Getting data

[gijeet]

What is the difference between File > Import and Get Data button?  Why is there 2 ways to "get data"?  This is confusing...

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi gijeet,

With the File>import option in Power BI Desktop, we can only import Excel workbooks that contain Power Query queries, Power Pivot models and Power View worksheets, or import a custom visual template into a report.

However, if we need to load/import Excel files from shared OneDrive for Business folders/Office 365 group folders, or we need to load data from data sources such as database, Azure, text, web and so on, we can only use Get Data button in Power BI Desktop.

Please check out the following articles to get more details.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-import-excel-workbooks/
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-connect-to-data/

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang