Bulk Move Measures into Folders Using TMDL View in Power BI

[anmolmalviya05]

In today's blog, we're going to explore a powerful tip: how to organize your measures efficiently by bulk moving them into folders or subfolders using the TMDL view in Power BI Desktop.

Why Organize Measures into Folders?

When working on large-scale Power BI reports, you may end up creating 50 to 100+ measures. Managing them in a single list becomes difficult and messy. Organizing these into logical folders or subfolders based on their purpose (e.g., Sales, Revenue, Time Intelligence, etc.) makes your model cleaner and improves maintainability.

Method 1: Using the Table View (Manual)

This is the traditional method:

• Go to the Data view or Model view.
• Click on an individual measure.
• In the Properties pane, locate the Display Folder option.
• Type a folder name (e.g., Demo) and press Enter.
• All selected measures will be grouped under that folder.

📝 Tip: You can also multi-select measures in the Model view and set the Display Folder property in one go.

Method 2: Using the TMDL View (Advanced & Efficient)

For bulk operations and better control, TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language) view offers a smarter approach.

🔧 Step-by-Step:

1. Go to the TMDL view in Power BI Desktop.
2. Select all the desired measures using Ctrl + Click.
3. Drag and drop them into the TMDL script editor — a code script will auto-generate.
4. Below the format string section of each measure, insert the line: display folder = "Demo_TMDL"
   
5. Once all measures have this line added, click Apply from the top-left corner.

Result:

All your selected measures are now organized into a folder named Demo_TMDL, visible in the Data/Model view.

Bonus: You Can Organize Columns Too!

This functionality isn't limited to measures. You can also create folders for columns using the same method:

1. Go to the TMDL view.
2. Locate the column definitions.
3. Add the line: display folder = "ColumnFolder"
4. Click Apply, and the columns will be grouped into the folder.

Final Thoughts

Organizing your Power BI model is a best practice that boosts readability, reduces errors, and improves collaboration — especially in large-scale projects. The TMDL view gives you the power to manage this efficiently.

Regards

Anmol Malviya

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