Integrate Power BI into PowerPoint in 3 steps

Microsoft regularly adds new features to Power BI. A recent addition is the integration of Power BI with PowerPoint, making it possible to embed live Power BI dashboards in a PowerPoint presentation. In this blog, BI consultant Martin Memelink explains how this works and discusses some pitfalls to watch out for.

Live dashboard

The goal of data-driven working is to make decisions based on well-founded information. This requires being able to share that knowledge and information. One way to share that knowledge and information is through a PowerPoint presentation. Until recently, it wasn't possible to embed a Power BI dashboard in your presentation. You could insert a screenshot, but then you'd always be presenting outdated data. In addition, you couldn't interact with the dashboard without switching windows. Since May 2022, that's a thing of the past! There's now a full-fledged integration between PowerPoint and Power BI that lets you insert fully interactive, live dashboards into your PowerPoint. But how do you do that? I'll explain below.

Step 1 – Add-in

In PowerPoint, you can now very easily add a Power BI dashboard or visual to a slide.

• In the toolbar, go to Insert and click the Power BI button.
  Don't see this button? Then you first need to install the Power BI add-in, after which you can find it under 'My Add-ins'.
• After inserting the Power BI object, you'll be asked for a URL.

Step 2 – Getting the URL

The URL can be from a Power BI report located in a workspace on the Power BI service, or from a published app. There are three ways to generate the URL:

1. Via the share function
2. Via the export function
3. Or by copying the URL from the address bar

Depending on which method you choose, the current state of the report is preserved or not. If you use share or export, the report is displayed in PowerPoint in the same state as when the URL was generated. This doesn't happen if you copy the URL from the address bar, in which case the dashboard is displayed in its original state.

If you get the URL via the share button, you also get the extra option to grant access to specific people. The person opening the report from PowerPoint will of course need the right permissions in the Power BI service for this. After all, sharing a dashboard is only possible if both you and the recipient have a Pro or Premium license, or if the content is in a Premium Capacity.

Step 3 – Formatting

When you paste the URL into PowerPoint, the dashboard will automatically appear in your presentation. You have full interactivity with slicers, bookmarks, tooltips, and even drill down. It's also possible to display just one of the visuals, instead of the whole dashboard. Here's how:

• Select the visual and click the focus mode icon in the top right corner
• The visual now fills the entire PowerPoint object

If you want to select a different page from the same report, you can't do this via PowerPoint; for that you need to enter a different URL.

Pitfalls

Live integration of a dashboard is of course a great way to present figures and performance, but there are also pitfalls. Your presentation, for example, only works if you're connected to the internet and have access to the Power BI service.

It's also good to be aware that the dashboards always show current information. The dashboard can be updated between the moment of inserting it and the moment of presenting. So the actual figures can, so to speak, overtake you, making your presentation outdated. For example: if you create a PowerPoint and insert a dashboard that at that moment shows revenue has stayed the same, but revenue rises or falls before you give the presentation, your conclusion no longer matches what the live dashboard shows. So it's good to always check the information once more before presenting.

Written by Martin Memelink
Business Intelligence Consultant