Page |1
Essential
Power BI guide
@loresowhat
Page |2
This is your document that you can use every day to remind you what Power BI is and what it is
capable of.
What is Power Bi
Power BI: A user-friendly business analytics service by Microsoft that effortlessly visualises data
and shares insights.
Power BI, as a part of Microsoft's Low code / no code offering Power Platform, seamlessly
integrates into Office 365 Apps, ensuring a smooth and convenient user experience.
Power BI empowers you to import data from various sources and create comprehensive
visualisations for all your data needs.
With that visualisation, you can help users make better decisions by providing insight.
Power Bi - App Type
Power BI Desktop: This is used to create reports and dashboards.
Power BI Service: Online service for sharing and collaborating.
Power BI Mobile: Access reports on mobile devices.
Power BI Gateway: Connects on-premises data sources with Power BI.
How to install Power Pi
The Power BI desktop is only available on Windows. However, other operating systems can
create dashboards or view the dashboards using Power BI services via a web browser.
To install Power BI on Windows 11 Devices:
→ Search and open the Microsoft Store
→ In the store for Power BI Desktop
→ Select Install on the Power BI desktop
Otherwise, you can click here to install Power BI.
This Link will work for other Windows Operation systems.
@loresowhat
Page |3
Home Screen Interface
Login
User
Open
Connect
project
to data
Recom
mended
Recent
projects
Login: Power BI allows you to log in using a Microsoft Account. This will enable you to
publish your reports to Power BI services, which everyone can access.
Open project: You can open a Power BI project with the file prefix pbix.
Connect to data: This allows you to start a new project by connecting to various data
sources, such as an Excel workbook or SQL.
Recommendation: Power BI pushes recommendations for information, data sources, or
dashboards that might be relevant to you.
Recent projects: This section shows you all the recent projects you have opened, edited, or
created. It also has a tab for you to view projects that have been shared with you.
Connect to data
Power BI Desktop offers a wide
range of data source connections,
from on-premises databases to
Microsoft Excel workbooks and
cloud services, showcasing its
versatility and broad applicability.
About 60 Power BI-specific
connectors to cloud services such
as GitHub and Marketo exist.
You can also connect to generic
sources through XML, CSV, text,
and ODBC.
Power BI will even extract tabular
data directly from a website URL.
@loresowhat
Page |4
Power BI – Project interface
For this view – I started a Blank Power BI project.
Main toolbar: This is your project's central command. Here, you have complete control over
adding elements, modifying data models, viewing the dashboard, and optimising it with
additional options.
Data: This section is your adaptable workspace. It allows you to view the data you have
loaded onto the project. With a simple drag and drop, you can rearrange the different data
columns and tables onto the project canvas and visualisations, allowing you to work how you
want.
Visualisation: This section is your creative hub. Here, you can select from various
visualisations you want on your canvas, including pie charts, bar charts, line charts and
more. It's a space to bring your data to life and inspire new insights.
Pages: Pages show you the dashboard pages you created for your project.
View: View allows you to create different views for Mobile or Desktop devices. This will allow
your dashboard to display correctly, depending on the user’s device.
Management: This section lets you view your reports, table views, Model views
(relationships), and the Dax query.
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): Create calculated columns and measures. This allows
you to create analyses for your data.
@loresowhat
Page |5
Loading and Transform data
When you upload data into Power BI, you can load it in as is OR transform it beforehand.
Transform Data means – cleaning, changing, extracting, adding, splitting, replacing and
much more.
Transform Action
Column
Current
Steps
type
Data
Transform Action: This area allows you to have more options for ways in which you can
change your data. This section gives you a range.
Current Data: This allows you to see which data source you are currently changing
Column type: This allows you to see your column type. You can select the column icon to
change the type.
Steps: This shows you all the changes you have made to your data. You can delete steps or
go back to the previous step. Giving you a clear visual of what changes have been made to
your data
Filtering Data
You can select the column drop-down and filter out some data from the data sources. This
filter will apply across your dashboard and down to your visualisation.
@loresowhat
Page |6
Dax examples
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions): Create calculated columns and measures.
In the top toolbar, you will find New Measure. This allows you to add custom calculations to
your data, making it easy for us to create an analysis of our data. Here is a cheat sheet of
basic queries we can do in Power BI. Replace the Measure name, table name, and column
to suit your needs.
Template
DAX
[Measure Name]= [Operation](Table Name [Column name])
@loresowhat
Page |7
@loresowhat
Page |8
@loresowhat
Page |9
Visuals
Selected view: This area lets you see the visual you’re designing. If you input data – you
will see the changes instantly.
Data Points for Visual: This area allows you to input data points into the graph for display.
You can also change the X and Y axes, legend, tooltips, and more.
Visual design: This area allows you to redesign your visual look and feel. You can change
the colours, text and layout of the visuals. Each visual has different settings available.
Get more visuals
You can get more visuals. Select the ellipses under Build Visuals → Select Get more visuals.
You can search for and add more visuals to your dashboard from there.
@loresowhat
P a g e | 10
Power Bi: Overview
Power BI: A business analytics service by Microsoft that visualises data and shares insights.
@loresowhat
P a g e | 11
Power Bi licensing
Free Account: Create dashboards and reports for Free
Power BI Pro: Access the Power BI report shared with you and publish your own.
Power BI Premium Per User: Access to enterprise scale features. Access all Pro features, which
include more refresher and access to large data models.
Best Practises
Keyboard Shortcuts
Data Quality: Ensure data is clean and
accurate.
Ctrl + N: New report.
Performance: Optimize queries and use
efficient data models.
Ctrl + S: Save report.
Usability: Design intuitive and accessible
reports.
Documentation: Comment DAX formulas
and document data sources and
transformations.
Ctrl + O: Open report.
F5: Refresh report.
Ctrl + T: Format as a table.
Ctrl + K: Manage relationships.
Creating Visualisation
Official Documentation: Power BI Documentation
Community Forums: Power BI Community
Learning: Microsoft Learn
@loresowhat