This document gets you quickly familiar with Power BI and set you on the journey. Even if this is your first time, you will create a Power BI report today by following the steps listed out in the Manual. Eat the Frog Now! Get Started with Power BI

1. POWER BI OVERVIEW
MANUAL
Ahmed Oyelowo, MCSA, MCT, AFM

2. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
Power BI Desktop is the authoring engine of
Power BI. See it as a factory workshop, where
the goods (Reports) are being manufactured
from raw materials (data)..
Let’ take a stroll inside the workshop and get
familiar with the environment.
Tabs
At the top of the Power BI Desktop file, we
have the Tabs and underneath each Tab are
various command buttons arranged in
groups.
The most important group there is the
“External data” group under the “Home”
Tab.
Views
Power BI has three views:
1. Report View:
Where we get to choose an appropriate
visual to display on the Canvass from the
Visualizations pane.
2. Data View:
You can view imported data tables and
exploratively sort and filer them
3. Relationship View:
Create links between related tables.
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Power BI Desktop Interface
Command
Buttons
Tabs
Report
View
Data View
Relationship
View

3. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
Panes
Visualizations Pane:
The section where you select the kind of
Table/Chart you decide to use to
communicate your report findings.
Fields Pane
Data Table fields and Calculated Measures
(Formulas) are housed here and are available
for selection into any visual.
Canvass
The default white empty area where selected
visuals are displayed. I like to call this area,
the “Real Estate”.
Just like a worksheet in Excel. You can have
multiple canvasses by clicking on the + icon
at the bottom of the Page.
It will make sense to quickly grab some data
from the blues to get a sense and feeling of
Power BI
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Power BI Desktop Interface

4. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
Get Data
With the Get data button under the Home
tab of Power BI Desktop, you can connect to
several data sources.
I apologize for using my bias towards sports
and football to prepare this section, where I
encourage you to Eat The Frog and try your
hands on Power BI.
We are going to grab some English Premier
League data from the web.
Open Power BI Desktop.
Try to be in Repot view while you do this.
Steps to get data from web
1. Click on the Home Tab and Select Get
Data
2. Select Web
3. Type in https://www.premierleague.com/
4. Click OK
5. Check the box that has “Table 0”
6. Click Load
You will notice you can no longer see the
table. However, if you check the Fields Pane,
you will find Fields/Columns in the table we
just imported.
To view the table itself, you have to click on
the Data View to the left of screen.
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Create Reports & Visualizations
Data
View
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5. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
Reports
We are going to quickly create 3 reports.
1. A Table showing the League Standings
2. A Bar Chart to see goals difference by
team
3. A Scatter Chart (Plot) to visualize how
Goals Difference relates with Points
Again, before starting, make sure you are in
Report View
Steps for Report 1
1. Select “Matrix” Visual from the
Visualizations Pane
2. In the Fields pane, check the boxes for
Club, PL, GD and Pts in that order
3. If you see Arsenal at the top, that may not
be correct (no offense guys). Place your
cursor on Pts in the visual and click on the
little triangle. (That’s to sort by points, not
alphabetical order as it was)
4. Except you have microscopic eyes, there is
a need to increase the fonts size. Under
the visualizations pane, click on the little
brush icon called Format. (make sure the
visual is still selected while you do this)
5. In the search box, type Size and increase
all size you see there to at least size 10
6. You can adjust the size of the visual by
clicking on the thick lines on the sizes and
edges.
Onto the next report. You need to now click
on an empty area in within the canvass to
create another visual, otherwise, each time
you have a visual selected and you click on
another visual from the visualization pane,
you would be changing your original visual.
.
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Create Reports & Visualizations
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6. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
Steps for Report 2
1. Select “Stacked Bar Chart” Visual from
the Visualizations Pane
2. In the Fields pane, check the boxes for
Club and GD
3. Go to format under the visualizations
pane and type size in the search box
4. Increase the size of the Y Axis to 12
5. Expand the visual a bit to accommodate
the full club names. You can also drag the
visual and arrange it neatly beside the 1st
visual you created
Before we create the next report, remember
to click on an empty area within the Canvass
first.
Steps for Report 3
1. Select “Scatter Chart” Visual from the
Visualizations Pane
2. In the Fields pane, check the boxes for
Club, GD and Pts
3. Expand the visual a bit and try to arrange
it neatly beside the other 2 visuals
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Create Reports & Visualizations
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7. Overview of Power BI (Cont’d)
It’s all looking good now. Except that I don’t
like the default theme and colors in Power BI.
Click an empty area in the Canvass then let’s
change the theme
Steps to change theme and colors
1. Click on the Home tab and click on the
drop down on Switch Theme
2. Select Twilight
3. To change colors, select the visual you
want to change then go to the Format
under visualizations pane and type Color
into the search box
4. Scroll till you find Data Colors then
change to any color you like.
With that, you have eaten the frog. You can
take some water.
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Create Reports & Visualizations
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