Introduction
Power BI is a powerful business intelligence tool developed by Microsoft that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing reports and dashboards from various data sources.
Step 1 — Install Power BI Desktop
- If you haven’t already installed power bi in your machine, you need to download and install power bi desktop on your computer.
- You can find the latest version on the Microsoft website.
- Power BI Desktop is a free application that provides a rich set of tools for creating, customizing and visualizing data reports.
Step 2 — Connect To Data Sources
- Open Power BI Desktop and in the home tab, Click on “Get Data” option.
- Once, you click on that it will open a drop-down menu, where multiple data sources are presented, simply click on “Excel Workbook”.
- After clicking it will re-direct you into your computer where your data file is presented, select your “Excel” data file from there and click on “Open” button located at the bottom right corner of the dialog box.
Step 3 — Data Transformation and Cleaning
- Once the data is connected, you might need to transform and clean it to ensure it is in the right format for reporting.
- Use the Power Query Editor to perform operations like filtering, sorting, merging or removing duplicates.
Step 4 — Designing The Report Layout
- In the report view, you will see a blank canvas where you can start designing your report.
- Drag and Drop fields from the fields pane onto the canvas to create visuals.
- Experiment with different visualization type such as bar charts, pie chart, line charts, tables and maps to find the most suitable representation for your data.
Step 5 — Adding Visualizations and Customizing
- Select a visualization type and power bi will automatically generate a basic visualization.
- Customize the visual by dragging additional fields to the values, axis, legend and tooltip sections of the visualization pane.
- You can also format the visual, change colors, fonts and labels to match your preferences.
Step 6 — Applying Filters and Slicers
- Filters and slicers are essential for interactivity in your report.
- Use the filter pane to set global filters that apply to all visuals.
- Additionally, add slicers, which act as interactive filters allowing users to focus on specific data subsets
- Right click on a field and select “Add as Filter” to include it in the report.
Step 7 — Creating Calculated Measures
- Calculated measures are derived from existing data and can provide valuable insights.
- In the Modeling tab, click on “New Measure” to create custom calculations using data analysis expression (DAX) language.
- DAX allows you to perform complex calculations and aggregations that are not available in the original data.
Step 8 — Utilizing Drill-through and Drill-down
- Drill-through and drill-down features allows users to explore detailed data without cluttering the main report.
- Define drill-through pages to display more detailed information related to specific data point.
- Drill-down enable users to expand visualizations to reveal more granular data by clicking on specific data points.
Step 9 — Adding Report Interactivity With Bookmarks
- Bookmarks are snapshots of specific report views, including filters, slicers and visualizations.
- Use bookmarks to create elements, such as buttons that change the report view or toggle b/w different states.
- It enhances the user experience and helps tell a more compelling data story.
Step 10 — Creating Report Visualization for Mobile Devices
- Power BI allows you to optimize your report for mobile devices to ensure a seamless experience for users accessing reports on smart phones or tablets.
- Switch to the phone layout view and re-arrange or resize visuals to fit the mobile screen appropriately.
Step 11 — Adding Report Pages and Navigation
- For complex reports, consider creating multiple pages to organize different insights logically.
- You can add new pages by clicking the “+” icon next to the existing page tabs. Use buttons, shapes or hyperlinks to create navigation within the report, allowing users to jump between pages.
Step 12 — Publishing and Sharing the Report
- Once, your report is complete, save the power BI desktop file with extension (.pbix).
- To share your report with others, you need to publish it to the power BI service.
- Click on “Publish” button in the home tab and the report will be uploaded to your workspace in the power bi service.
- From there, you can share the reports with specific individuals or groups.
Step 13 — Refreshing Data and Scheduling Updates
- If your report is connected to a data source that gets updated regularly, you will want to ensure your report remains up to date.
- In the power bi service, setup data refresh schedules to automatically update the report’s data on a pretty-defined frequency.
Conclusion
You have now learned the step by step process of report generation techniques in power bi. With these skills, you can create compelling and interactive reports that enable data driven decision making within your organization. Keep exploring power bi features and capabilities to unlock even more insights from your data.
