Changes introduced in the May 2025 Power BI Desktop update

This page has 0 threads | Add post

Blogs

Finding our blogs useful? Please consider helping us to share more!

Power BI Desktop updates for May 2025 Part one of a five-part series of blogs
A month which sees minor changes to line segments, Azure maps, calculation groups and TMDL model view, and major changes in preview for Copilot and something called "translytical task flows". Changes introduced in the May 2025 Power BI Desktop update (this blog) Copilot changes within Power BI, and why we're not covering them Improvements to TMDL model view You can now change the colour of individual segments of a line chart You can customise what appears on the base layer of Azure maps

Power BI Desktop updates for May 2025

Part one of a five-part series of blogs

A month which sees minor changes to line segments, Azure maps, calculation groups and TMDL model view, and major changes in preview for Copilot and something called "translytical task flows".

Changes introduced in the May 2025 Power BI Desktop update (this blog)
Copilot changes within Power BI, and why we're not covering them
Improvements to TMDL model view
You can now change the colour of individual segments of a line chart
You can customise what appears on the base layer of Azure maps

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 June 2025

These blogs are getting harder to write each month! What constitutes an update? Do changes to Copilot count when this is a feature that many people won't have access to, and when the changes are still in preview anyway? Should I cover selection expressions, when few readers will even be using the calculation groups on which they're based?

Given this uncharacteristic bout of bloggy introspection, here's what this month's update covers:

Change	Notes
Copilot changes	This blog actually gives 3 good reasons why I'm choosing NOT to cover Copilot changes within Power BI in this blog (at least, not yet).
TMDL view improvements	Better tooltips, intellisense and features in this new(ish) text-based data model editor.
Formatted line segments	You can now format individual line segments within (say) an area chart, bringing line and area charts into line with column and bar charts.
Azure base map options	You can now choose whether you want to see extra details like country boundaries and building outlines in Azure base maps.

The feature I've decided not to cover is selection expressions, although you can read about them here (I think it's significant that this is an Analysis Services and not a Power BI blog). I can't believe many Power BI report creators need or understand the complexity offered by calculation groups, let alone the extra features that selection expressions afford.

In addition to the above new features, Microsoft have announced something with the hideous name of "translytical task flows". What this means is that you can let your users make updates to the data within a report providing that you have bought and enabled Microsoft Fabric, but only if your data is stored in the cloud (and that you pay for the - very expensive - Fabric licence).

Parts of this blog
Changes introduced in the May 2025 Power BI Desktop update (this blog) Copilot changes within Power BI, and why we're not covering them Improvements to TMDL model view You can now change the colour of individual segments of a line chart You can customise what appears on the base layer of Azure maps