Power BI Reports and Sharing

Power BI Reports and Sharing: Your Data Story Studio 🎬

Imagine you’re a movie director. You have amazing footage (your data), but nobody will watch raw footage. You need to edit it, add special effects, create trailers, and share it with the world. That’s exactly what Power BI Reports and Sharing does for your data!

The Big Picture: From Data to Story

Think of Power BI like a TV broadcasting station:

• Visualizations = Your TV shows
• Dashboards = The TV guide showing highlights
• Publishing = Broadcasting to viewers
• Security = Making sure only the right people see certain channels

Let’s explore each piece!

1. Power BI Visualizations: Your Data Art Gallery 🎨

What Are Visualizations?

Visualizations are pictures of your data. Instead of staring at boring numbers in a spreadsheet, you see colorful charts that tell a story instantly.

Think of it like this:

• Raw data = A recipe with only ingredients listed
• Visualization = A beautiful photo of the finished dish

Types of Visualizations

Quick Example

Scenario: You have toy store sales data.

Instead of this:

January: 500 toys
February: 750 toys
March: 600 toys

You get a colorful bar chart where you can instantly see February was the best month!

graph TD
    A["Your Data"] --> B["Choose Visual Type"]
    B --> C["Drag Fields"]
    C --> D["Beautiful Chart!"]

2. Slicers and Filters: Your Magic Remote Control 📺

What’s the Difference?

Slicers are buttons you click to filter data. Everyone can see them on the report.

Filters work behind the scenes. They can be hidden or visible.

Simple Analogy:

• Slicer = TV remote everyone can use
• Filter = Parental controls hidden in settings

Types of Slicers

1. Dropdown Slicer - Pick from a list
2. Button Slicer - Click buttons (like “2023”, “2024”)
3. Date Slicer - Pick a date range with a slider
4. Relative Date - “Last 7 days” (updates automatically!)

Types of Filters

Quick Example

Your toy store report has 1000 products.

Add a Category Slicer with buttons: “Dolls”, “Cars”, “Games”, “Puzzles”

Click “Cars” → Every chart on the page now shows only car data!

graph TD
    A["User Clicks Slicer"] --> B["All Visuals Update"]
    B --> C["Charts Show Filtered Data"]
    B --> D["Tables Show Filtered Data"]
    B --> E["Cards Show Filtered Numbers"]

3. Drill Down and Drill Through: Your Data Detective Tools 🔍

Drill Down = Going Deeper in the Same Chart

Like zooming into a photo:

• Start: Total sales by Year → 2024: $1M
• Drill down: Quarterly sales → Q1: $200K, Q2: $300K…
• Drill down more: Monthly sales → Jan: $50K, Feb: $70K…

Drill Through = Jumping to a Detail Page

Like clicking a link to a new webpage:

• You’re looking at a chart showing product categories
• Click “Electronics” → Jump to a new page with ALL details about Electronics

The Difference

Quick Example

Drill Down:

1. Bar chart shows: USA, Canada, Mexico sales
2. Click drill down arrow
3. Same chart now shows: California, Texas, New York (states inside USA)

Drill Through:

1. Right-click on “California” bar
2. Select “Drill Through → Store Details”
3. New page opens showing all California stores!

graph TD
    A["Year 2024"] -->|Drill Down| B["Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4"]
    B -->|Drill Down| C["Jan, Feb, Mar..."]
    A -->|Drill Through| D["Separate Detail Page"]

4. Power BI Dashboards: Your Command Center 🎯

Reports vs Dashboards

Report = A book with many pages of detailed stories

Dashboard = A single poster with the most exciting highlights from all your books

Key Dashboard Features

Quick Example

Your boss wants one screen showing:

• Total Revenue (from Finance Report)
• Customer Count (from Sales Report)
• Inventory Alert (from Operations Report)

Solution: Create a Dashboard and pin one visual from each report!

graph TD
    A["Finance Report"] -->|Pin tile| D["Dashboard"]
    B["Sales Report"] -->|Pin tile| D
    C["Operations Report"] -->|Pin tile| D
    D --> E["Boss sees everything at a glance!"]

5. Report Design: Making Reports People Love ❤️

The Golden Rules

1. Less is more - Don’t cram 50 charts on one page
2. Tell a story - Put the most important thing at the top
3. Use colors wisely - Consistent colors for same categories
4. Mobile-friendly - Many people view on phones!

Design Checklist

Quick Example

Before: 15 random charts scattered everywhere, rainbow colors, tiny fonts

After:

• Top: Big KPI cards (Revenue, Profit, Customers)
• Middle: Main trend chart
• Bottom: Supporting detail tables
• Left sidebar: Slicers for filtering
• Consistent blue theme throughout

6. Publishing and Sharing: Sending Your Story to the World 🌍

Publishing to Power BI Service

Think of it like uploading a YouTube video:

1. You create your report in Power BI Desktop (your computer)
2. Click Publish button
3. Report goes to Power BI Service (the cloud)
4. Now anyone with permission can see it!

Ways to Share

Workspaces Explained

Workspace = A folder in the cloud for your reports

• My Workspace = Your personal folder (only you see it)
• Shared Workspace = Team folder (members collaborate)

Quick Example

1. Finish your Sales Report in Power BI Desktop
2. Click “Publish” → Select “Sales Team Workspace”
3. Your team can now view and edit the report online!

graph TD
    A["Power BI Desktop"] -->|Publish| B["Power BI Service Cloud"]
    B --> C["Workspace"]
    C --> D["Team Views Report"]
    C --> E["Create App for Wider Audience"]

7. Data Refresh in Power BI: Keeping Your Story Fresh 🔄

Why Refresh Matters

Your report shows yesterday’s data. But data changes every day! Refresh brings in the latest numbers.

Types of Refresh

Scheduled Refresh Limits

Quick Example

Your sales data updates every night at midnight.

1. Go to Power BI Service → Your Dataset → Settings
2. Schedule refresh at 6:00 AM daily
3. When team arrives at 8:00 AM, they see fresh data!

graph TD
    A["Database Updates Nightly"] --> B["Scheduled Refresh 6 AM"]
    B --> C["Dataset Gets New Data"]
    C --> D["Reports Show Fresh Numbers"]
    D --> E["Team Sees Latest Data"]

Gateway: The Bridge

If your data lives on your company’s private server, you need a Gateway.

Think of it like a secure tunnel between:

• Your company’s data (inside firewall)
• Power BI cloud (outside firewall)

8. Row-Level Security (RLS): Your Data Bouncer 🛡️

What is RLS?

Row-Level Security makes sure people only see the data they’re allowed to see.

Simple Example:

• Same Sales Report, but…
• Sarah (West Region Manager) → Only sees West data
• Mike (East Region Manager) → Only sees East data
• Boss → Sees ALL data

How RLS Works

1. Create Roles - Define who sees what
2. Write Rules - DAX filters that run automatically
3. Assign Users - Add people to roles

Simple DAX Rule Example

Scenario: Salespeople should only see their own customers.

[SalesPerson] = USERPRINCIPALNAME()

This checks: “Is the SalesPerson column equal to the logged-in user’s email?”

Types of RLS

Quick Example

Creating RLS for Regional Managers:

1. Go to “Modeling” tab → “Manage Roles”
2. Create role called “West Region”
3. Add filter: [Region] = "West"
4. Save and publish
5. In Power BI Service, assign Sarah to “West Region” role
6. Sarah can ONLY see West data now!

graph TD
    A["User Logs In"] --> B{Check RLS Role}
    B -->|West Manager| C["Filter: Region = West"]
    B -->|East Manager| D["Filter: Region = East"]
    B -->|Admin| E["No Filter - See All"]
    C --> F["User Sees Only West Data"]
    D --> G["User Sees Only East Data"]
    E --> H["User Sees Everything"]

Putting It All Together 🧩

Your Power BI Journey:

1. Build Visualizations → Create beautiful charts from data
2. Add Slicers & Filters → Let users explore
3. Enable Drill Down/Through → Let users go deeper
4. Design Thoughtfully → Make it easy to understand
5. Pin to Dashboard → Create executive summary view
6. Publish to Service → Put it in the cloud
7. Schedule Refresh → Keep data fresh
8. Apply RLS → Control who sees what
9. Share with World → Let everyone benefit!

graph TD
    A["Raw Data"] --> B["Create Visualizations"]
    B --> C["Add Slicers & Filters"]
    C --> D["Enable Drill Features"]
    D --> E["Design Report Layout"]
    E --> F["Create Dashboard"]
    F --> G["Publish to Cloud"]
    G --> H["Set Up Refresh"]
    H --> I["Configure RLS"]
    I --> J["Share with Users!"]

Key Takeaways 🎯

You did it! 🎉 You now understand how to create, design, publish, and secure Power BI reports. Go make some amazing data stories!