Connect an excel file to a shared PBI report

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have access (limited, not to the undelying dataset) to some reports other Dept. in my company are generating.

I am downloading in an excel format some data from that report (I downoad the single visuals which I need, do not use the 'Analyze in Excel' feature) and then I connect it to a new PBIX and generate some new reports, after doing some different kind of analysis. 

Is it possible to keep the excel I download connected to the original PBI source ? So that it  gets refreshed periodically with the whole orginal dataset, and also my reports are refeshed ?

If not, what is an alternative? Do I have to download the excel every time, and the replace it as the new source in my PBIX? 🤔

Many thanks 🙂

[v-yingjl]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Maybe you can try to connect to power bi dataset in power bi desktop without downloading excel file.

You can refer the following Microsoft document and blog that could help you:

1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets
2. https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/connecting-to-datasets-in-the-power-bi-service-from-desktop/

Best Regards,

Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Anonymous]

HI @v-yingjl ,

thanks - that does not work for me since I need to do some small data shaping to the dataset for my purpose (e.g. adding a few columns). I cannot do that connectin live via PBI since I don't have full access to the report, and cannot edit the tables of the dataset. 

THis is why I was looking for an option to re-connect the excel I downloaded and edited .

Any options in this sense ?