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May's update to Power BI Desktop is a big one, encompassing new ways of viewing models, tables and fields, a new text box, smart narratives (to explain data) and a new anomaly detection feature (to explain exceptions).
- Power BI Desktop update for May 2021
- A new model view
- Standardised table and field lists across Power BI views (this blog)
- New text boxes
- Smart Narratives
- Automatic detection of anomalies
We've been creating our idiosyncratic monthly blogs on Power BI updates since November 2016, and also deliver online and classroom Power BI courses.
Posted by Andy Brown on 19 May 2021
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Standardised table and field lists across Power BI views
Whether you look at tables and fields in report, data or model view, everything should now look consistent.
Pity the poor Wise Owl courseware author who as a consequence of this relatively minor change will have to update all relevant screen shots!
To test how well Microsoft have implemented this feature, let's play Spot the Difference. Number 1 - model view:
A view of tables and fields in Model view
Number 2 - data view:
The same tables and fields in Data view.
And finally, number 3 - report view:
The tables and fields in Report view.
Whichever view you're in, you can click on the ... ellipsis button at the top right of a table to see a list of all the things that you can do to it:
A list of the things that you can do to a table (cleverly, the list appears to be identical whichever view you're using).
You can likewise click on the ... ellipsis button to the right of any field/column to see what you can do to it:
Here we're looking at what we can do to the EnvironmentName column.
If (like me) you are wondering what the first Check menu option does, the answer is that it's equivalent to ticking the box next to the field (and hence including it in the currently selected visual).
- Power BI Desktop update for May 2021
- A new model view
- Standardised table and field lists across Power BI views (this blog)
- New text boxes
- Smart Narratives
- Automatic detection of anomalies