Power BI Desktop update for September 2024

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Power BI Desktop update for September 2024
This month Power BI Desktop gets a new dark mode! Visual calculations and visual level format strings have also been turned on by default (although both remain in preview, strangely). 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 26 September 2024

The main changes this month for Power BI Desktop are a new dark mode (yuk!) and the automatic enabling of visual calculations and visual format strings, albeit that both features still remain theoretically in preview.

Dark mode

You can now choose to work with a black background for your ribbon and toolbars:

Dark mode is like Marmite: you either love it or (like me) hate it.

To enable the new dark mode, first go into Power BI Desktop options:

Choose the File menu ...

... then choose this option at the bottom ...

... and finally choose Options.

Now choose to go into your global report settings:

Choose Report settings on the left.

You can now choose your theme:

Scroll down to the Personalization section and choose the theme you want.

And with that I'm now going to change my theme back to the default light setting with great relief!

Visual calculations

We've covered these in this previous extensive blog - since then the only real difference is that the text on the button has changed:

The Home ribbon button to add a calculation just to the currently selected visual.

The September update also introduces the ability to format a visual calculation:

You can choose to format a visual calculation by selecting it in the Data format card in formatting Properties.

It remains the case that you'll need to understand a bit about DAX in order to be able to use visual calculations effectively.

Visual format strings

I'm a bit puzzled by this, because Microsoft state on their September update blog that this feature is in preview but turned on now by default, but I can't see any preview option to turn it back off again!

As shown above, this feature allows you to set formatting for any calculation specific to the currently selected visual (whether this is a built-in measure or a visual calculation that you've created):

This Data format card allows you to show (in this case) the average quantity using a different format just for this visual.

Visual format strings also now include the ability to set custom formats.

And finally, if you're wondering ... yes, of course on-object interaction is still in preview! It seems really strange that Microsoft are holding back on releasing this change to the look and feel of formatting in Power BI. Anyone at Microsoft know what's going on behind the scenes so that we can share this with our readers?

Some other pages relevant to the above blog include:

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