Learn Power BI

✍ Scribed by Greg Deckler

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 350
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Solve business challenges with Microsoft Power BI's advanced visualization and data analysis techniques

Key Features

• Create effective storytelling reports by implementing simple-to-intermediate Power BI features
• Develop powerful analytical models to extract key insights for changing business needs
• Build, publish, and share impressive dashboards for your organization

Book Description

To succeed in today's transforming business world, organizations need business intelligence capabilities to make smarter decisions faster than ever before. This Power BI book is an entry-level guide that will get you up and running with data modeling, visualization, and analytical techniques from scratch.

You'll find this book handy if you want to get well-versed with the extensive Power BI ecosystem. You'll start by covering the basics of business intelligence and installing Power BI. You'll then learn the wide range of Power BI features to unlock business insights. As you progress, the book will take you through how to use Power Query to ingest, cleanse, and shape your data, and use Power BI DAX to create simple to complex calculations. You'll also be able to add a variety of interactive visualizations to your reports to bring your data to life. Finally, you'll gain hands-on experience in creating visually stunning reports that speak to business decision makers, and see how you can securely share these reports and collaborate with others.

By the end of this book, you'll be ready to create simple, yet effective, BI reports and dashboards using the latest features of Power BI.

What you will learn

• Explore the different features of Power BI to create interactive dashboards
• Use the Query Editor to import and transform data
• Perform simple and complex DAX calculations to enhance analysis
• Discover business insights and tell a story with your data using Power BI
• Explore data and learn to manage datasets, dataflows, and data gateways
• Use workspaces to collaborate with others and publish your reports

Who this book is for

If you're an IT manager, data analyst, or BI user new to using Power BI for solving business intelligence problems, this book is for you. You'll also find this book useful if you want to migrate from other BI tools to create powerful and interactive dashboards. No experience of working with Power BI is expected.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Business Intelligence and Power BI
2. Up and Running with Power BI Desktop
3. Connecting and Shaping Data
4. Creating Data Models and Calculations
5. Unlocking Insights
6. Creating the Final Report
7. Publishing and Sharing
8. Using Reports in the Service
9. Understanding Dashboards, Apps and Security
10. Data Gateways and Refreshing Datasets

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
About Packt
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: The Basics
Chapter 1: Introduction to Business Intelligence and Power BI
Key concepts of business intelligence
Domain
Data
Internal and external data
Structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data
Model
Organizing
Transforming and cleansing
Defining and categorizing
Analysis
Visualization
The Power BI ecosystem
Core, Power BI-specific
Core, non-Power BI-specific
Non-core, Power BI-specific
Natively integrated Microsoft technologies
The extended Power BI ecosystem
Power BI licensing
Power BI Free
Power BI Pro
Power BI Premium
Power BI Embedded
Power BI Report Server
Power BI Desktop and Service
Power BI Desktop
Getting data
Creating a data model
Analyzing data
Creating and publishing reports
Power BI Service
Viewing and editing reports
Creating dashboards
Sharing and collaborating with others
Accessing and creating apps
Refreshing data
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Section 2: The Desktop
Chapter 2: Up and Running with Power BI Desktop
Technical requirements
Downloading and installing Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop (the trusted Microsoft Store app)
Power BI Desktop (MSI)
Power BI Desktop (Report Server edition)
Running Power BI Desktop
Touring the Desktop
Title Bar and Quick Access Toolbar
The Ribbon
The Formula Bar
Understanding DAX
Views Bar
Panes
Canvas
Page tabs
Footer
Generating data
Creating a calculated table
Creating calculated columns
Formatting columns
Creating visualizations
Creating your first visualization
Formatting your visualization
Adding analytics to your visualization
Creating and using a slicer
Creating more visualizations
Editing visual interactions
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 3: Connecting and Shaping Data
Technical requirements
Getting data
Creating your first query
Getting additional data
Transforming data
Touring the Power Query Editor
The Title Bar and Quick Access Toolbar
The Ribbon
Formula Bar
The Queries Pane
The Query Settings Pane
Data Canvas
Footer
Transforming budget and forecast data
Cleaning up extraneous bottom rows
Filtering rows
Unpivoting data
Using Fill
Changing data types
Transforming people, tasks, and January data
Transforming the People query
Transforming the Tasks query
Transforming the January query
Merging, copying, and appending queries
Merging queries
Expanding tables
Disabling the loading of queries
Copying queries
Changing sources
Appending queries
Verifying and loading data
Organizing queries
Checking column quality, distribution, and profiles
Loading the data
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 4: Creating Data Models and Calculations
Technical requirements
Creating a data model
Touring the Model view
Title Bar and Quick Access Toolbar
Ribbon
Views Bar
Panes
Canvas
Layout Tabs
Footer
Modifying the layout
Creating and understanding relationships
Exploring the data model
Creating calculations
Calculated columns
Understanding context for calculated columns
Creating calculated columns for utilization
Measures
Understanding context for measures
Creating measures for utilization
Checking and troubleshooting calculations
Boundary cases
Slicing
Grouping
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 5: Unlocking Insights
Technical requirements
Segmenting data
Creating groups
Creating hierarchies
Exploring hierarchies
Understanding row-level security
Creating roles
Testing roles
Using report navigation features
Drillthrough
Using drillthrough
Buttons
Types of buttons
Button states
Button actions
Question and answer (Q&A)
Best practices for Q&A
Using a Q&A button
Using Q&A in report authoring
Synonyms
Bookmarks
Creating and using bookmarks
Advanced bookmarks
Advanced visualization techniques
Top N filtering
Gauges and KPIs
What-if parameters
Conditional formatting
Quick Measures
Report page Tooltips
Creating Report page Tooltips
Using Report page Tooltips
Key influencers
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 6: Creating the Final Report
Technical requirements
Preparing the final report
Planning the final report
Cleaning up
Using a theme
Creating a page template
Syncing the slicers
Adjusting the calendar
Adding report filters
Creating the final report pages
Creating the Executive Summary page
Creating the Division Management page
Creating the Branch Management page
Creating the Hours Detail page
Creating the Employee Details page
Creating the Introduction page
Finishing up
Testing
Cleaning up
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Section 3: The Service
Chapter 7: Publishing and Sharing
Technical requirements
Getting an account
Office 365
Power BI trial
Introducing the Service
Touring the Service
Header
Navigation Pane
Canvas
Publishing and sharing
Creating a workspace
Publishing
What happens when you publish?
Sharing
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 8: Using Reports in the Service
Technical requirements
Viewing reports
Sizes
Colors
Comments
Bookmarks and persistent filters
Report bookmarks
Personal bookmarks
Persistent filters
Subscribing
Managing subscriptions
Other functions
Exporting reports
Copying
Printing
Export to PowerPoint
Export to PDF
Download report
Embedding reports
Secure embed codes
Using URL parameters with embed codes
Using the pageName parameter
Using the filter parameter
SharePoint Online
Publish to web
Managing publish to web embed codes
Editing and creating reports
Editing a report
Creating a Mobile Layout
Creating a report
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 9: Understanding Dashboards, Apps, and Security
Technical requirements
Understanding dashboards
Creating a dashboard
Working with dashboards
Add tile
Set as featured
Phone view
Ellipses menu
Dashboard themes
Q&A
Working with tiles
Sizing and position
Ellipsis menu
Understanding apps
Creating an app
Getting and using apps
Understanding security and permissions
Workspace permissions
App permissions
Object permissions
Dashboard permissions
Report permissions
Dataset permissions
RLS
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Chapter 10: Data Gateways and Refreshing Datasets
Technical requirements
Installing and using data gateways
Downloading and installing a data gateway
Running a data gateway
Personal mode
Standard mode
Configuring a data gateway
Service Settings
Diagnostics
Network
Connectors
Managing a data gateway
Gateway cluster settings and administrators
Removing a gateway and adding data sources
Refreshing datasets
Scheduling a refresh
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index