We're excited that over the coming weeks, you will see us improve the Analyze in Excel experience in the Power BI service. By making these changes, we're eliminating steps and making it easier to open the saved Excel workbook.
What is the current experience and why do we need to make a change?
Today, when you click the Analyze in Excel button on a Power BI dataset or report, the generated Excel workbook is downloaded to your local Downloads folder. However, opening the file won't work unless the user has the Analysis Services OLE DB Provider installed. Power BI prompts the user to install the provider, but many users don't install it or don't open the file.How the new experience improves the Analyze to Excel workflow
With this new experience, the Excel workbook created through Analyze in Excel is saved to your OneDrive for Business. The workbook opens in Excel for the web by default.
After clicking Analyze in Excel, a new dialog indicates the generated workbook was saved to OneDrive. Clicking on Open in Excel for the web opens a new browser tab that enables you to immediately create PivotTables on your Power BI dataset.
You can also open the workbook in Excel Desktop by clicking Open in Desktop App in the Excel for the web ribbon.
Best of all, with this new experience, you don't need to install the Analysis Services OLE DB Provider on your computer before using Analyze in Excel.
Note: For users without OneDrive for Business in their environment, clicking Analyze in Excel would default to downloading the Excel workbook to the local Downloads folder.
If you have any suggestions on improvements or new features you would like to see for Power BI and Excel, please submit an idea.