DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a useful library of functions used across Power BI, Excel and SQL. Stuart Box, Burningsuit's owner and trainer who is both a Microsoft Certified Professional and Member of the Learning and Performance Insitute, explains how to use DAX in Power BI to easily group or categorise numeric fields into ranges (sometimes called 'bins') below: How to group numeric fields Firstly, right click on the numeric field in the field list, as select “group”. Once grouped, you can… Read More
THE BURNINGSUIT BLOG
By Burningsuit
Excel Microsoft Power BI Resources 24th May 2018
Why Power BI is the future of Excel
Microsoft’s Power BI is powerful and easy to use, and with new features being added every week, it is fast becoming the future for business analysis. Excel formulas and pivot tables may well be the most popular programming language in the world, and the addition of tools like Power Query, Power Pivot, Power Map, and Power View mean you can connect to, clean, remove duplicates and transform almost any data you have. We have discussed the benefits of Power BI… Read More
By Burningsuit
Power BI Resources 9th May 2018
What is the difference between BI reports and dashboards?
There is a misconception that the Power BI report is a detailed tabular report and that the dashboard is an interactive visualisations with charts. This isn’t the case and in order to build effective power BI solutions, you will need to understand the differences, and in a way that can help you to leverage their unique powers to the greatest possible effect. After the February 2018 update to Power BI Service, both Reports and Dashboards can be shared. It’s a… Read More
By Burningsuit
DAX Learning Power BI Resources 14th March 2018DAX: How to use a slicer to select different measures
DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a library of functions used across Microsoft SQL, including Excel and Power BI. These operators can be combined to perform a range of actions, through building expressions and formulas. Here is how to use DAX in Power BI to create a slicer to select different measures in a chart, using our experience as training providers: Using a slicer to select different measures on a chart What if you want to use a slicer to select… Read More
By Burningsuit
Learning Microsoft Power BI Resources Training 1st March 2018How to Use Power BI Bookmarks & New Features
Recently, a range of new features have been added to Power BI. From a user point of view, some of the most interesting are bookmarks, selections, links and hidden pages. These give much greater control over how users can interact with reports. Burningsuit Ltd Managing Director Stuart Box has created a guide and example uses for each feature to help you get to grips with what is possible: Activate Bookmarks Currently (February 2018) Bookmarks are still in Preview in Power… Read More
By Burningsuit
Power BI Resources 6th February 2018Power BI Free vs Pro
Power BI is the leader of the pack when it comes to Business Intelligence tools. Once you’ve chosen this software you need to consider which version to use. So, which one is best for your business? If you’re thinking about using Power BI business analytics tools to deliver insights throughout your organisation, there are two main versions of the application that you can consider: Power BI Free and Power BI Pro. Our in depth look at each shows exactly how… Read More
By Burningsuit
Power BI Resources 6th February 2018How to share Power BI Reports
Sharing Power BI reports is a good way to give more than one person in your business access to dashboards and reports, and is a productive feature in the Power BI Pro package. Through our training courses, we understand it can initially seem unclear how to share reports. What you need You and the person you are sharing the report with must both have a Power BI Pro license. Unfortunately, you are unable to collaborate and distribute your reports using… Read More
By Burningsuit
Microsoft Power BI Resources 28th November 2017Power BI vs Tableau: Five reasons Power BI wins
When it comes to business intelligence tools there is no doubt that the two front-runners are Power BI and Tableau. With both of them being very similar products, it can be tricky to choose which one is best for you. It would be easy for us to simply say that Power BI trumps Tableau and you shouldn’t even consider Tableau as an option, but the truth is the best product very much depends on you, your organisation, budget and your intended use… Read More
By Stuart Box
Power BI Resources Training 29th September 2017
We could tell you but then……
We’ve been training Power BI since its first release. It’s an interesting application to learn, as the monthly updates mean there is always something new to master before training others. I’m staggered to find that there have been over 800 new features brought in to Power BI Desktop and Service since July 2015. I’ve often said, we have to run as fast as we can just to keep up with the release schedule. But now we’ve got help. Earlier this… Read More
By Alison Box
Excel Power BI Resources 12th May 2017
Quick Measures or Quick Fix – are Power BI’s Quick Measures up to the mark?
Hey Excel users, anyone remember this? Yes, it’s the now defunct “Lookup Wizard” which, according the MSDN Library entry of January 1996, “…helps Excel users create lookup formulas quickly. Even expert users will find the Wizard’s lookup formulas useful in advanced spreadsheet and application development projects” Well, this was obviously not the case or else this “useful” wizard would still be with us today. What “expert” Excel user can’t construct a simple Vlookup or even use the fiddly Index/Match combo?… Read More