Export to PowerPoint (Preview) feedback

[tzvikei]

This thread was created to gather feedback and communicate over the new Export to PowerPoint (Preview) feature in PowerBI.com.

Ask questions, suggest features, or leave general feedback. We will monitor closely.

Thanks,

Tzvi Keisar

Program Manager, Power BI

[Anonymous]

Randomly started getting the '500' error this morning on reports which I've been exporting for months. Is anyone else having this issue? Has anyone had any subscription email issues today?

DaHa.

[tabar]

Error: 

Export in PowerPoint ist nicht möglich.

Wir konnten Ihren Bericht nicht in eine PowerPoint-Datei exportieren.
Versuchen Sie es später noch mal, oder wenden Sie sich an den Support. Geben Sie die folgenden Details an, wenn Sie sich an den Support wenden.

Aktivitäts-IDb2a91c27-9d46-4072-8055-9189972820c5

Anforderungs-ID484ae35f-bb1c-f9a8-e3ad-fb40cf9c0840

Korrelations-ID1d0cf990-9b20-4daf-5879-35696508c3f4

Statuscode500

ZeitTue Apr 10 2018 11:23:07 GMT+0200 (Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit)

Version13.0.4965.164

Cluster-URIhttps://wabi-europe-north-b-redirect.analysis.windows.net

[Anonymous]

 This is a great feature! I love it, but is there any way you can copy the Power BI report to another existing PowerPoint file and paste it as a link?  So when anything in Power BI changes, it will update the PowerPoint? I know that you can do this with Excel worksheets.  Can you do the same with Power BI?

[alm5084]

Short answer - no this is not yet possible with Power BI. I suppose it would require an update to PowerPoint to support the Power BI visual directly.

[Seward12533]

Try PowerBITiles - Not exactly what your looking for and I have not played with it recently but it may work for you - http://www.powerbitiles.com/?or=&cam=6509&con=3236023 

[Seward12533]

I could not see this reported elswhere but it appears that the hidden pages are counting towards the 15 Page limit. I have a report with 11 Pages but 6 others that are hidden.  I will remove the Hidden Pages would suggest that when this feature you might consider how to ignore hidden pages.

[iam0kru]

Is there a way to export to PowerPoint but have the whole report show up?  If I export a report with a table visual and the number of rows is too high (which is most of my reports) then the export just shows the current rows showing on the screen.

[PoolR]

IMO for this preview to really be of use, supporting insession activity such as filtering is a must have.  Or at least inheriting URL filtering when exporting to PPT, so that can be used as a filter workaround.

Hope to see that added real soon!

[PoolR]

Additionally, from a user experience point of view, exporting pages should not include hidden pages in the dashboard. And while we're at it: an option to disable having the first autogenerated PPT introsheet as well as an option to disable adding hyperlinks to de report in de services (when using embedded reports). 

To clarify: with these addtional feature requests included, this feature can be used to create static reports in a stunning way. I've already experimented with this and it looks promising. 

[dsandberg]

When exporting a report which includes a ggplot R graphic to .pptx, I'm now seeing this message:

"R visuals are a Power Bi Pro feature. Only users with a Power BI Pro license can create, view..."

Pretty sure I'm licensed as a Power Pro user. I see "custom visuals" are not supported, but this error message feels misleading to me.

Did I miss something in the configuration? Is the wrong error message appearing?

In general, I like this option, but the 15 page export limit causes more work as I have to split my .pbix files into smaller chunks. I am only pursuing the "export to .ppt" as a means to satisfy the lack of a printing capability. The users who wish to consume this data are very "attachment-oriented", which is to say, they want data pushed to them via email so it can be printed or reviewed.

I know many are inclined to scoff at a "print" function in favor of a paperless or mobile approach, but that does not work for all.

[alm5084]

Using the export to powerpoint was my workaround for lack of print functionality as well. People want to print these things out - who am I to say they are doing their work incorrectly if they want to print? The more I look into it, the better Tableau is sounding. Tableau can print.

[Maexchen]

I don't really mind that it is one picture now (though I can see that being able to move or remove single items can be a better option) However this is now effectively a beefed up screenshot function. As such I would expect it to honor filters I have applied and being able to export custom visuals. So please fix this or provide a "screenshot to powerpoint" function that alllows people with one click to export exactly what they see.

[zblm]

Hi all,

I've Just exported a report to PowerPoint form Power BI Service, but when i check the ppt presentation, all of the charts are in one picture. Its like it just took a snapshot of each slide in power bi and exported the whole slide as a picture.

I exported the same report last night and it was showing all of the individual charts as seperate pictures.

Anyone else have this issue?

[Fraukje]

Hi @zblm,

I also report this issue: when exporting a report as a powerpoint, each slide in the powerpoint now contains one picture instead of multiple objects (text/images) that could be selected independently before. All reports were based on the ability to delete part of the slide if needed, and now this has become impossible. Is there any update or known bug on the PowerBi app environment that is causing this?

Please help!

[sirui_sun]

Hi - thanks for your feedback.

This functionality is expected for now. As we've move through Preview for this featrure, we've updated it to export one image as part of ongoing reliability and performance improvements. 

To help us prioritize the work of exporting individual image elements, please vote on the following idea, which I've just created:

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/32563081-export-to-powerpoint-wit...

[StuartMiller]

The change to a single image slide is a major loss of functionality for me and my client!  It has broken our dashboards.

We were generating a slideshow that looped through slide decks for presentation on company TV screens as an easily-viewable dashboard.

We had each individual tile graphic updating with an animation or pulse, so that we could draw attention to updates from slide to slide.

PLEASE restore this functionality!!

Either that, or provide us the ability to configure (like in PowerPoint) an animation on the tiles to update them.  Since there's no way to configure a smooth change from one filter value to another, this is at least a workaround.

Consider how basic it should be to automatically (without manual interaction): update each tile to filter for a different time period (month to month, last 2 years, last 1 year, last 6 months, etc) or for different filter values (by product line or region, etc).

With individual tile graphics, we could effectively do that.  Now we can do nothing.  And since PowerPoint just takes snapshots and doesn't dynamically retrieve updates, it has to be generated any time the data changes, and that just kills many uses entirely.  Especially since it appears you also killed the Office Docs App that used to allow us to embed tiles.

[zblm]

Hi sirui_sun,

Thanks for the reply. Is there any timeframe for when this feature will be out of preview? When this feature is out of preview will it revert back to the way it was?

Many thanks

[deuscreator]

Hey Guys!

Anyone made an export successfully with portrait orientation?

I have my report set up with portrait - roughly A4 size, and the export is messed up.

Any ideas for a workaround?

Thanks!

Máté

[tabar]

Hi @deuscreator,

I do the same (A4 format). There are 2 ways of workaround. 1 is that you define a template with your needed format (size. background, etc.) and save it as template (.potx / .potm / .pot) and every time after export just copy all SLIDES and paste them into your template. The other possibility is to change the master format in the same file. Here the Tutorial

Regards,

Sina

[deuscreator]

Hi there, thanks for the feedback!

Yeah I could re-orient the slides, no problem, but it still messes up the whole report (pics that were outside the boundaries of the original side not re-orienting with the rest, text boxes messed up) and even when I save the template and set it as default, powerpoint opens it in landscape mode..

[deuscreator]

Hey Guys,

What if I have my report set up with classic a4 - portrait size and orientation? The export is messed up. Any ideas how to get around this?

Thanks!