contains is
selected.

i) For the value, type youth

j) Select Apply filter.

k) Observe the visualization.

The visualization now shows products from the Youth Footwear and Apparel product lines,
but you want to differentiate the two.

l) Collapse the Filters pane.

m) In the Data pane, drag Category to the Legend box in the Build pane.

10.Analyze Youth product sales.

a) Observe the updated visualization by scrolling through the list of products.

This is a stunning insight. The Footwear line has lots of strong-selling Youth Footwear. This
opens a lot of possibilities for improving Youth Apparel sales. You can examine the
messaging used by the footwear team that is bringing in youth shoppers. You may be able to
piggyback off Youth Footwear advertising and events by having sales on Youth Apparel at
the same time. In stores, you may be able to move Youth Apparel products closer to Youth
Footwear products.

b) Select Back to report.

11.Reconfigure Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo to show Youth Footwear sales and answer the
question, "Does Youth Footwear sales compare favorably to sales from other Apparel
product lines?"

Note: You've been duplicating pages to create new visualizations for analysis. In this case,
since Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo has all the data you need organized the way you want, you
simply want to add to it, so you will use the existing visualization.

a) Select the Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo page, select the visualization, and enter Focus mode. b)
Expand the Filters pane, then expand the Category filter, and check the Select all box.

You want to change this visual to include Youth Footwear, so you must just clear the
Category filter. But before you can do so, you're going to need to update the Product Name
(groups) you created earlier.

c) Collapse the Category filter.

d) In the Data pane, right-click Product Name (groups) and select Edit groups.
Note: Be careful to select the product name group you created earlier, not the product name
field.

e) In the Groups dialog box, in the Ungrouped values window, select all Youth Footwear
products from

Youth Flip Flop Black to Youth Running Shoe Yellow, and select Group.

Note: You can select the first Youth Footwear product, scroll to the end of the products
lists, and use Shift+select to select the last youth product, which will

select all products in between.

f) In the Groups and members window, rename the new group Youth Footwear

g) Below the Groups and members window, check the Include Other Group check box.

Checking this box will put all other values into a single group called Other. This will make
filtering based on product groups much easier, as there won't be several hundred products
to manage in the filter configuration.

h) Select OK.

i) In the Filters pane, expand the Product Name (groups) filter. j) Verify that the Filter
type is Basic filtering.

k) Under the Search box, check all the check boxes except Select all and Other.

Note: As you check the product groups boxes, the Select all check box will show a partial
selection square automatically.

l) Observe the visualization.

You've now added Youth Footwear products to this visualization, but you want to be able to
compare both Youth Apparel products and Footwear products to the other apparel
products.

m) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Bars.

n) In the Color configuration, select the erase icon to clear the gradient color you
configured earlier.

o) Collapse Color configuration.

Now you're more interested in seeing the difference between apparel and footwear sales. p)
In the Data pane, drag Category to the Legend box on the Build pane.

12.Analyze the Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo sheet.

a) Observe the Apparel Sales Hi vs Lo sheet.

In every region, Youth Footwear outsells all apparel groups, and not by a small amount. This
visual should be able to justify an approach of coordinating Youth Apparel advertising,
events, sales, and in-store collocation with Youth Footwear, and that should help boost
Youth Apparel sales.

Note: Depending on the size of the visual on your screen, you may see more precise decimal
values in the data labels.

b) In the visualization, select Back to report.

13.Save the report.

TOPIC B

Create Slicers for Reports

If you want to make it easy for others to explore the views you create, and filter to see the
insights you've found, you're going to need to add slicers so that users can easily apply
filters themselves. In this topic, you will create slicers for reports.

Slicers

A slicer is an interactive, on-canvas, visual filter that enables users to filter reports by a
specific value. The difference between a slicer and other filters is that slicers are interactive.
While the state of other filters is saved with the report, slicers enable users to make ad hoc
changes to filters. Slicers can be particularly helpful on busy report pages because they
allow users to focus all the visuals on the page to the specific information they are
interested in.

To add a slicer to a report, select the Slicer from the list of visuals. A slicer placeholder is
added to the canvas. Drag and drop a field from the Data pane to Add data on the Suggest a
visual widget of the slicer. This turns the visual into a list of data elements with check boxes.
The check boxes are the dynamic filters that can be applied. When a user checks a box, the
visuals on the

report are filtered by the selected data element.

You can add multiple slicers to a report to enable users to filter based on multiple fields.

Figure 4-4: Slicers: Interactive filters.

Slicer Configuration Options

Authors can figure out how slicers present filtering options, and users have many different
options for slicing reports, depending on the type of data being sliced.

Slicers

Slicer Configuration
Options

Data Type Filter Presentation Options Selection Options

Text List or Dropdown Select all, single, or multiple entries depending on

configuration.

Numeric List, Dropdown, Between (set two ranges), Less than or equal to, Greater
than or equal to

Date Between, Before, After, List,

Dropdown, Relative

Select all, single, or multiple entries depending on configuration when List or Dropdown is
configured. Set a start and end range when Between

is selected. Enter a number when either Less than or

Greater than is selected.

Set a start and end date when Between is selected. Enter a date for Before or After. Select all,
single, or multiple entries depending on configuration when List or Dropdown is
configured.

When Relative is selected, you must configure the following options:

• Last, Next, This

• A number denoting the duration of the relative date range.

• Days, Weeks, Weeks (calendar), Months,

Months (Calendar), Years, Years (Calendar)

This forces Power BI to find dates relative to your configured setting. For example,
configuring Last 2

Months shows the data from the last month and the prior month.

Slicer controls for end users will vary depending on how the slicer is configured from check
boxes, to sliders, to drop-down boxes.

Figure 4-5: Example slicer configuration options for text, numeric, and date slicers.

Slicer Interaction

Configuration
Slicer Interaction Configuration

By default, when multiple visuals are present on a single report page, selecting any data
point or segment on any visual or adjusting a slicer's configuration will filter all visuals on
the page by the selection. In some cases, you might not want to have all visuals on the page
filtered by your

selection. For example, in a scatter plot, if selecting one data point removed all the others, it
would be difficult to see comparisons on the scatter plot.

To change interactions, select a visual on the page that you want to use to apply the filter,
then select

Format→Edit interactions to toggle on Edit mode.

Figure 4-6: Visual interaction configuration.

With Edit mode turned on, you can select Filter mode configuration settings in the header of
other visuals on the page and make the adjustments listed in the following table.

Filter Mode Option Description

Configures to filter the visual by the data, removing other data from the visual while the
selection persists. On combo charts, you may see a shadow chart

icon indicating that only one of the combined visuals will be filtered. Configures the
visual to highlight the data in the visual while the selection

persists.

None Excludes the visual from interaction.

Note: Not all visuals have every Filter mode mode option.

Dashboard Organization Considerations

Slicers take up some space on the page so when you want to add a slicer, you should
consider where it should be on the page related to other visuals. For example, you may want
to put a slicer

physically near, or adjacent to, the visualization that will be most impacted by its use. If you
have multiple slicers to add to the page, consider grouping them on the left, right, top, or
bottom of the page. Regardless, you my have to resize visuals already on the page to make
enough space for slicers to fit.

Guidelines for Creating Slicers

Follow these guidelines when creating slicers.

Dashboard Organization

Considerations

Guidelines for Creating

Slicers

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

Create Slicers

When creating slicers:

• Consider the purpose of the visualization—the intended analysis to be performed

when adding slicers. Slicers you add should facilitate the analysis and exploration needs
that the visualization is designed for, and the questions to be asked and answered.

• Consider the visual real estate available on the screen when adding slicers to
reports and dashboards. Slicers should work with other elements of the page and
dashboard.

• Drop-downs and wildcard options create "low profile" slicers that save space, but
lists might be easier for people to use.

ACTIVITY 4-2

Creating Slicers to Filter Interactively

Before You Begin

Power BI Desktop is open with My Report L4 open for editing, and the Apparel Sales Hi vs
Lo

sheet visible.

Scenario

You've made some decisions about how to help the Apparel line grow, and how to make
Youth Apparel a viable product line. At this point you need to prepare to present some of
the sheets you've created and you think it will help if the people viewing the data can easily
apply filters. You're going to add interactive filters to some of the sheets you intend to share
later, and confirm the filters work as expected.

1. Resize visualizations on Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison to make room for slicers.
a) Select the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page.

b) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, collapse the Filters pane if it's
expanded.

Activity

c) Select the visualization on the left and resize it by dragging a corner or the middle to
make it more narrow, but still anchored to the left side of the page.

Before you can add slicers to the page, you need to make room by resizing and reorganizing
the visuals on the page.

d) Drag the second visual next to the first, then resize it to be more narrow.

Inform students not to select the new slicer button visualization with the lightening bolt as
that creates a different type of slicer.

e) Repeat step 1d to reposition the third visual next to the second, and resize it.

This leaves you with empty space for slicers to the right of the third visual.

2. Add a slicer to allow people to filter the visualizations by product subcategory.

a) Select in the blank area on the canvas to deselect any visualizations.

b) In the menu, from the Visual type drop-down box, select the Slicer icon.

Note: When creating a slicer, you aren't dragging a slicer object on to the canvas; you
simply select the slicer object icon and the slicer will appear on

the canvas.

The slicer automatically appears, filling the bank area of the canvas.

If a student accidentally replaces one of the visuals with a slicer, they can press Ctrl+Z to
undo the action.

c) Observe the unconfigured slicer.

d) In the Data pane, drag the SubCategory field to the +Add data box on the Suggest a visual
widget. e) Observe the slicer.

The slicer now contains check boxes for subcategories from all product lines. The other
visualizations on this page are all filtered by category. This slicer is not, but it needs to be.

f) With the slicer selected, expand the Filters pane, and drag Category from the Data pane
to Add data fields here under Filter on this visual on the Filters pane.
g) In the Filters pane, configure the Category filter to show only Apparel items.

h) Observe the SubCategory slicer.

The slicer now only shows the Men, Women, and Youth subcategories. i) Collapse the
Filters pane.

3. Test and resize the SubCategory slicer.

a) Observe the other visuals on the page to see the products listed. b) In the SubCategory
slicer, check the Women check box.

c) Observe the other visuals on the page.

The other visuals are only showing Women's products.

d) In the SubCategory slicer, check the Youth check box and observe the products listed in
the other visuals on the page.

e) In the SubCategory slicer, check the Youth check box again to clear the filter and observe
the products listed in the other visuals.

All apparel products are now listed in the other visuals.

f) Resize the SubCategory slicer by dragging the bottom up so that the slicer only takes a
quarter of the blank space on the right side of the page.

This slicer will allow other stakeholders viewing this report to view all products
(unfiltered) for comparison, and to filter to a single product category for more in-depth
analysis.

4. Add a sales slicer to allow people to filter by sales amount.

a) Select in the blank area on the canvas below the SubCategory slicer.

b) In the menu, from the Visual type drop-down box, select the Slicer icon.

c) In the Data pane, drag the Sales field to the +Add data box of the Suggest a visual widget.
d) Observe the slicer.

Currently, the slicer is a slider configured to show all values between the smallest and
largest sales value in the data.

e) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Slicer settings and expand the Style drop-
down menu to view the options.

This slicer can show sales amounts as a list, drop-down, a range between two values (its
current configuration) or amount less than or greater than or equal to. To give stakeholders
the most flexibility, you will leave the slicer in its current configuration.
f) Collapse the Slicer settings configuration.

g) Observe the products in the other visuals on the page, and the sales amounts shown.

h) In the Sales slicer, close the Suggest a visual widget, then drag the left circle to the right
to increase the low-end amount and observe the change in the other visuals.

i) In the left circle, drag the sales slicer as far left as it will go to reset it.

j) Resize the Sales slicer so that it is a similar size to the SubCategory slicer.

Now other stakeholders will be able to analyze worst to best sellers by total sales.

5. Configure the Years filter to allow people to filter the length of time to analyze.

a) Select in the blank area on the canvas below the Sales slicer.

b) In the menu, from the Visual type drop-down box, select the Slicer icon.

c) In the Data pane, drag the Order Date field to the +Add data box of the Suggest a visual
widget. d) Close the Suggest a visual widget.

e) Observe the slicer.

By default, this slicer also gives you data between two date ranges. You and other
stakeholders would like to be able to look at past years' data so that you can see relative
performance going back in time.

f) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Slicer settings.

g) From the Style drop-down menu, select Relative Date.

h) Observe the slicer.

i) Configure the Order Date slicer to show the last two years of data.

Note: You have the option to configure the last two years from the current date, or all data
from the previous two calendar years.

j) Observe the slicer and the data in the visuals.

The Order Date slicer shows you the dates used for the data, and data from those dates are
all that's included in the visuals.

k) Resize the Order Date slicer to be similar in size to the two other slicers.

6. Analyze the sheet.

a) Observe the sheet and the interactive filters.

The sheet is now ready to share. The interactive filters allow other stakeholders to easily
filter by subcategory to see individual product lines, by sales to see best and worst sellers,
and to adjust the period of the data analyzed.

b) Adjust the slicers and review the changes in the data.

7. What insights did you learn after adjusting the slicers? How might you use this if you
were in charge of improving sales for the apparel line of products?

A: Answers will vary depending on what each student observed. For example, you might
notice that it is now easier to focus in on specific products, dates, or prices using the slicers.
You can then use this more detailed view to help you make recommendations for improving
sales.

8. Save the report and close Power BI Desktop.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned where filters can be applied in Power BI pages and reports. You
also configured filters to facilitate analysis of visualizations you created. Finally, you created
slicers to allow people viewing visualizations to dynamically apply filters to visualizations.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

What type of slicers might you use in your visualizations?

A: Answers will vary, but may include filters on population ages, types of products, or other
key dimensions.

How might you use filters (besides slicers) in your role?

A: Answers will vary, but may include filtering out unwanted data to analyze desired data,
or to filter out unwanted data to more easily compare other data.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

5 Preparing Reports

Lesson Time: 1 hour

Lesson Introduction

If you need to explain your data analysis, back up your recommendations and decisions
with data that provides evidence that your decisions are sound, or give presentations of
your findings, then you will need to prepare reports that are well formatted, emphasize
your insights and evidence, and can be delivered in a compelling visual way. In this lesson,
you will format and annotate visualizations, emphasize data in reports, and animate

visualizations for clarity.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Format and annotate views in reports to tell your story.

• Emphasize key data using reference and trend lines.

TOPIC A

Format and Annotate Reports

Data visualizations you create lend themselves to analysis. Once you've done that analysis,
and are ready to make recommendations, you may need to format and annotate visuals to
make sure your insights and analysis are clear. In this topic, you will format and annotate
views.

Format Pane, Page

Options

Format Pane, Page Options

If no visualization is selected, use the Format pane to format the elements of the page itself,
including the following options.

Figure 5-1: Page formatting options in Power BI.

Element Options

Page information

Canvas settings

Canvas background

Set the name of the page, and allow the use of tooltips and the Q&A service.
Choose the Canvas type such as 16:9, 4:3, or custom, and set the vertical alignment to top or
middle.

Set the background color for the page, add images, and select the fit for the image and
transparency.

Wallpaper Set the background color for the wallpaper, add images, and select the fit for
the image and transparency.

Element Options

Filter pane Adjust colors and sizes of text, icons, headers, the search box, borders, and
backgrounds on the Filters pane, and configure the width of the pane and check box
coloring.

Filter cards Adjust colors and sizes of text, input box color, borders, and backgrounds of
cards that appear on the Filters pane.

Visual Arrangement

Each page in a Power BI report can essentially be thought of as a dashboard. When adding
visualizations, you should consider both the size of the visuals and their location on the
page when deciding where to put them. While you can always enter Focus mode to see a
visualization close up, if you're putting multiple visualizations on a page, the way you
arrange them can assist the analysis process.

Regarding size, make sure the visualization is large enough so that the data points can be
read and interpreted outside of Focus mode. When placing visualizations on the page,
consider how the data in each complements or contrasts to the data in the others. For
example, you might put a visualization showing product sales next to one showing product
profit to be able to see the two different data points for each product. To compare sales and
costs you might have charts for sales and profit next to those showing manufacturing and
shipping costs.

Annotate Visualizations with Static Text, Images, and Shapes

Although focal elements of reports and dashboards will be data-driven visuals, you can
change the look of your reports and dashboards by adding static elements such as text,
images, and shapes. Each type of static element can enhance a report or dashboard in
different ways.

• Text boxes can provide titles for reports and visuals, explain relationships between
visuals, or provide a context for data points or different items on a page. Text boxes can also
include URLs, which enable users to go outside of the report or dashboard for additional
information.
• Images can add something as simple as a logo, or something as powerful as an image
next to relevant data-driven visuals, such as an image of hurricane damage next to a visual
showing the costs of hurricane damage.

• Shapes provide five different choices—rectangle, oval, line, triangle, and arrow—
and provide many possibilities for enhancing visuals and helping tell the story presented by
the data. For example, you can use the rectangle shape to provide a single border around a
related group of visuals, and use different colored rectangles to differentiate different
groups of visuals. Or, you can use lines or arrows to show progression from one visual to
another to help tell a story.

You can add static elements by using commands on the Home menu, and these elements can
be configured and formatted like other elements on the canvas.

Guidelines for Formatting and Annotating Reports

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

Follow these guidelines when formatting and annotating visualizations.

Format Visualizations

When formatting visualizations:

• Use descriptive names for titles that state clearly what the data displayed is showing.

• Choose fonts that are easy to read yet don't distract from the data in the visual.

Visual Arrangement

Annotate Visualizations with Static Text, Images, and Shapes

Guidelines for Formatting and Annotating Reports

• Use color variations to segment or contrast different portions of visuals such as

groups of data points or text boxes.

Tell students about the appendix "Best Practices for Visual Design" in this course, which
explains best practices for visual design and storytelling.

Annotate Visualizations

When annotating visualizations:

• Use concise text so it doesn't take up much space on the screen.

• Keep text near relevant data points.

• Text should not cover data points in a visual.

• Format visuals and text to make the key points stand out.

Note: Be sure to check out the appendix in this course, "Best Practices for Visual Design,"
which explains best practices for how to design visuals to explain data and insights and to
tell

stories.

ACTIVITY 5-1

Formatting and Annotating Reports

Data File

C:\095031Data\Preparing Reports\Report L5.pbix

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows and Power BI Desktop is closed.

Scenario

You're satisfied with many of the visualizations you've created and now want to format
them so that they can be presented to the CEO and other team members. To start with, you
want to make sure axes are labeled properly, titles of worksheets have a little pop, and that
key elements in visuals are easy to read and understand. You also want to add annotations
to specific visuals so that people will understand your thinking when looking at them.

1. Open Report L5 in Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

b) Open C:\095031Data\Preparing Reports\Report L5.pbix.

2. Save a copy of the report as My Report L5.pbix in the same folder.

3. Adjust the axis title for the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page.

a) In the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, select the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization on the left side of the page.

b) Observe the title of the visualization's X-axis.

The title for the axis is currently Sales, whereas the axes on the other two visuals have more
descriptive titles such as Average of Sales and Weighted AVG.
c) Open the Format pane, and on the Visual tab, expand X-axis, and then expand Title. d) In
the Title text box, replace the existing text with Total Sales

e) Collapse the X-axis box and observe the Apparel Sales and Profit visualization.

It now has a more descriptive axis title, which makes the three columns easier to
understand relative to each other.

4. Format the visualization titles to make them stand out.

a) With the Apparel Sales and Profit visualization still selected, in the Format pane, on the
Visual tab, expand Title and observe the configuration settings.

You just configured the title of the axis for this visualization. You will now configure the title
of the overall visual.

Activity

b) Configure the Font to be DIN, increase the Font size to 16, and select the Bold icon to
bold the text.

c) For Text color, select dark blue.

d) Observe the title of the Apparel Sales and Profit visualization.

The title now stands out more.

Note: You may need to select a different visualization in order to see the title, as the menu
can get in the way.

e) Repeat steps 4a through 4d to format the title for the Avg Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization.

f) Repeat steps 4a through 4d to format the title for the Weighted AVG by Product Name
visualization. g) Select a blank space in the canvas and observe the titles of the
visualizations on the page.

When other stakeholders view this report, the formatted titles will make it easier to
understand what each visual means.

5. Add text boxes next to the visual and add annotations to Apparel Top

Performers to explain how the data is segmented in the visualization.

a) Select the Apparel Top Performers page. b) Select Home→Text box.

A new text box appears on the empty canvas to the right of the visualization, and the
formatting box appears next to it.
c) In the text box, type Our best-selling apparel products have blue bars. Add advertising
and sales events to promote these.

d) Select the text, and in the formatting box, from the drop-down menu, select a font size of
14.

e) Resize the text box so that it only takes a quarter of the free space to the right of the
visualization. f) Select Home→Text box.

g) In the text box, type Orange bars are products with potential - we need to discuss
keeping and promoting these products.

h) Select the text, and in the formatting box, from the drop-down menu, select a font size of
14. i) Resize the text box so that it is the same size as the other text box.

j) Add another text box with the following text: Cut the product with gray bars for Men's
and Women's

lines, and give Youth products six months to develop synergy with the youth footwear line.

k) Format the text to be font size 14 and resize the text box to be the same size as the other
two. l) Select in white space on the canvas and observe the report page.

6. Save the report.

TOPIC B

Emphasize Data in Reports

If you want to show trends in visualizations, identify isolated data points, and call attention
to key data like averages, maximums, and minimums, then you'll have to use reference and
trend lines to emphasize data. In this topic, you will emphasize data using reference and
trend lines.

Reference and Trend

Lines

Reference Lines

Reference Lines

Available in Power BI

Reference and Trend Lines

Power BI has features that allow you to call attention to specific data points in a
visualization, or compare them to specific values, to show insights in the data. For example,
you can add a trend line to a sales chart to show whether sales are trending up or down. You
can also add a reference line to show average sales so that you can see how each product
performed against the average.

Although you can add as many of these elements to your visual as you like, you should be
careful not to clutter your visualization too much. When highlighting data, add elements
that make it easier to accomplish the analysis the visualization is designed to perform.
Reference lines and trend lines are added from the Format pane, Visual tab.

You must select the visual before you can add these elements, and only certain types of
visuals support them. For example, to create a forecast, the visual must be a line chart, and
one axis must be a date field. Each type of analytics object has settings that you configure to
customize it.

Reference Lines

You can add a reference line to a visual to provide a comparison of a data point to the point
of reference. For example, if you are visualizing sales per month, you could add a reference
line to show the average monthly sales, making it easier to see months that are significantly
better or worse than average.

Figure 5-2: An average reference line in a bar chart in Power BI.

Reference Lines Available in Power BI

Power BI has the following types of reference lines available.

Reference line Description

Constant line Constant lines have a value that doesn't change and usually denote a
value

Configuration Object Description

Name Name box is untitled and automatically populated with <Type of Line>

Data label Turn the data label on (off by default).

Configuration Object Description

Data label configuration

If the data label is turned on, you can configure:

• Color

• Text (select value, name, or name and value)

• Horizontal Position (left or right)

• Vertical Position (above or under)

• Display Units (none, auto, thousands, millions, billions, trillions)

• Decimal Places

Figure 5-3: Average line formatting options in Power BI.

Trend Lines

Trend Lines

You can also add trend lines to your visual from the Format pane. Trend line analysis is
another common form of statistical analysis. Trend lines show a statistical pattern or path
over time. Most people are familiar with seeing business-related trend lines in graphics.
When the line is going up from left to right over time, the business is doing well. Sales are
up, the business is growing, and so forth. If the trend line is going down left to right, sales
are falling and the business is failing. Trend lines show relationships between similar items
in a visualization and provide valuable insights.

For example, if you analyze product sales, you can see which products are growing in
popularity with your customers, and which are decreasing. This will give you insights about
which items to stock. You might also analyze customers to see the trend in purchases from
small, medium, and

large businesses. This information will help you choose which group to spend the most
advertising dollars on.

You can add trend lines to area charts, clustered column charts, line charts, and line and
clustered column charts, as long as time data is available. Also, in order to add a trend line,
one of the axes in the visual must contain a field that can be interpreted as a number. For
example, you cannot add a trend based on an axis that shows sales by product name,
because product name is not a number

and no trend can be derived from it. A common use case for trend lines is to show values
over dates such as sales by month.

Figure 5-4: Trend lines in a Power BI visualization.

Trend Line Configuration

When you add a trend line, you can configure the following properties in addition to Name,
Color, Transparency, and Line Style to customize it.

Configuration Description
Combine Series Combine all data series and show one trend line total when turned
on

(default), or turn off to allow one trend line per series of data.

Use Highlight Values Use highlight values to calculate the trend line when turned on
(default).

Categorical vs. Continuous Data in Power BI

As stated earlier, dimensions are data that are discrete or categorical, while measures have
data that

is continuous, potentially never ending. Regions or cities are examples of categorical data,
while sales

and profit are examples of continuous data. In order for Power BI to place a trend line, one
axis

must contain continuous data. In some cases, when measures are placed in a visualization,
they are

treated by default as categorical data. In those instances, if you wish to add a trend line, you
must

first configure the axis to be continuous. On line charts, set type of axis in the Format pane,
Visual

tab for the axis you wish to be continuous using the Type drop-down menu.

Guidelines for Emphasizing Data in Visualizations

Follow these guidelines when emphasizing data in visualizations.

Trend Line Configuration

Categorical vs. Continuous Data in Power BI

Remind students that in order to be able to configure an axis as continuous, it must contain
categorical data.

Guidelines for Emphasizing Data in Visualizations

Emphasize Data in Visualizations

When emphasizing data in visualizations:

• Be careful not to clutter your visualization too much. When highlighting data, add
elements that make it easier to accomplish the analysis the visualization is designed to
perform.
• You can add a reference line or band to a visual to compare data points in a visual to
a point of reference.

• Label lines added to visualizations if their purpose is not obvious.

ACTIVITY 5-2

Emphasizing Data in Visualizations

Before You Begin

Power BI is open with My Report L5 open for editing, and the Apparel Top Performers page

visible.

Scenario

For some of the data you'll be presenting, you need to add reference and trend lines to help
your audience understand the data. In other visuals, you feel reference bands will help your
analysis.

1. Add a reference line to Apparel Top Performers to show average performance for a
reference.

a) In the Apparel Top Performers page, select the visualization.

b) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, expand Reference line and select + Add line.

Activity

c) Expand the Type drop-down menu and observe the types of reference lines that can be
configured.

The chart type is a stacked bar chart, and a constant line is the only type of reference line
supported for chart type.

d) With the Apparel Top Performers chart selected, from the Visual types drop-down menu,
select the

Clustered bar chart icon.

e) In the Format pane, under Line 1, expand the Type drop-down menu and observe the
types of reference lines that can be configured.

The options have increased. A clustered bar chart supports constant, min, max, average,
median, and percentile lines.

f) From the Line 1→Type drop-down menu, select Average line.

This will add a reference line showing the average sales price for all products.
g) Observe the average line running down the middle of the bars in the visualization.

The line is blue and very difficult to see over the blue bars.

h) In the Format pane, in the Reference line (1) section, expand Line.

i) For Color, select black, and for Style, select Solid.

j) Observe the Average line in the visualization.

k) Scroll through the list or products in the visualization.

It's now easier to see which products have above average and below average sales.

2. Analyze the report page.

Most of the products in blue are above average for sales, the products in orange are near
average, and the products in gray are below average. The average line will be a helpful
visual aid when explaining which product to cut and which to keep.

3. Add trend lines to the Sales by Year sheet to show sales trends.

a) Select the Sales by Year page, select the visualization, and enter Focus mode.

b) In the Format pane, on the Visual tab, observe that trend line is not listed.

There's no trend line available because the X-axis is showing categorical data, not
continuous data, which is needed for a trend line.

c) In the Build pane, observe the X-axis box.

Month is currently being shown from the Order Date hierarchy, but to use a trend line, you
must configure the dates to be yearly.

d) In the X-axis box, delete Order Date.

e) In the Data pane, expand Orders, and drag Order Date to the X-axis box.

f) In the X-axis box, delete Day, Month, and Quarter.

This will leave you with only Order Date and Year in the X-axis box.

g) In the Format pane, on Visual tab, observe the Trend line is now available. h) In the
Format pane, next to Trend line, slide the Off slider to On.

i) Observe the trend line in the visualization.

A single trend line has been added that combines the sales from all categories. This is the
default for trend lines but that isn't what you want. You want to compare the trends for each
category.
j) In the Format pane, expand Trend line, and for Combine series, set the slider to Off.

k) Observe the visualization.

Now all three product lines show their individual trends, but you only want to see apparel
so that you can show projected growth if your ideas are implemented.

4. Filter the visualization to show only apparel items.

a) Expand the Filters pane, and configure the Category filter to show only apparel items.

b) Collapse the Filters pane.

5. Add a new measure to show projected growth in Apparel sales.

a) Select Home→New measure.

b) In the measure configuration box, replace the existing text with the following: Projected

Apparel Growth = SUM ( Orders[Sales] )* 2.6

c) From the menu, in the Formatting group, select the $ icon and change the Auto box to 2
to set the value to show 2 decimals.

d) Select the check mark on the measure configuration box to create the measure.

This creates the Projected Apparel Growth measure in the Data pane.

6. Add Projected Apparel Growth to the visualization.

a) In the Build pane, in the Legend box, delete Category.

The Category filter is still in place, but since you only have one category of products, you
don't need to see it on the legend.

b) In the Data, drag Projected Apparel Growth to the Y-axis box, and place it below Sales.

7. Analyze the report page.

It is clear that increasing sales by 260 percent will be a big increase, but superimposing both
the numbers and the trend over last years' sales will help drive the point home visually, and
hopefully, help win support for your plan.

8. Save the report and close Power BI Desktop.

Summary

In this lesson, you formatted worksheets to show titles and visual elements more clearly,
and annotated worksheets to explain insights. Finally, you emphasized data using reference
and trend lines.
How might you format the reports and visualizations you create?

A: Answers will vary, but may include formatting or changing the font or color of titles,
adding background images that enhance the visual, or adding text to point out insights.

What types of reference lines do you expect to use in your analysis and reporting?

A: Answers will vary, but may include trend lines, average lines, min and max lines, or
constant lines to monitor key performance indicators.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

6 Troubleshooting, Sharing, and Collaborating

Lesson Time: 30 minutes

Lesson Introduction

When you're analyzing data with Microsoft® Power BI®, you may have issues that you
need to troubleshoot, and you will often wish to share your findings and visualizations with
others. In this lesson, you will troubleshoot data issues, and share and collaborate with
Power BI.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will:

• Troubleshoot data issues.

• Share reports in the Power BI Service.

• Export reports and visuals.

TOPIC A

Troubleshoot Data Issues

While most data-driven decision makers won't work directly with the data that makes up
the reports and visualizations they use, if you want to be able to investigate and
troubleshoot potential problems with data or missing data, then you should have an
understanding of how data is brought into

Power BI and prepared for analysis. In this topic, you will troubleshoot data issues.

Data Source

Connections

Potential Issues with

Data Sources

Show as Table

Data Source Connections

Since Power BI does not capture or store data, analysts must connect it to a data source
before they create a report and visualizations. A data source can be a spreadsheet or a
database, or many other types of files where data is stored. Each report connects to specific
data sources each time it's opened to retrieve the data used in visuals. Analysts can also
publish data sources to the Power BI Service that others in the organization can use to build
reports and visualizations.

Data sources can be:

• File-based, such as CSV or Excel files stored on your local computer, on a network share.

• A database stored locally, or on a network share, or accessible online.

Data can be imported, or connected live to data sources. Live connected data sources are
always up to date, while imported data must be refreshed at scheduled intervals.

In most cases, however, data sources will be published to the Power BI Service or Power BI
Report

Server to make them accessible to everyone in your organization with permissions.

Additional Information

For more information on supported data sources for Power BI, see: https://

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/power-bi-data-sources.

Potential Issues with Data Sources

Power BI stores data source path and connection information in the semantic model so that
when it is opened, it can reconnect to the data source to show data in the visualizations.
Problems can arise when it cannot locate or connect to those defined data sources:

• For file-based data sources such as CSV files, spreadsheets, and extracts, Power BI
must know the path to the file, locally or over the network or web, and you must have the
appropriate credentials that allow you to access the file.

• For database connections, Power BI must know the path to the database, locally or
online, and you must have the appropriate credentials to access the database.

• For data sources published in the Power BI Service or Power BI Report Server, you
must be sure you can connect to the server or the Service, and you must have permissions
to access the report or data source you are trying to open.

If Power BI is unable to open a data source connection, it will generate an error when you
select within the worksheet, dashboard, or story that uses data from the connection that has
a problem, and prompt you to attempt to locate the data.

Show as Table

When viewing visualizations created by analysts, it can sometimes be helpful to see the data
on which the visual is built. This can especially be the case if you're looking for specific data
or relationships related to your role, and want to see if that data was included in the
semantic model

used to create visuals. The Show as table command button lets you do this. You can also do
this from the Data/Drill menu, Visual table button.

When you select a visualization, you can right-click the canvas or a data point and select
Show as table. You can also select Show as table from the More options menu. When you do,
a table of data appears below the visualization. The table contains primary (top) fields from
the X-axis and Y- axis, as well as fields from the Legend and the Tooltips configuration. If
Small multiples are configured, each small multiple will be broken out into its own table.
You can adjust the table to be displayed on the right side of the visualization by selecting the
Switch Layout button in the visualization menu. For example, if you are viewing a
visualization of product sales, you could use this to see that same data as a table.

You can close the table and return to the visualization by selecting Back to report.

Figure 6-1: Power BI visualization with Show as table enabled.

Show Data Point as Table

You can also view the data behind an individual data point by selecting the data point, right-
clicking, and selecting Show data point as table, or from the Data Drill menu by selecting the
Data point table button. For example, when viewing a visualization of product sales, you
could use this to view the individual sales for a specific product. When showing a data point
as a table, the entire visualization is replaced with the data point table.

You can close the table and return to the visualization by selecting Back to report.

Figure 6-2: Women's Pants Black data point as a table.

Show Data Point as

Table

Refresh Data

Export Data

Refresh Data

Power BI connects to data sources using an import model or a live connection of some sort
(either DirectQuery, LiveConnect, or Push). Live connections always have a semantic model
constructed using the latest information from the live data source. Imported connections
cache data for use in the semantic model, and therefore, can become out of date, since
imports are performed on a defined schedule set by the data analyst or on demand.

If you are looking for recent data that doesn't appear in the report or visual you're working
with, you can refresh the data by going to the Home menu, Queries group, and selecting the
Refresh button. This action will force Power BI to pull a new copy of the data from the data
source. Depending on how big the data source is, and the cleaning and pre-processing steps
involved in building the semantic model, refreshes can take several seconds to several
minutes.

Figure 6-3: Refresh data button in Power BI.

Export Data

If you wish to examine the data outside of Power BI, you can export the data for any
visualization from the More options menu by selecting Export data. The data will be
exported as a comma delimited CSV file. You can then analyze the data in Excel® or other
tools, or use the CSV file as a new data source for new Power BI reports. You can also open
the data model directly to Excel

using the Export→Analyze in Excel drop-down menu option from the report menu in the
Power BI Service. This essentially moves the fields in the Data pane to Excel for the Web and
allows you to perform analysis there.

Figure 6-4: Data model exported from Power BI and opened in Excel for Web.

Guidelines for Troubleshooting Data

Follow these guidelines when troubleshooting data.

Note: All Guidelines for this lesson are available as checklists from the Checklist tile on the

CHOICE Course screen.

Troubleshoot Data

When troubleshooting data, consider the following guidelines:

• Make sure data source paths are correct for file-based data sources such as CSV files,
spreadsheets, and extracts.

• Make sure you have the path and appropriate credentials for database connections.

• Make sure you have permissions to access data sources published in the Power BI Service
or

Power BI Report Server.

• Refresh imported data to ensure you're working with the latest data.

Guidelines for

Troubleshooting Data

ACTIVITY 6-1

Troubleshooting Data Issues

Data File

C:\095031Data\Troubleshooting and Collaborating\Report L6.pbix

Activity

Before You Begin

You are logged in to Windows and Power BI Desktop is closed.

Scenario

Before you share your reports and visualizations, you have some questions about what you
are seeing in some of your worksheets and want to investigate them. First you want to make
sure your data is fresh and up to date, then you will look into the data points that are
concerning you.

1. Open Report L6 in Microsoft Power BI.

a) Start Power BI Desktop.

b) Open C:\095031Data\Troubleshooting and Collaborating\Report L6.pbix.

2. Save a copy of the report as My Report L6.pbix in the same folder.

3. Attempt to refresh data for a report.

a) Select the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page if it is not already selected. b) Select
Home→Refresh.

A warning message is displayed stating that part of the path could not be found. c) Select
Close to close the warning message.

4. Fix the data source path.

a) Select Home→Transform data→Data source settings.

b) In the Data source settings dialog box, select Change Source. c) Select Browse and then
navigate to C:\095031Data\Setup.

d) Select MyFootPrintSports_Data.xlsx then select Open. e) In the Excel Workbook dialog

box, select OK.

f) In the Data source settings dialog box, select Close. g) In the yellow warning bar, select
Apply changes.

5. Refresh data for a report to verify it is showing the latest data.

a) Select Home→Refresh again.

A dialog box will appear showing the refresh steps. When complete, the report will be
showing the latest data from the data source.

6. View data for a page or data point as a table.

a) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, select the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization on the far left.

b) Right-click the visualization and select Show as a table from the context menu.

The visualization will open in Focus mode with a data table beneath. c) Observe the
visualization and scroll through the table of data.

This allows you to view the data represented in the visualization and in the tooltip in a table
—you can see the product name, sales, and profit information, as well Quantity and Count of
Order ID.

Note: Depending on the date you are working through this activity, the numbers you see
may or may not match the image.
d) In the Apparel Sales and Profit visualization, right-click the Men's Pants White bar and
select Show data point as a table.

e) Observe the results, and use the horizontal scroll bar below the table to view the
information about the Men's Pants White sales.

This shows you all the sales of Men's Pants White that you could analyze further if you
wished. f) Select Back to report to return to the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page.

7. Download data to analyze.

a) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, in the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization, select More options→Export data.

b) In the Save As dialog box, observe the File name and the Save as type.

The file should be saved to the same folder as the report for this lesson. The only file type
available is CSV.

c) If necessary, open C:\095031Data\Troubleshooting and Collaborating and then select

Save. d) Minimize Power BI Desktop.

e) Open File Explorer, navigate to the C:\095031Data\Troubleshooting and Collaborating

folder, and open Apparel Sales and Profit.csv.

f) Observe the data in the spreadsheet.

It's the same data that was in the Power BI table, but now you can share this data with
others in your organization to review it if they want to analyze the data behind the products
shown in this specific visualization.

Note: Each visualization on a page must be exported individually; there is no way to export
multiple visuals. You can export the entire report if you like.

g) Close the spreadsheet.

8. Restore the Power BI Desktop window and save the report.

TOPIC B

Collaborate in Power BI

If you wish to share the views you create and the insights you find in Power BI with other
Power BI users, then you will have to use Power BI's collaboration features. In this topic,
you will collaborate using the Power BI Service.

Collaboration in Power

BI
Report and Dashboard

Sharing

Collaboration in Power BI

You can collaborate and share reports with other Power BI users by publishing them in the
Power BI Service or on Power BI Report Server. Once a report is published in the Power BI
Service, other

Report and Dashboard Sharing

There are many ways you can share reports and dashboards in the Power BI Service,
including:

• Sharing dashboards and reports with individuals in your organization.

• Printing reports to share.

• Configuring subscriptions for yourself and others.

• Bundling dashboards and reports into apps and publishing them to groups or the
entire organization.

• Publishing reports and dashboards for public consumption to the web.

Note: To share reports and dashboards, users must have a Power BI Pro license or better.

You can share a report or a dashboard from the Power BI Service in places like Favorites,
Recent, Shared with me (if sharing is allowed by the owner of the report or dashboard), My
workspace, or any workspace you are a member of. Essentially, you can share a report or
dashboard from any list

of reports or dashboards in the Power BI Service.

To share a report, select the Share icon next to the report or dashboard to display the Share
dialog box. On the Share tab, you can add email addresses for users inside and outside of
your organization. You can also add an optional message, send an email notification to
recipients, and choose to let the people you send it to reshare it by checking the box to
Allow recipients to share your dashboard. You will be informed if sharing was successful.

Recipients can find shared reports and dashboards under the Shared with me section menu
option in Power BI.

Note: If you wish to share data or visuals with people outside your organization, you will
have to extract the data and visuals to send to them or embed the Power BI links into a
website. That
is covered in the next topic.

Figure 6-5: Sharing window in the Power BI Service.

Options for Securing Shared Reports and Dashboards

When you share a report or dashboard, you can configure the level of access the recipient
will get. You have three options to restrict who can view it:

• People in your organization.

• People with existing access (this only applies to people in your Power BI organization).

• Specific people (granted via user name or email address).

You have two options that govern what recipients can do with shared reports and
dashboards:

• Allowing recipients to share this report allows read access and the ability to share with
others.

• Allowing recipients to build content with the data associated with this report allows
users to edit content and build new visualizations with the data.

Options for Securing Shared Reports and Dashboards

Figure 6-6: Accessing security options in Power BI.

Options for Viewing Permissions on Power BI Objects

Guidelines for Collaborating in Power BI

Options for Viewing Permissions on Power BI Objects

For any object published in the Power BI Service, you can view and manage permissions for
the object in the workspace where it's stored. Access permissions by using More
options→Manage permissions. The manage permissions pages let you see who has links to
the report, who has direct access, and any requests that are pending. For each, you can see
who has permission, and what

rights are assigned.

Figure 6-7: Permissions page in the Power BI Service.

Guidelines for Collaborating in Power BI

Follow these guidelines when collaborating in Power BI.

Collaborate in the Power BI Service

When collaborating in the Power BI Service:

• Share reports from the Share button in the Power BI Service.

• Assign permissions when you share reports and dashboards.

• Consult internal data sharing polices when dealing with sensitive data.

ACTIVITY 6-2

Collaborating in Power BI

Before You Begin

Power BI Desktop is open with the My Report L6 report open.

Scenario

Now you're ready to share some of your reports and visualizations. You want to share some
specific pages and even make the report as a whole available, but you want to secure it with
the right permissions first.

1. Publish the My Report L6 report.

a) Select Home→Publish.

b) In the Publish to Power BI dialog box, in the Select a destination section, select My
Footprint

Sports<student number>, and select Select.

The report will be published and you will see a Success message appear. c) Observe the
Success message and select Got it to close the dialog box.

2. Access the Power BI Service.

a) Open your browser and navigate to https://app.powerbi.com.

Note: If prompted for credentials, log in with the student ID and password provided by your
instructor.

b) Observe the Power BI Service interface.

c) In the left side navigation area, expand Workspaces and select My Footprint
Sports<student number>.

Activity
Report L1, which you worked with earlier, and My Report L6, which you just published, are
in the workspace.

3. Share My Report L6 pages.

a) On the My Footprint Sports <student number> page, select the text link for the My
Report L6 report to open it.

The report opens in the Power BI Service.

b) Observe the button bar at the top of the report.

The Power BI Service is the preferred interface for sharing and collaborating with Power BI
reports.

It allows you to share reports, chat about them in Teams, subscribe to changes like you did
earlier in the class, and leave comments.

Depending on the width of the window, some items will be displayed on the button bar and
some will need to be accessed by selecting the More options button.

c) In the button bar, select Share.

The Send link dialog box appears. d) Observe the Send link dialog box.

You can send the link to other Power BI users in your organization through Power BI
Service, you can copy the link to use with an external app, email the link, or send the report
to Teams or to PowerPoint.

e) In the Enter a name or email address box, type the email address you use for this class.

Power BI will find your email account.

f) In the top of the Send link dialog box, select People in your organization with the link can
view and share.

g) Observe the security options and settings.

You can share with people in your organization, existing people who have access, or specific
people, and you can allow recipients to share the report and build their own content with it.
In this case, you will keep permissions as is, sharing with the organization and allowing
others to share it.

h) Select Apply. i) Select Send.

j) A Send link confirmation window appears. Close the window.

4. Verify permissions on the report.

a) In the left navigation bar, select the My Footprint Sports<student number> workspace
icon to return to the My Footprint Sports <student number> workspace.

b) In the workspace, for the My Report L6 report, select More options.

c) In the More options menu, select Manage permissions.

d) On the My Report L6 page, review Who has Access and Permissions.

The permissions match those you just set.

e) In the left navigation bar, select the My Footprint Sports<student number> workspace
icon to return to the My Footprint Sports<student number> workspace.

TOPIC C

Collaborate with Non-Power BI Users

There will likely be times you need to share visuals or data with people who don't use
Power BI, either inside or outside of your organization. If you want to be able to do this, you
will have to use the export options in Power BI. In this topic, you will collaborate with non-
Power BI users.

Options for Sharing with Non-Power BI Users

When collaborating with non-Power BI users, you must take data or images out of Power BI
and transfer them to non-Power BI users for use in other apps. As stated earlier, for data
this means exporting data to a CSV file, but you can also open the data model directly to
Excel by selecting Export→Analyze in Excel from the report menu in the Power BI Service.
This essentially moves the fields in the Data pane to Excel for the Web and allows you to
perform analysis there.

For report visualizations, you have several options for copying and exporting. In all cases,
except embedding in PowerPoint, images will become static, meaning people won't be able
to dynamically explore the visuals, apply filters, see tooltips, and so forth. They will be able
to make decisions based on the static images of the visualizations provided.

Options for Exporting Images

You can copy and export images from the Power BI Service using any of the following
methods:

• Copy an image to the clipboard using the copy image menu button for a visualization.

Once the image is copied, you are prompted to copy it to the clipboard and can then paste it
into

any app you wish. Image exports capture the portion of the visual on screen, which will not
include data points that require scrolling to see.

• You can embed an image in PowerPoint from the Export button on the report menu.
You have the option to export an image or export live data. You can choose to export the
current page or the entire report as images. Either way, a PowerPoint file will be created
and downloaded. If you export the entire report, the PowerPoint file will contain one slide
for each page in the report, showing the visible part of the visualizations on the page, not
data that must be scrolled to view.

• You can also export to a PDF file. Like exporting to PowerPoint, you can choose to
export the current page or the entire report. If you export the entire report, each visual will
be on a separate page showing the visible portion of the visualization.

PowerPoint Embed Live Data

The second PowerPoint export option is to embed live data in PowerPoint. This is similar to
embedding live data in a website. You have the option of embedding with the data filters
currently selected in the report. You will get a link that you can copy to embed in
PowerPoint or a website. You can also opt to Open in PowerPoint. You can only embed one
page at a time, and one page per slide, but the embedded visualization is active and
functional, allowing full exploration of the visualization in PowerPoint as if you were
viewing it in Power BI. In PowerPoint, you can adjust slicers, select data points, show as a
table, adjust filters, and drill up and down through the data in the visualization. In order to
use embedded live data, you must be able to connect to the Power BI Service or your Power
BI Report Server.

Guidelines for Collaborating with Non-Power BI Users

Follow these guidelines when collaborating with non-Power BI users.

Options for Sharing with

Non-Power BI Users

Options for Exporting

Images

PowerPoint Embed Live

Data

Guidelines for Collaborating with Non- Power BI Users

Collaborate with Non-Power BI Users

When collaborating with non-Power BI users:

• Export visuals as images if you want to scale them to embed in multiple documents such
as in

Word and PowerPoint.

• Select individual pages to export and crop them externally when creating reports
and brochures for distribution.

• If your presentation can be delivered from a location where you have access to the
Power BI Service or your Power BI Report Server, consider using embedded live data in
your PowerPoint.

ACTIVITY 6-3

Collaborating with Non-Power BI Users

Before You Begin

Power BI Desktop is open, as is the Power BI Service in your browser showing the My
Footprint

Sports workspace.

Scenario

Now you need to extract some visualizations and data from Power BI to share with partners
and some non-Power BI users in the company. You need to download some images to see if
they will work. You also need to prepare PDF documents for a presentation, as well as a
data file that shows raw data. Finally, you need to put some live visualizations into
PowerPoint.

1. Review options for downloading a report to share with other Power BI Desktop users.

a) In your browser, in the My Footprint Sports<student number> workspace, open the My

Report L6 report.

b) In the button bar, select File→Download this file.

This would download a copy of the My Report L6.pbix file that you can share with other
Power BI

users outside of your organizations. c) Select Cancel.

d) In the button bar, select File→Embed report and observe the options available on the
menu.

You could use embed report to share the report to SharePoint or to websites. e) Select File
to close the file menu.
2. Download an image of a visual.

a) In the Power BI Service, in My Report L6, verify the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison
page is selected.

b) On the Apparel Sales and Profit Comparison page, select the Apparel Sales and Profit
visualization. c) In the Apparel Sales and Profit visualization menu, select Copy as image
with caption.

Note: Icons in the visualization menu can be difficult to interpret; look for the copy icon.

A Copying... dialog box appears.

d) If you are prompted that the server is busy, select Try again. If that doesn't work, try
closing and then reopening your browser.

e) If you are prompted that app.powerbi.com wants to see text and images copied to the
clipboard, select Allow.

f) When the Image with caption copied dialog box appears, scroll to the bottom of the
dialog box and select Copy.

g) Close the Image with caption copied dialog box, and minimize your browser. h) Open
Microsoft Word and create a blank document.

Activity

If students are still unable to copy the image to the clipboard, they may need to skip Step 2.

i) Right-click inside the blank document and select Paste. j) Observe the pasted
visualization.

The entire visualization was copied, not just what was visible in the Power BI Service. Also
note that this is an image that can be moved and resized in Word, and a link to the report
with an annotation of when the copy was taken has been added to the Word document.

k) Close the Word document without saving.

3. Export the report to PDF.

a) In the Power BI Service, in My Report L6, in the button bar, select Export and observe the
options.

You can bring the data into Excel or export it to PowerPoint or PDF format. b) In the Export
menu, select PDF.

c) In the Export box, verify that Current Values is selected. d) Observe the option to export
only the current page.
You can use that option to download a specific page from a report to PDF. In this case, you
want the entire report.

e) Select Export.

A notification will appear in the upper right of the browser, indicating your export is in
progress.

f) When the download is complete, open the PDF in your browser, scroll through the pages
and view the report.

All of the visualizations have been downloaded as images. The images are not complete; any
data that was off screen is not visible in the images in the PDF. Some images contain
horizontal or vertical scroll bars that are not functional; they are part of the image.

g) Close the browser tab with the PDF document.

4. Export to PowerPoint.

a) In the Power BI Service, on the button bar, select Export→PowerPoint and observe the
options.

You can embed live data in the PowerPoint file or embed images. Embedding images will
generate a result similar to what you saw with the PDF export. Embedding live data will
give you live reports to work with in PowerPoint.

b) Select Embed live data.

c) Observe the Embed live data in PowerPoint dialog box.

d) In Embed live data in PowerPoint dialog box, select Open in PowerPoint.

e) If you are prompted to open or select an app, select the option to allow it and select
PowerPoint to open the presentation if necessary.

Note: If you copy the link, you can use the Insert→Power BI menu option in

PowerPoint to insert the link in an existing PowerPoint Presentation.

f) In PowerPoint, select the different visualizations, and use the scroll bars to view data
that is not visible by default.

g) In PowerPoint, select a bar in one of the visualizations, and view the tooltip that appears.

h) In PowerPoint, right-click one of the bars in the visualization and observe the options on
the menu. i) Close PowerPoint and if necessary save the file with the name Exported PBI
when prompted to the

folder for this lesson.

j) Close any Power BI browser windows.

k) Close Power BI Desktop and save changes if prompted.

Summary

In this lesson, you troubleshot data-related issues to verify that your visuals had the latest
data. You then collaborated with Power BI users by sharing reports and assigning
permissions. Finally, you collaborated with non-Power BI users by exporting visualizations,
reports, and data for use in PDF reports and PowerPoint presentations.

Encourage students to use the social networking tools

provided on the CHOICE Course screen to follow up with their peers after the course is
completed for further discussion

and resources to support continued learning.

How have you shared data visualizations and data in your organization in the past?

A: Answers will vary, but may include capturing screen shots of visualizations, exporting
visualizations, or linking visualizations to web pages.

How have you controlled access to sensitive data and visualizations in your organization in
the past?

A: Answers will vary, but may include putting sensitive data on permission-controlled file
shares, distributing using restricted mailing lists, or not sharing sensitive data
electronically.

Note: Check your CHOICE Course screen for opportunities to interact with your classmates,
peers, and the larger CHOICE online community about the topics covered in this course or
other topics you are interested in. From the Course screen you can also access available
resources for a more continuous learning experience.

Course Follow-Up

Congratulations! You have completed the Microsoft® Power BI® for Data-Driven Decision
Makers course. You have successfully logged into the Power BI Service, explored
visualizations, created visualizations, customized how data was displayed in your
visualizations, changed summarizations to change the question being asked of the data, and
created calculated fields to ask new questions of

the data. You sorted and grouped data for analysis, and created filters to display just the
data you were interested in, and created slicers so that others could easily filter your
visualizations. You customized your visualizations using formatting, text, reference lines,
average lines, and trend lines, and collaborated by sharing pages and reports, setting
permissions, and exporting data to share outside of Power BI.

The ability to perform in-depth analysis and create rich visualizations can provide a
competitive advantage to businesses and organizations of all sorts, and allows data-driven
decision makers to find insights, make better decisions, and get their recommendations
approved. Power BI makes those tasks easier, and also makes it easy to share those insights
within your organization and with your customers and clients. Your ability to use Power BI
to perform data analysis and create visualizations will make you more competitive in your
current organization and the job market.

What's Next?

If you are interested in working with data directly as a data analyst, or would like to become
a Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, consider the following course,
Microsoft® Power BI®: Data Analysis Professional (Second Edition). It is a course that
helps prepare you to pass the exam.

You are encouraged to explore Power BI Desktop further by actively participating in any of
the social media forums set up by your instructor or training administrator through the
Social Media tile on the CHOICE Course screen.

A Best Practices for Visual

Design

Appendix Introduction

While Microsoft® Power BI® is one of the most powerful and easy to use tools for creating
visualizations, its up to you to design your visualizations to communicate the message you
desire, whether exploring data or explaining insights. In this appendix, you will review best
practices for visual design.

TOPIC A

Best Practices for Visual Design

Now that you know how to create and format charts, you should take a step back and
consider the best way to chart the data so that the message being communicated is clear. In
this topic, you will build charts using best practices for presenting charted data.

Explanatory vs. Exploratory Visualizations

Explanatory vs. Exploratory Visualizations

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, the author of Storytelling with Data, asserted that there are two
types of charts, exploratory and explanatory. Exploratory visualizations present data and let
the people who view the chart draw their own conclusions. Explanatory visualizations
present a focused message and insight extracted from, or backed up by, the data to make a
point.

Exploring the data is what you do during analysis. Explaining it should be your goal when
presenting the insights you find after that exploration. Data visualization becomes a
powerful business tool when it quickly and clearly shows a specific insight. Insights may
justify a course of action, demonstrate a point of weakness in a process or organization, or
spotlight a new opportunity.

Note: You shouldn't manipulate the data, or omit data to help you make a point, but you
should look for the best way to communicate the insights you find in the data.

Many people present visuals in an exploratory way, showcasing the data they have access to
and missing the opportunity to make their point.

When you're creating a visualization, always take the explanatory approach. Make your
point. You should not invite people to randomly explore the data you're presenting. The
data you present and the way you present it should lead to one, and only one, conclusion—
the point you're making.

The first step in creating a visualization should be to determine a goal. Ask yourself the
questions: What point do you intend to make? What business objectives does it relate to or
support? The answers to these questions come from the data itself. These are insights
gained from your analysis.

Figure A-1: Make sure charts clearly make the point you want to make.

Best Practices for Designing Explanatory Visualizations

Once you know the message you want to send, address the following when creating your
visualization:

• Determine your audience and the context in which the visualization and data will be
viewed.

• Create a story around your key message so it will be both more compelling and
more memorable to the audience.

• Select the right visuals to show the message you're presenting.

• Have the title outline the main point of the visual.

• Design the visualization so that your audience can easily process the message.

• Focus attention on the areas of the visual that showcase the key message.
• Clean up the visual so extraneous elements don't interfere with the key message.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful tool. People have used it to pass down information for centuries.
You can use storytelling techniques to make your message resonate. You can tell a story
within a single visual, or across multiple visuals in a presentation or on a dashboard.

There are three elements to data storytelling: the data itself, the visual you create with the
data, and the narrative. The narrative might be your verbal narration explaining the visual,
or it might be text components on the graphic. The narrative should help people feel the
emotion of the data, which is just as necessary to decision making as logic. To tell a story,
your data visual must have a main point or idea. It becomes a story if the narration has two
defining characteristics—emotion and a meaningful climax. You can build that story on your
visual data slide through the use of:

• A headline: State the main conclusion that you want the audience to gain from the visual.

• Annotations: Explain the meaning behind significant changes in the data.

• Design: Eliminate clutter and focus attention where you want it using visual cues such as
color.

• Animations: Build the visual, piece by piece, so you don't overwhelm your audience.

• Narration: Guide the viewer through the data visual. Provide structure, explain the
meaning of the visual, and connect it to other parts of your core message.

Figure A-2: Storytelling.

Audience and Context

When designing a visualization, it's important to understand the audience that will be
consuming the data displayed on the dashboard. You should understand the backgrounds of
the people who will be

Best Practices for Designing Explanatory Visualizations

Storytelling

Audience and Context

viewing the chart, as well as any biases they might have. This will help you choose the data
to use in the chart to support your message.

The insights presented should be useful and relevant to your target audience. For example,
a sales dashboard that is meant for the company executives might show "big picture" Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as overall sales, sales by region, and sales by product
line. Whereas a dashboard for sales managers might have more tactical sales activity KPIs
such as number of client calls per week, percentage of repeat customer sales versus new
customer sales, and so forth.

You also have to consider the context in which the visualization will be presented. Is the
visualization presenting a well-known issue that the audience is familiar with, or something
new taken from the data you've analyzed? If the audience already understands the context
of the message you're presenting, you may be able to get away with providing less detail to
support your message. If the audience is new to the issue, you may have to provide more
supporting detail on the visual, or in other visuals, to provide that context.

In addition, you should consider how the audience perceives you. Do you have credibility
with the audience? Are you trusted by the audience? If you don't have credibility with the
audience, you may need to include more supporting data or additional charts to establish
the credibility in your data analysis and the message you're visualizing.

Finally, you also need to decide the type of message you're sending. Specifically, is the data
you're presenting strong enough to recommend explicit action, or is your goal only to
encourage discussion towards an action based on data that shows competing alternatives or
less clarity about the actions that should be taken?

Visual Selection—What to Choose

Visual Selection - What to Choose

The type of visual you select to present your data is very important. Some visuals are easier
to read than others. Some are better for showing specific types of data. Some visuals, or the
way they can be laid out, play to how people tend to read charts.

Note: People read charts typically by starting at the top and consuming them from left to
right, zig-zagging down the chart as if following "Z" shaped patterns. Charts that present
information that can be consumed in this way tend to be easier to understand and,
therefore, communicate their message more effectively.

The following table shows which visuals showcase certain types of data more effectively.

Visual Good For Explanation

Text Sharing one or two numbers. Showing a simple number with text such as
"Sales rose 45%" can make a simple point very effectively.

Table Presenting data to an audience that has mixed interests.

Heatmap Presenting table data while allowing you to highlight specific data points in
that table.

Scatterplot Showing relationships between two things.

Line Showing data points of time

(chronological data) and trends.

A table allows audience members to read the data and find the row, column, or cells of
interest to them.

A heatmap still allows the audience to read the data, but also allows the presenter to
highlight key insights in the table.

By plotting data on both the X- and Y-axis, your audience can see where relationships exist
between the entities being compared.

Line graphs are excellent at showing the direction the data is taking and are read left to
right, which corresponds to the way we process data.

Visual Good For Explanation

Slopegraph Showing the relative increase or

By graphing the increase or decrease between

Visual Reason to Avoid

Visual Selection—What to Avoid

Design and Cleanliness

Design and Cleanliness

One thing Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic talks about in her book, Storytelling with Data, is
cognitive load. Simply put, the more difficult something is to process, the less likely the
audience will get the message you're trying to convey. Your visuals should be designed to
emphasize the point you're trying to make, while being clean, free of extraneous elements,
and easy to read. Remember, the more complicated a visualization is, the less likely people
will continue to put effort in to understand it. They may instead disconnect from what
you're trying to say. With visuals, less is often more.

The following table contains tips for designing visuals and keeping them clean so that they
are easy to read.

Tip Reason

Group similar objects on the visual.

Continuity makes data easier to understand.

Keep visuals distinct and orderly.

Use alignment to your advantage.

Group items to call attention to them using:

• Proximity (keep elements close together)

• The same color or shape

• Enclosures (keep similar elements in a box or surrounded by lines)

• Lines to connect them

De-emphasize table borders, gridlines, and background sharing where not needed.

Don't put so much information on a chart that it interferes with the key message. Charts that
have lots of callouts or text may be more difficult to understand and consume.

Use left alignment primarily because it aligns to how we read. Consider right-aligned text
juxtaposed to left-aligned text when necessary. Avoid centered text.

Use white space. Don't fill up your charts. Keep white space between elements so
they stand out.

Use black, bolding, and high contrast sparingly.

Black color, bolding, and high contrast elements draw the viewers attention; use them only
to emphasize key points.

Don't overuse color. Make most elements gray, and use one or two colors to make
key elements stand out.

Figure A-3: Design and cleanliness.

Message Focus

The goal of your visualization is to communicate a message. You can use several techniques
to draw the reader's attention to the elements on the chart that express or support the
message you're communicating. Color is an excellent example of this. In a chart where each
bar is a different color, which bar is the most important? If, however, you wish to make a
single category stand out, color that bar while leaving the remaining bars gray. That will
make your key point pop while the remaining data fades to the background. The
information is still there, but people will be drawn to the data you want them to see.

There are several ways you can draw focus to elements on a chart:
• Color: By coloring chart elements that are important for your message. You can
establish hierarchy by using bolder and softer shades of the same color, or comparison by
using contrasting colors.

Message Focus

Note: Don't use red in charts as people who are color blind often can't read it. Choose a
color such as blue or orange for coloring elements while most elements remain gray. Blue
and orange are often the choice for corporate logos, Coca-Cola not withstanding, because
they stand out and are easy to differentiate.

• Size: By increasing the size of elements or text that are important for your message.

• Shape: By making important elements a different shape so they stand out from other
elements such as data points on a scatter plot.

• Bolding: To make important text stand out.

• Outlining: To make important text stand out.

• Italics and underlines: These stand out less than bolding, but do add emphasis.

• Data labels in the visualization: By labeling key data in the chart, you help draw
viewers to that data.

Figure A-4: Message focus.

Guidelines for Creating Explanatory Visualizations

Follow these guidelines when creating explanatory visualizations.

Guidelines for Creating Explanatory Visualizations (2 Slides)

Note: All of the Guidelines for this appendix are available as checklists from the Checklist
tile on the CHOICE Course screen.

Create Explanatory Visuals

When creating explanatory visuals, consider the following guidelines:

• Before finalizing a visual, keep the old adage "less is more" in mind. If the audience
needs an element to acquire meaning, keep it. Otherwise, remove it. Ask yourself:

• If you remove the gridlines, will the visual still convey meaning? If so, leave gridlines out.

• Do you need a legend? Can you remove the legend and use data labels instead?

• How much precision do you need for axis labels?

• Do the axes really need titles?

• Do you need major and minor tick marks on the axes?

• Keep it simple: Remove all clutter, and make sure the visual communicates the correct
message.

• Create balance: Arrange the text, the visual elements to guide the eye to points that
help make the key message. Use white space to help key elements stand out.

• Make the meaning clear: Write a full sentence headline that asserts your main point.

• Make it large enough: Be sure the visual is readable by everyone in the audience.

• Use keywords and phrases: Audiences can grasp the information faster if it is
provided in small amounts.

• Use color appropriately: Besides adding interest, color can clarify your visuals by
focusing attention and organizing information.

• Avoid using the color red, as color blind people cannot interpret it.

• Choose two colors to accentuate key points and leave other chart elements gray.

• Show only key numbers on graphs: Round off numbers, label the axes according to
an appropriate scale, and limit data to only the series necessary to make your point.

• Use two-dimensional visuals as three-dimensional visuals skew information, making

it difficult to interpret exact and relative values.

• When creating a visual to be presented live, you can include less information on or
with the visual as the presenter can provide that information during the presentation. When
creating a visual as part of a handout or takeaway, include that information so that data
accompanies the visual.

ACTIVITY A-1

Applying Best Practices in Visual Design

Activity

Scenario

Considering what you've learned about the best practices of visual design, answer the
following questions.

1. What colors should you primarily use in your presentations and why?
A: You should strive to accentuate data points using a strong color like blue, and have other
marks be gray. This will call attention to the data you want to emphasize. If you wish to
compare two marks or groups or marks, use blue and orange for the comparison, while
leaving other marks gray.

2. What types of visualizations should you avoid and why?

A: You should avoid pie, donut, and 3D charts because it's very difficult for people to see
which segments of those charts are bigger than others if segments are close in size.

3. What should you consider about alignment when designing a view?

A: People read left to right in most languages, so that’s how they will naturally consume the
visual, moving left to right, then down, then left to right again.

4. What are some design and cleanliness practices that can help your key points stand out?

A: Group similar items and show the grouping using shape, color, and connected lines
proximity. De- emphasize table borders, gridlines, and background sharing where not
needed. Keep visuals distinct, orderly, and focused. Don't put too much information in a
visual, as it will distract from the key elements. Use white space to make elements stand out.
Use black, bolding, and high-contrast sparingly. Don't overuse color.

Glossary
Glossary

summarization

A mathematical operation that takes many

numbers and transforms them into a single number for analysis, such as summing up items
in a grocery cart to determine a final bill.

target page

A report page associated with a drillthrough

filter that contains visuals showing relevant data that focuses on an entity of data.

tooltips

Details that appear when you hover the mouse

pointer over one or more marks in the view.

trend lines

Lines added to a visualization to display an

increasing, decreasing, or steady state, based on the data patterns.

variance

A statistical principle that describes how widely

data in a semantic model may vary; in other words, if the data in the semantic model is
more contained, or more spread out.

visual header

A transparent bar associated with a report

visual that enables you to work with the visual.

visual level filter

A filter that affects a single visual in a report or

on a dashboard.

visualization

A visual representation of data in the form of a

chart, graph, table, or other type of visual which shows the data being analyzed on a specific
worksheet, dashboard, or story.

waterfall chart

A visualization that shows changes in a value

over time.

weighted average

A way of assigning importance, or weight, to

numbers in a semantic model (e.g., data that appears more frequently).

workspace

A private or shared storage area that contains

Power BI dashboards, reports, workbooks, and semantic models.

Index
Index