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Power BI blogs from Wise Owl (page 1 of 7)
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How to add cumulative totals to a visual using DAX measures in Power BI
Posted by Andy Brown on 02 December 2020
Inspired by a question from a course, in this blog Andy Brown builds up a measure to show cumulative totals for a calendar matrix, dotting his DAX i's and crossing his t's!
Playing the Harry Potter escape room game in Power BI
Posted by Andy Brown on 27 November 2020
This awesome game shows what's possible using bookmarks in Power BI (think of it as the sequel to Sam's 2019 Pin the Tail on Rudolf game).
The November 2020 update includes zoom sliders and a better apply filter button
Posted by Andy Brown on 27 November 2020
This month's update allows you to zoom in on a particular part of a chart using sliders, and also lets you save up filters to apply them all in one go.
Two easy ways to create themes in Power BI without needing to write JSON
Posted by Sam Lowrie on 30 October 2020
This blog show two ways in which you can create custom themes in Power BI without needing to learn how to write JSON: either use the built-in theme editor in Power BI, or use the theme generator from Power BI Tiips.
The Power BI app for HoloLens 2 allows you to juggle futuristic 3D reports
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
What do you get when you combine the futuristic 3-dimensional mixed-reality environment created by the HoloLens 2 headset with Power BI reports? Read this blog to find out!
Three top YouTube channels for learning about DAX
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 October 2020
Following a question from a recent DAX course, here are 3 recommended YouTube tutorial channels to help you learn to master DAX.
Thie month's Power BI update includes a new logo, on-screen help and much more!
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 October 2020
There are a few good changes to Power BI Desktop this month, including a better icon and splash screen, on-canvas help (albeit pitched at too low a level) and the ability to let users tweak visuals you've published.
The 5 best things about working with Power Apps
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
Power Apps is fun, as this blog tries to show. It consists of one owl's very personal take on the 5 best things about using the software.
A list of the 5 things one Wise Owl finds most annoying about Power Apps
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
Any software has things you love, and things you ... don't love so much. This blog covers the latter set of things!
There are only two small changes in the September 2020 Power BI Desktop update
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 September 2020
You can now add total labels to a stacked or combination chart, and there are improvements to mobile layout, but in truth there's not much to get excited about for the September 2020 Power BI update.
How to save a Power Apps app to a local drive, and then open it
Posted by Andy Brown on 19 September 2020
This blog shows a simple way to export a Power Apps app without creating a solution. If you've got a fairly simple app without too many resources or data sources, it describes a much easier way to back up and restore apps than the standard export/import approach.
An overview of what Power Apps is and does, for beginners
Posted by Andy Brown on 25 August 2020
What IS Power Apps? In this blog we try to convey the essence of this enjoyable product, so you can make the decision of whether to invest in it.
There are no significant changes to Power BI in the August 2020 update
Posted by Andy Brown on 22 August 2020
Notwithstanding an update blog from Microsoft, there are no interesting new Power BI Desktop features to report this month (in our humble opinon).
A correction - report tooltips can be any size in a Power BI report
Posted by Andy Brown on 08 August 2020
Sadly we do occasionally make mistakes in our training, but when this happens we always try to correct them. Here, we explain that Power BI report page tooltips can in fact be any size.
Happy 5th birthday to Power BI Desktop!
Posted by Andy Brown on 23 July 2020
Power BI Desktop went on general release on 24th July 2015. This short blog looks back nostalgically at milestones for both Power BI and Wise Owl.
Changes in the July 2020 update to Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 23 July 2020
This month's modest update allows you to use Excel financial functions in DAX, show a gradient legend and change your slicer header, among other minor changes.
Changes for the June 2020 update of Power BI Desktop
Posted by Andy Brown on 28 June 2020
This month's update doesn't include many changes - the biggest being probably the emergence of the hierarchical slicer from preview.
Posted by Sam Lowrie on 26 June 2020
Sam was tired of getting told off for crinkled or missing expense receipts. So he had a look at Power Apps and this is what he found…
What's new in the May 2020 Power BI update
Posted by Andy Brown on 24 May 2020
The May 2020 update is a good one! The decomposition tree is a seriously good new visual, drop shadows are a nice idea well-implemented, and there are lots of improvements to the way buttons look and work.
Our take on the April update to Power BI (announced on May 6th!)
Posted by Andy Brown on 09 May 2020
It was announced 6 days after the end of the month, but the April 2020 update to Power BI was worth waiting for - if only for the fact that you can now select visuals by clicking and dragging with the mouse. See our take on the new features in this update in the latest in our series of monthly update blogs.
Hi Andy,
I'm a little confused about Power BI. Looking at your videos, it seems Power BI is a collective term for PowerPivot, Power Query, Power Map, etc.
However, googling Power BI, I see this, where the video shows a completely independent tool aimed at creating dashboards and reports, so can you please clarify what is Power BI? Thanks.
Microsoft haven't helped with their naming convention! They keep changing what Power BI refers to. Here's where we're at now ...
Power BI is a standalone desktop product, previously known as Power BI Desktop. You can use these to create reports, and publish them to the web.
PowerPivot runs within Excel, and allows you to link different data sources together to create a data model, and use this as a basis for pivot tables. PowerPivot used to be one of the Microsoft Power BI tools, but they seem to have quietly dropped this title.
So when Microsoft refer to Power BI, they now refer to creating reports in the standalone Power BI application, perhaps using Power BI Pro, and publishing these to the Internet.
Hope that's clear ... !