6 min read
8 Power BI Tips for Users
Power BI is a powerful data visualization tool, packed with possibilities for its end users. So many, in fact, that you might not know them all. In this blog we've therefore collected 8 tips for Power BI users. These tips focus mainly on using Power BI for analysis, and to a lesser extent on the backend (data connections/modeling).
Tip 1: Favorite and Featured dashboards
Power BI Online
Do you have a dashboard you consider very important? Then you can set it as a favorite. You do this by clicking the Favorite button while you're in the dashboard. This adds the dashboard to your Favorites list. It's also possible to set a dashboard as a Featured Dashboard. This means that when you open Power BI, this dashboard is immediately open.
Tip 2: Explain the difference
Power BI Online
One of the most interesting features of Power BI, in our opinion, is the ability to explain differences in your data visualizations. This feature is called 'Insights' and is designed to find out why there are increases or decreases in a chart. You do this by right-clicking a data point in a bar or line and clicking Analyze > Explain the increase (or Explain the decrease, since all insights are based on the change since the previous data point).
Tip 3: Ask questions about your data
Power BI Online
Power BI is an incredibly intuitive and user-focused program. One example of this is the Q&A box. This lets you, as a user, ask questions about your data in simple, natural language, while specifying how the data should be presented. For example, you can ask for 'total sales by region by month as a line' or have Power BI choose a layout that fits the data by asking a more general question such as 'what were the sales figures for the past quarter?'.
The visualization is also interactive and will adjust as you refine your query. If you then discover that this visualization is exactly what you were looking for, you can pin it to your dashboard. This makes this feature an easy way to create a visualization. It can be found on your dashboard and works best when you use keywords that are already included in the axis labels.
Tip 4: Bookmarks
Power BI Online
Sometimes you want to perform an analysis multiple times over time. In Power BI this is possible by creating a bookmark. When you create one, the currently configured view of a report is captured, including all filters, slicers, and the current states of data visualizations. When you select the bookmark again later, Power BI takes you back to that view. It's even possible to create a bookmark for the default view of a report.
There are two types of bookmarks: bookmarks you create yourself and bookmarks created by the developer. Every Power BI user has the ability to create personal bookmarks. However, you do need a Power BI Pro or Premium license to use bookmarks created by others. It's also possible to group bookmarks together into a collection. You can then arrange these in the desired order so you can step through them, for example when giving a presentation.
See where to find the shared bookmarks
If a report designer has included bookmarks in the report, you'll find them under the heading Report bookmarks. The report page below has two bookmarks: B1 and B2. Select a bookmark to switch to that report view.
See how to create personal bookmarks
When you create a bookmark, the following elements are saved with the bookmark:
- The current page
- Filters
- Slicers, including the slicer type (for example, dropdown or list) and the slicer's state
- Visual selection state (such as cross-highlighting filters)
- Sort order
- Zoom location
- Visibility (of an object via the Selection pane)
- The focus or Spotlight mode of a visible object
Configure a report page the way you want it to appear in the bookmark. Once the report page and visual elements are arranged as desired, select Add in the Bookmarks pane to add a bookmark. Add the personal bookmark.
Power BI then creates a personal bookmark and gives it a generic name or a name you enter yourself. You can rename a bookmark, delete a bookmark, or update a bookmark by selecting the ellipsis next to the bookmark's name and selecting an action from the menu that appears.
After you've created a bookmark, you can view it by simply selecting the bookmark in the Bookmarks pane.
Tip 5: Quick Insights with AI
Power BI Online
Do you have a new dataset but aren't quite sure where to start with data visualizations? Then Quick Insights is a good solution for this. With this handy AI feature from Power BI, you can quickly create data visualizations from your dataset that might reveal insights you hadn't thought of yet.
To do this, go to your My Workspaces > Datasets, then select which dataset you want to use and click More options (..) > Get Quick Insights. Power BI will now get to work on your data; this process takes a few minutes, depending on the size of your dataset.
When Power BI is finished, a pop-up will appear saying your Insights are ready, and you click View Insights. The visualizations are then displayed on a special canvas for Quick Insights with up to 32 individual cards and insights. Each card contains a chart or diagram plus a brief description.
Tip 6: Create a PowerPoint presentation from your report
Power BI Online
With Power BI it's also possible to convert your report into a PowerPoint presentation. This is handy when you want to quickly create a presentation based on your data.
When you export a report to PowerPoint, the following happens:
- Each page in the Power BI report becomes a separate slide in PowerPoint
- Each page in the Power BI report is exported as a high-resolution image in PowerPoint
- You can retain the filter and slicer settings you've applied to the report
- A link to the Power BI report is created in PowerPoint
Exporting your report is very fast and works as follows:
- In Power BI Online, select the report you want to export
- In the menu bar, select Export > PowerPoint
Tip 7: Subscribe to reports and dashboards
Power BI Online
Another handy feature of Power BI is the ability to subscribe to dashboards. With this feature, you receive an email notification whenever a change is made. You can of course set how often you want to receive notifications: daily, weekly, or only when the data is refreshed. You can also set a specific time for Power BI to send the emails. Altogether, you can set up a maximum of 24 different subscriptions per report or dashboard.
See how to set up a subscription
You subscribe to a dashboard as follows:
- Open the dashboard or the report.
- In the top menu bar, select Subscribe, or select the envelope icon.
- If you want to subscribe to more than one page in a report, select Add another subscription and select a different page from the dropdown list at the top.
- Use the yellow toggle to turn the subscription on or off. If you set the toggle to Off, the subscription is not deleted. To delete it, you need to select the trash can icon instead.
- Enter optional details for the subject and body text of the email.
- Select the subscription frequency. You can choose Daily, Weekly, or After data refresh (daily). You can also indicate whether you only want to receive the email on certain days.
- If you choose Daily, Hourly, Monthly, or Weekly, you can also choose a scheduled time for the email.
- Schedule the start and end date by entering dates in the date fields. By default, the subscription's start time is the date you created it, and the end date is one year later. When your subscription reaches its end date, it will automatically stop unless you re-enable it. You'll also get a notification asking if you'd like to renew the subscription.
- Select Run now to review and test your subscription. This immediately sends an email to you.
- Finally, select Save and close once everything looks good.
It's also possible to set up alerts via the Power BI mobile app. Below, we explain how to set this up for both Android and iOS.
See how to set up mobile alerts
iPhone
- Tap a number or gauge tile in a dashboard to open it in focus mode.
- Tap the bell icon to add an alert.
- Tap Alert rule
- Choose to receive alerts above or below a certain value, then set the value.
- Decide whether you want to receive alerts hourly or daily, and whether you also want to receive an email when you get the alert.Note
You won't receive alerts every hour or every day unless the data has actually been refreshed during that time. - You can also change the title of the alert.
- Tap Save.
- A single tile can have alerts for values both above and below certain thresholds. In manage Alerts, tap Alert rule
Android
- In a Power BI dashboard, tap a number or gauge tile to open it.
- Tap the bell icon to add an alert.
- Tap the plus sign (+).
- Choose to receive alerts above or below a certain value, then enter the value.
- Tap Done.
- Decide whether you want to receive alerts hourly or daily, and whether you also want to receive an email when you get the alert.Note
You won't receive alerts every hour or every day unless the data has actually been refreshed during that time. - You can also change the title of the alert.
- Tap Save.
Data-driven alerts provide information about your data. If your device is ever stolen, for example, it's therefore advisable to use the Power BI service to disable all data-driven alert rules.
Tip 8: Cross-highlighting
Power BI Online
All data visualizations on a report page are connected to each other based on the underlying data. This makes it very easy to cross-filter. Cross-highlighting means that when you select a data point in a data visualization, all other data visualizations containing that data change based on that selection. This can be useful, for example, to show how one of the values in your data contributes to another.
You cross-highlight by selecting a data point in one of your data visualizations. You'll see that the rest of your report page also changes and only shows the data directly linked to the selection you just made.