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This is a bigger update than usual, with the highlight undoubtedly being the official roll-out of the much-trailed new table and matrix visuals.
- Updates to Power BI Desktop - July 2017 (this blog)
- New table and matrix visuals
- Renaming fields - at last!
- Incorporating custom visuals within Power BI Desktop
- Relative date slicers and filters
- Responsive visuals which adapt to your screen size
- Breakdown option in waterfall charts
For a cumulative list of all of the updates to Power BI Desktop in the last few months, see this blog. Our two-day Power BI Desktop course always uses the latest version of the software.
Posted by Andy Brown on 13 July 2017
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Updates to Power BI Desktop - July 2017
A bumper month! The most significant change by far is that the new table and matrix visuals have finally left preview mode, but there's lots more to get excited about. Here's a summary:
| Change | Details |
|---|---|
| New table and matrix visuals | For a fair few months these have been available in preview mode, but they're now official! Use them to drill down into your data, and much, much more. |
| Renaming fields | At long, long last you can give a column an alias, without having to change the field name in the underlying query. |
| Custom visuals integration | You can now import custom visuals from within Power BI Desktop (the Microsoft store is integrated). |
| Relative date filters | You can now use relative dates in slicers and cards (for example, to show all of the sales in the last 2 weeks). |
| Responsive visuals | When you change the size of visuals, the various component parts resize or hide/display themselves in a sensible way (or at least, that's the theory). |
| Waterfall chart breakdown | You can now analyse the underlying data for a waterfall chart, to see which figures were most responsible for a rise or fall in (eg) sales. |
There are other technical updates (you can see a full list, as ever, at the Microsoft Power BI update site), but these are the ones which we think most users will be interested in.
- Updates to Power BI Desktop - July 2017 (this blog)
- New table and matrix visuals
- Renaming fields - at last!
- Incorporating custom visuals within Power BI Desktop
- Relative date slicers and filters
- Responsive visuals which adapt to your screen size
- Breakdown option in waterfall charts