Power BI for the Excel Analyst

Description

Your Essential Guide to Power BI There are amazing books on DAX, Power Query, Visualisations and more. This book is the one you should read before reading those. I wanted this book to cover the whole Power BI experience. Starting with Power Query, moving to data modelling, DAX, publishing and sharing, report design and other additional important features. Mastering Power BI is a multi-year journey but learning the best practice principles from this book will give you a jump start and a solid foundation on which to build. I approached this book from the viewpoint of an Excel user starting to use Power BI. There are millions of people in this space, plus this was my journey so I teach from personal experience. I have a chapter dedicated to explaining how the core Power BI functionality can also be applied to your Excel reports. You don’t have to choose between Excel or Power BI, both are amazing, and both continue to evolve at a dizzying pace. Each chapter has step-by-step instructions covering the key topics and features. There are data sources and example files for you to download if you want to practice hands on. Alternatively, just read along, I wanted this book to be printed in colour and be rich with screenshots so that you don’t have to do the exercises to understand what is happening if that’s your preference. Foreword Power Pivot and Power Query – the Parents of Power BI Why I Wrote this Book Acknowledgements Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Power BI Getting Set Up Using this Book and Downloading Sample Files Download the Exercises and view the List of URLs The PBI.guide Website Chapter 2 - First Look – an Introduction to Power BI Desktop Interacting with a Power BI Report Introducing Power Query Importing and Cleaning Data using Power Query Summary of Your Introduction to Power Query Chapter 3 - Publishing Your Report Signing in to PowerBI.com for the First Time The PowerBI.com Experience (aka “the Service”) Creating a Workspace Power BI Licence Options: A Brief Overview Chapter 4 - Files Stored in SharePoint/OneDrive for Business Step 1: Finding the Connection Path Step 2: Using the Power BI Desktop Web Connection Step 3: Pulling the Data into Power BI Step 4: Build a Simple Visual Step 5: Publish to Your New Workspace Step 6: Set up a Scheduled Refresh Chapter 5 - Creating a Power BI Model Using a Template File with a Pre-built Calendar Table Creating Relationships Between Tables Managing Sort Order Adding Additional “Lookup/Dimension” Tables Adjusting Power BI Visuals Filtering via Slicers and the Filter Panel Exploring More Visuals Chapter 6 - Getting Your Data into the “Right Shape” Power Query’s Two Best Features in One Chapter! Comparing Data from Two Fact Tables Chapter 7 - DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions) Writing Your First DAX Measure Storing Measures in their Own Dedicated Table Year to Date Measure Prior Year Comparison and the CALCULATE Function Removing Filters Formatting Your DAX Ratios and Percentages Using DIVIDE Virtual Calculated Columns using the X Functions Dealing with Multiple Date Fields in Your Fact Table Organising Measures into Folders DAX – Next Steps in Your Learning Chapter 8 - The Calendar Table Turning Off Auto Date/Time for New Files Power Query Advanced Editor Copying Queries Between files Changing the Display Order of Fields Marking as Date Table Chapter 9 - Creating a Template File Setting Your Default Theme Fonts and Colours Adding a Measures Table Using Your Template Editing/Updating Templates Chapter 10 - Intermission for Excel Fans A Little History of Power BI A Demonstration of Excel’s “Power” Features Create an Interactive Pivot Chart Chapter 11 - Enrich Your Power BI Report Conditional Formatting Tooltips Drill-through Page Report Design Tips Making Analysis Easier Natural Language Queries and AI-Driven Insights Chapter 12 - Sharing Your Reports via Apps Publish Your Report to the Workspace Create an App from Your Workspace Sharing the App Updating a Report and an App Scheduling a Refresh where a Gateway is Required Chapter 13 - Additional Important Features Row-Level Security Dataflows Connecting to a Dataset via Power BI Desktop Chapter 14 - Where Do We Go from Here? Some Topics We Didn’t Cover… Next Steps in Your Power BI Journey Index