SQLBI Newsletter 17/2017

NEW ARTICLE

This article describes how to create a table with a series of numbers in DAX by using the new GENERATESERIES function or through a workaround using CALENDAR. Read more »

NEW ARTICLE

Changing the culture of a Power BI Desktop file

This short article explains how to change the culture settings of a Power BI Desktop file, which by default corresponds to the locale settings of the machine used to create a Power BI Desktop file. Read more »

EVENT HIGHLIGHT

SQL Saturday #635

SQLBI is proud to support the next SQL Saturday in Vancouver, BC on Aug 26, 2017. Register now »

BI NEWS DIGEST

Power BI and Excel 2016 updates, custom visuals and more...

	• Power BI Desktop August update The Power BI Desktop August update introduced several new features. Small but important improvements are the ability to move measures on rows in a matrix and the release of a What If parameters feature – also mentioned in the featured GENERATESERIES article. There are other small improvements – big new features are expected in September? Read more »
	• Timeline Storyteller custom visual The Timeline Storyteller is an impressive custom visual that you should try. Microsoft presented it in the keynote demo of Microsoft Data Insights in June, and the visual is now available in the store. It is free, and it is open source (you can get the entire source code). One concern is the complete lack of guidelines in the user experience. This is just another example of a different way to set properties of the visual. The message is ambiguous, but this component is very nice to see. Download »
	• Visio custom visual Another custom visual now available in the store is the Visio one, which was announced at Microsoft Data Insights. At a certain level, it is like what you can do with Synoptic Panel by OKViz, with some pros and some cons. However, you need a license of Visio to create the chart, which must be published on SharePoint. There are no additional costs to publish the Visio diagram. Read more »
	• TREATAS and inactive relationships Kasper De Jonge wrote an article covering TREATAS and inactive relationships with disconnected slicers in Power BI. The same technique should also work in Excel 2016 – if you have Office 365, TREATAS is included in the latest updates. Read more »
	• Power BI usage report Kasper also created a sample report to analyze Power BI usage metrics. If you want to understand how users are consuming Power BI reports, you should look at this data. It is also free, so why not? Read more »
	• Power BI Solution Template for Azure Activity Log Microsoft released a Power BI solution template to analyze Azure Activity Log. The template is free but the services used are not, so take a look at the cost estimator before moving it in production. Read more »
	• Excel 2016 August update Also Excel 2016 continue to get updates, especially if you have an Office 365 subscription. But the latest updates of Get & Transform in Excel 2016 are also available in the Power Query add-in for Excel 2010 and 2013. There are many small improvements, but the Add Column From Examples is really worth the update. Read more »