Power BI September 2026 Feature Summary
As the Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, data, and analytics community gathers in Barcelona for the European Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference, this month is packed with news. From new Copilot and AI experiences to reporting, modeling, data connectivity, developer enhancements, and mobile updates, we're sharing the latest innovations designed to help you build, analyze, and act on your data more effectively. Whether you're joining us in person or following along from afar, this roundup is your guide to everything new across Power BI this month. General Deprecation of Old File Picker experience in Power BI Desktop In April we deprecated the old file picker experience in Power BI Desktop. Starting in October, users using versions of Power BI Desktop from March 2026 or earlier will no longer be able to save and share Power BI files to OneDrive and SharePoint. Please ensure you update Power BI Desktop to keep using this functionality. Copilot and AI Power BI Agentic Experiences (Generally Available) Agentic development in Power BI is real, and it is already delivering value: whether you are starting from scratch with greenfield projects or building upon existing solutions in brownfield scenarios, BI developers can delegate the work to an agent, review the result, and refine it rather than starting from scratch every time. What makes this work is tools and context. Through Work IQ and Fabric IQ, the agent grounds its work in your business context—your data, your semantics, and the way your organization operates. Through skills—published by Microsoft in skills-for-fabric, shared by the community, or personalized by your own team—it also picks up your development context: the modeling and reporting practices, conventions, and workflows your team expects. Through tools such as the Power BI Authoring MCP server and the Power BI Desktop Bridge CLI, the agent can act on that context: reading and changing semantic models and reports directly, reloading its edits in Power BI tools, and reviewing its own work. Point an agent at a requirements document or a screenshot of the layout you want, describe what you need, and the agent can help accelerate the initial authoring pass, which you can then review and refine. rt authoring skills. What's available today The powerbi-authoring plugin in microsoft/skills-for-fabric bundling the semantic modeling and reporting agent skills and tools. It was recently updated to support report authoring for remote semantic models in Power BI service and an expanded range of supported report visuals, including custom visuals. To learn more, refer to the Power BI skills documentation. The local Power BI Authoring MCP server allows the agent to edit semantic models in Power BI Desktop. To learn more, refer to the Power BI Authoring MCP documentation. Power BI Desktop Bridge lets an agent reload changes in a running instance of Power BI Desktop and capture screenshots to check its own work. To learn more, refer to the Power BI Desktop Bridge documentation. Browser-based validation for remote report editing, so the agent can validate a report using a headless browser (an automated browser that runs without a visible user interface). Removing the local Power BI Desktop dependency allows the full authoring loop to run without Power BI Desktop, extending the agentic experience to Mac users and others who do not rely on a local installation. To learn more and get started, refer to the Power BI agentic documentation. Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming to Power BI (Preview) Copilot experiences have emerged across the applications people use every day, bringing AI closer to the work happening in each product. But this can also feel fragmented, with different entry points, separate conversations, and uncertainty about which Copilot agent to use. Our goal is to create a consistent Copilot experience that is available wherever people work. People should not have to leave the application they are using to find it. Microsoft 365 Copilot should be available within their experience, carry relevant context across experiences, and connect to the specialized intelligence of each product. We’re taking an important step toward that goal with a preview of Microsoft 365 Copilot integrated directly into Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. This integration gives users a familiar place to bring together business context and trusted data. Shared conversation history lets them continue a discussion as they move between Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences instead of starting over in each application. ower BI experience, including integration with Work IQ. In Power BI, a question no longer has to stop with the numbers in a report. A sales leader could use Fabric IQ to identify which regions are behind plan, then use Work IQ to connect the results with customer emails, meetings, account plans, and documents. They could summarize the complete picture and even kick off actions and tasks in Cowork, all from inside Power BI. This work context and ability to move directly from insight to action were not available in the standalone Power BI Copilot experience. the Cowork integration into the Power BI experience, highlighting the full Microsoft 365 experience embedded into Power BI. A new setting in the Fabric admin portal will determine whether this integration is available by enabling or disabling its entry point in the navigation pane. It will be off by default, giving administrators time to evaluate the experience before introducing it to their organization. Administrators can enable it when they are ready and disable it if they need to pause access. This setting is independent of the existing setting for standalone Power BI Copilot. If both settings are enabled, users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will see entry points for both experiences, and standalone Power BI Copilot will continue to appear on Home. If standalone Power BI Copilot is disabled and Microsoft 365 Copilot is enabled, users will see only the Microsoft 365 Copilot entry point. During the initial preview, the integrated experience is available only to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. These users receive the full Copilot Chat experience in Power BI and Fabric, bringing together Fabric data through Fabric IQ and relevant Microsoft 365 context through Work IQ. Existing permissions and governance controls continue to determine which content each user can access. Support for a broader Fabric audience will follow. This expansion will give Fabric users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license access to an integrated Copilot experience tailored to their available capabilities. The experience may differ from the full licensed offering, but it will extend Fabric IQ and conversational data experiences to more types of Fabric users. The preview will roll out with the setting turned off by default, with administrators choosing when to enable it for their organization. This is an important step toward one Copilot that meets people wherever they work, connecting the context surrounding each decision with trusted business data. To learn more, refer to the Copilot in Power BI documentation. Power BI data answers in Microsoft Copilot Chat (Generally Available) Users can find and ask questions about Power BI reports and semantic models directly from Microsoft 365 Copilot. They can search for relevant Power BI content, attach a report or provide a link, and ask questions in natural language. Powered by Fabric IQ, the experience uses the data, measures, relationships, and business logic already defined in Power BI to provide grounded answers. Users can also bring Power BI insights into conversations that include their Microsoft 365 work context, such as emails, meetings, and documents. Microsoft 365 Copilot now supports Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies and information protection controls for this experience. This helps organizations adopt conversational analytics while applying their existing policies for identifying, classifying, and protecting sensitive data. The experience continues to respect existing Power BI permissions and Microsoft 365 governance controls. Users can only access Power BI content they are authorized to view, and administrators retain control over whether Fabric data is available in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Organizations can use Power BI data answering in Microsoft 365 Copilot with production support and service commitments. This milestone makes it easier for users to bring trusted business data into the flow of work without leaving Microsoft 365 Copilot or creating a separate agent. To learn more, refer to the Fabric IQ in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (Frontier) documentation. Fabric IQ Plugin in Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork (Generally Available) Power BI data is available where multi-step work happens, so a business question, the analysis behind it, and the follow-up it triggers stay in one place. To ground a task in Power BI, users can search for relevant content, attach a report, or paste a link to a report or semantic model. Questions are answered using the data, measures, relationships, and business logic already defined in the semantic model. Coverage now extends to reports published through organizational apps, with improvements to content discovery, large model handling, schema selection, Verified Answers, and row-level value search. The plugin also carries forward the governance controls organizations rely on in Power BI: Existing access controls: Power BI permissions and row-level security determine which reports and semantic models each user can reach. Citations and sensitivity labels: Responses cite the Power BI content behind an answer and surface the Microsoft Purview Information Protection label applied to it, so users can see where a number came from and how it is classified. From insight to action: With Fabric IQ, users can analyze Power BI reports using natural language, uncover key findings, and put those findings to work right away in Cowork. Whether they are summarizing business performance, investigating a trend, or answering a data question, Fabric IQ turns trusted organizational data into outcomes. To learn more about supported scenarios, setup, and current considerations, refer to the Fabric IQ in Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork documentation. For licensing and pricing information, refer to Microsoft 365 Copilot plans and pricing. Build Fabric Apps more easily in GitHub Copilot App (Preview) Fabric Apps were introduced in June as an AI-first way to build custom web apps with Microsoft Fabric as the backend. This month we’re excited to share that building these Fabric Apps on your governed data has become even easier with the GitHub Copilot App, which gives you a natural language chat interface instead of a command-line interface. . To try it out, start by downloading the GitHub Copilot App. Then navigate to Customize > Plugins > Rayfin, and select Install to enable our dedicated plugin: Rayfin plugin in GitHub Copilot App. Once the plugin is enabled, simply start a new chat and work with Copilot to help plan your Fabric data app. After you review and approve the plan, ask the agent to execute it and specify the workspace where you want to deploy the app. . We look forward to seeing the amazing apps you build! Check out our community gallery for inspiration. Enhanced Report Consumption Copilot with Fabric IQ When viewing a Power BI report, you can enable Fabric IQ from the Copilot pane to better answer complex questions about your data. This enhancement merges existing Fabric IQ capabilities into Power BI Copilot report viewing mode, allowing Copilot to use a multi-step approach to evaluate data in the semantic model and refine its approach when generating a response. . With Fabric IQ enabled, Copilot can: Provide better answers to questions about your data based on detailed reasoning capabilities directly into the report viewing experience. Show reasoning steps to help you understand how Copilot provided an answer. Generate Fabric visuals to help you further analyze your data. Answers can include column, bar, stacked, line, area, pie, donut, scatter visuals. Provide the underlying DAX query and data table used to generate a response. . To learn more, refer to the Ask Copilot questions about your data documentation. New control for Copilot access to semantic models Power BI now provides semantic model editors with greater control over how Copilot can be used with their data. Users with write permissions can block read-only users from accessing a semantic model through Copilot and Microsoft’s remote MCP tools, supporting governance, compliance, and access-control requirements. The setting applies across Copilot experiences that query the semantic model, including Power BI Copilot experiences; Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Cowork; and data agents, remote Fabric MCP servers, and Power BI MCP servers. When disabled, users with read-only access won't be able to access that semantic model through these experiences. By default, the setting remains enabled to preserve the current behavior. This setting appears in the Copilot section with the following description: “Allow any person with read-only access to use AI (i.e. Copilot, Microsoft’s MCP tools) on the model and its related reports.” Setting that allows people with read-only permission to use AI experiences with the semantic model and its related reports. This update gives organizations a clear and enforceable way to control AI access to semantic model data while maintaining flexibility for semantic model editors. To learn more, refer to the Use Copilot with Semantic Models in Power BI documentation. Remote Power BI Authoring MCP Server (Preview) The Power BI Authoring MCP enables AI applications to create and modify semantic models in Fabric workspaces, without installing or maintaining anything local. This release also unblocks Mac users that want to use the Power BI Authoring MCP, because the server runs remotely and does not require local binaries. Use the following endpoint in AI applications such as GitHub Copilot App: https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/mcp/powerbi/authoring The local Power BI Authoring MCP server, released in November 2025, remains generally available. It remains an option when an agent needs to work with Power BI Desktop, Power BI Project (PBIP) or TMDL files on disk. The local and remote servers support the same authoring capabilities. We recommend using the remote server when local development is not required, such as when creating a Direct Lake semantic model in a Fabric workspace. In the following example, the AI agent uses one tool call to create a Direct Lake semantic model connected to a Fabric Lakehouse: To learn more, refer to the Power BI Authoring MCP server documentation. Reporting New Report Ribbon on the web (Preview) The Report ribbon is now available on the web, providing a consistent experience for report consumption and authoring that more closely matches Power BI Desktop. The ribbon organizes commands into clear, easy-to-navigate tabs, making it easier for users to discover features, interact with reports, and complete editing and authoring tasks directly in the browser. It also introduces the new Design ribbon and additional capabilities that were previously unavailable on the web, such as Format Painter. This milestone brings greater consistency to Power BI report-authoring experiences and marks an important step toward a seamless, end-to-end reporting workflow on the web. As web authoring capabilities continue to expand, users will be able to accomplish more of their reporting tasks directly in the browser, enabling a more streamlined, productive workflow. Enable the Try the new ribbon (preview) at the top of the page to explore the new experience. You can disable the setting to return to the previous ribbon. To learn more, refer to the Report Ribbon on the web documentation. Live Visual Sharing in Outlook on the web (Preview) For years, sharing data through email has been stagnant. You could send a screenshot, but it immediately became stale. You could attach a report link, but recipients had to leave their workflow to find the context they needed. And every follow-up question often meant another screenshot, another export, or another email thread. Now, we're bringing a new way to share Power BI insights directly in the flow of work with Live Visual Sharing in Outlook. With Live Visual Sharing, you can insert a Power BI visual into Outlook on the web and share it as a live, interactive experience. Recipients can view and interact with the visual directly in Outlook while staying connected to the latest underlying data. When a live visual is shared, Outlook renders an interactive version of the Power BI visual. Rather than embedding a static image, the experience remains connected to the source report and retrieves current data when viewed. Recipients can: Interact with the visual directly in Outlook on the web. Access tooltips and explore data points. See filters and slicers applied at the time of sharing. View refresh information and data context. Navigate back to the source report when deeper analysis is needed. The result is a richer conversation around data, directly within Outlook. Sharing a live visual is simple: Open a Power BI report in the service. Select a visual to share, then select More options in the upper-right corner. Select Share. Select Link to this visual. A pop-up will appear asking if you want to use the current view (apply existing filters and slicers) or not. After selecting Create Link, the link is copied to your clipboard. Open Outlook on the web. This experience is not available in the Outlook desktop app. Create a new email. Paste the link in the email. The visual renders in loop after a few seconds! You can also share the same link in a Loop page, and the visual will also be rendered. By combining Power BI, Outlook, and Loop-powered experiences, we're bringing data closer to where collaboration happens. Live Visual Sharing can support more informed, data-driven conversations in Outlook. To learn more about Live Visual Sharing in Outlook, refer to the Share live Power BI visuals documentation. More control and context in Power BI Home (Generally Available) Power BI Home now provides additional context and personalization options to help users discover the right content more efficiently. With new freshness indicators and customizable list views, you can quickly identify the most relevant reports and semantic models, prioritize the metadata that matters most, and tailor the experience to fit your workflow. Find the right content more easily Discover the right content more easily with new Data Refreshed and Modified Date columns in Power BI Home. By bringing the freshness signals already familiar from workspace list views into Home, users can more easily spot recently updated reports and semantic models, distinguish between similar items, and quickly find the content that matters most. Whether you're checking for the latest business updates or deciding which refreshed report to open, you can navigate with greater confidence and less guesswork. Customize your Home list view Not every user, team, or organization relies on the same signals to discover content. With Column Options, you can show or hide metadata, drag and reorder columns to prioritize the information you use most, and reset to the default view at any time. Whether you rely on freshness signals, endorsements, sensitivity labels, or location information, you can tailor Home to match your workflow. To learn more, refer to the Power BI Home documentation. Set and reset column widths in table and matrix (Generally Available) You can now right-click a column header in a table or matrix and select Set column width to specify its width in pixels. This option helps report viewers improve readability and fit the information they need within the available space, without changing the report author’s design or affecting other viewers. Changes made by viewers last only for the current viewing session. To restore the width defined by the report author, right-click the column header and select Reset column width. To learn more, refer to the Adjust column width in Power BI tables documentation. Visual calculations for small multiples (Generally Available) You can now use visual calculations in visuals with small multiples. Create calculations such as moving averages and compare trends across categories without adding separate measures to the semantic model. In the visual matrix, the field in the small multiples field well appears on the ROWPAGES axis. You can select ROWPAGES by itself or combine them with ROWS and COLUMNS to control how the calculation moves through the visual. e: Create a moving average visual calculation for a line chart divided into small multiples by country. To learn more, refer to the Visual calculations overview documentation. Design ribbon for Power BI reports (Generally Available) The new Design ribbon brings report styling tools together in one location. Apply a built-in or organizational theme, open the Theme pane to customize report-wide defaults, or import and download theme files directly from the ribbon. You can also quickly open Page size, Page background, and Wallpaper settings for the current page. Two new built-in themes, Dark and Soft dark, use the new Versa color palette and styling that closely follows the Fluent 2 base theme. These themes let you design against a dark report canvas and return to the default light theme before publishing if needed. To learn more, refer to the Use the Design ribbon in Power BI documentation. Slider color options for Slicer visual (Generally Available) Match your slicer's slider to your report design. The Slicer visual's Between, Before, After, and Date picker settings include a Slider format section where you can turn the slider on or off, set the handle style, and choose colors for the handles, selected range, and track. Handle options adjust based on the Responsive layout toggle (General > Properties > Advanced options). When Responsive is on, handles appear as circles with Fill color, Border, and Size. When Responsive is off, handles appear as rectangular bars with Border, Width, and Height. To learn more, refer to the Slicer visual in Power BI documentation. Translytical task flows show user date function (UDF) information in button action (Generally Available) The formatting pane now displays the Workspace, Function set, and Data function assigned to a data function button. These read-only details help you confirm that the button references the intended function without reopening the OneLake catalog. This information is especially useful when you review or troubleshoot reports that use several functions or connect to functions across multiple workspaces. To learn how to configure data function buttons, refer to Create a data function button in Power BI. Format pane headers stay visible as you scroll (Generally Available) Expanded section headers now remain visible at the top of the Format visual pane as you scroll through their settings. This update helps you keep track of the section you’re editing, especially when a section contains many formatting options. For example, when you scroll through color settings, the Colors and Data colors headers remain visible for context. To learn more about formatting visuals, refer to Get started formatting report visualizations. Pick the axis initial scroll position (Generally Available) Categorical axes—like month, year, or product name—show a scrollbar when there are more categories than fit in the visual. Until now, the scrollbar always started at the beginning of the data, so the oldest values displayed first. This month, you can set Initial scroll position to End on the axis Layout section, and the visual loads with the most recent data in view. Users can still scroll back to see earlier history. The option is available on stacked, clustered, and 100% stacked bar and column charts; line, area, stacked area, and 100% stacked area charts; line and stacked column and line and clustered column charts; ribbon, waterfall, and scatter charts with a categorical X-axis. Initial scroll positionset toEndon the X-axis. The scrollbar is positioned on the right, showing the most recent months first. To learn more, refer to the Customize x-axis and y-axis properties documentation. Azure Maps geocoding improvements (Generally Available) Large reference layers now render correctly when you filter your report. Reference layers add geographic context using points, lines, and polygons, such as locations, routes, postal codes, sales territories, and administrative regions. The Azure Maps visual renders up to 30,000 reference-layer features at a time. Previously, when a reference layer exceeded this limit, features excluded from the initial view could remain missing even after a report filter narrowed the data to a smaller area. . . . Now, Azure Maps re-evaluates the reference-layer features whenever report filters are applied. The unfiltered view is still limited to 30,000 features, but a filtered view accurately displays the relevant features, up to that limit. On-object interaction improvements (Preview) Based on your feedback during preview, we're introducing the first in a series of on-object interaction improvements, designed to make quick edits to your visuals easier. This month we're refining how you add data and manage some visual elements. The Build flyout now opens only when you select Add data, helping you stay focused when dragging and dropping data directly onto a visual or into the Build pane. We’ve also separated Title and Subtitle in the Add to your visual flyout, so you can manage them independently. In addition, title and subtitle are now turned off by default for matrix, table, and card visuals in reports that use the latest base theme. New reports automatically use the latest base theme. For existing reports, select Update theme in the Theme pane to apply this change. You can turn either element back on when needed. to your visual menu. To learn more, refer to the using on-object interaction with visuals and updating to the latest base theme documentation. Support for Fabric Apps in Org apps (Coming Soon) Soon, users will be able to include generative Fabric Apps alongside the reports, dashboards, notebooks, and other content in your Org Apps. For example, imagine you want people to rate the content in an Org App and share feedback about what would make it more useful. You can create a Fabric App for that experience and add it directly to the Org App. Whether you’re helping people explore what could happen next, act on an insight, or complete a specialized workflow, Fabric Apps give you a flexible new way to build for your audience without sending them somewhere else. Together, organizational apps and Fabric Apps provide a way to bring enterprise reporting, content, and tailored experiences together for your organization. Learn more about org apps and item types supported, including Fabric Apps. Changes to Power BI subscription email delivery Power BI is updating the platform used to deliver subscription emails as part of ongoing improvements to delivery reliability and long-term service health. As eligible subscriptions move to the updated platform, customers may notice changes to the sender identity and email formatting. Each subscription transfers automatically when it moves. Customers do not need to recreate it or change its schedule or recipients. After selecting Subscribe for an item, an information icon identifies a subscription that has moved to the updated email delivery platform. Learn more about changes to Power BI subscription emails. Increased Export to Excel row limits (Coming Soon) Many users export Power BI data to Excel for further analysis. This month, we're increasing the maximum number of rows that can be exported from table visuals using Data with current layout from 150,000 to 500,000. This increase helps you analyze larger datasets in Excel with fewer export operations. s. To learn more about exporting data from Power BI visuals, refer to Export data from a Power BI visualization. Value selection in Narrative visual We are replacing the Q&A natural language experience for creating dynamic values in the Narrative visual and text box with a more deterministic UI. This is due to the ongoing deprecation of the Q&A tool, and also based on feedback that it was hard to deterministically pick exact values through the Q&A experience. Authors can now create and edit custom values through a direct, deterministic UI: select a column or measure, apply any valid summarization, and add any type of filter. Auto-generated values are unchanged, and values previously authored with Q&A remain available as read-only. To learn more, refer to the Create Smart Narrative documentation. Modeling Create and edit DirectQuery semantic models in the Power BI service DirectQuery semantic models can now be created and edited directly in the Power BI service, eliminating the need to download and use Power BI Desktop. Previously, building models that query data sources in real time meant downloading Desktop, authoring the model, and publishing it to the web. Now, web-based modeling gives your team the freedom to: Work from any device: Mac, Linux and Windows users can now author DirectQuery models straight from the browser. Collaborate in real time: Multiple team members can work on the same semantic model simultaneously. Ditch the desktop loop: Skip the download-edit-republish cycle and update your models instantly in the service. Capabilities on the web Start from scratch: Connect to a supported data source and choose DirectQuery mode. Figure: Power Query interface displaying data source connection settings, with DirectQuery selected as the data connectivity mode. Full modeling control: Open existing DirectQuery models to manage relationships, write DAX and tweak table/column properties. : Model View in Power BI Service showing tables, relationships, and the properties panel for editing a DirectQuery semantic model. Flexible storage modes: Easily switch table storage modes from DirectQuery to Import or Dual if needed. : Properties pane that allows user to switch table storage modes from DirectQuery to Import or Dual. Thanks to this new capability, composite models are also available on the web! Head to the Power BI service and open one of your DirectQuery semantic models or create a brand-new one. We'd love to hear what you think! Learn more in the DirectQuery documentation. Approximate Distinct Count comes to Import and Direct Lake (Preview) Distinct count is one of the most resource-intensive operations in any analytical engine. As data cardinality grows, so do CPU and memory usage, often slowing down your interactive reports. APPROXIMATEDISTINCTCOUNT already offered a faster alternative for DirectQuery sources such as Azure SQL, Synapse, BigQuery, Databricks, and Snowflake. This month we're extending support to Import, Direct Lake on OneLake, and Direct Lake on SQL semantic models. DAX = APPROXIMATEDISTINCTCOUNT(<columnName>) : Model View in Power BI Service showing tables, relationships, and the properties panel for editing a DirectQuery semantic model. How it works and when to use it Instead of scanning every single unique value, APPROXIMATEDISTINCTCOUNT calculates a highly accurate estimate of unique values with a standard error rate of ~1.6%. In return, you get faster query execution times. Best for high-cardinality columns: Use it on columns with millions of unique values (such as transaction IDs, user IDs, or timestamps) where an approximate result can reduce the resources required to calculate distinct values. Keep standard DISTINCTCOUNT for low-cardinality data: Stick to exact counts for smaller attributes like Country, Category, or Status, where standard calculation is already fast, or for financial metrics where absolute precision is required. Swap APPROXIMATEDISTINCTCOUNT into your heaviest measures today and let us know how much speed you gain on your models! Learn more in the APPROXIMATEDISTINCTCOUNT documentation. Accelerate text searches in your semantic models with String Indexing (Preview) String Indexing for Power BI semantic models is coming soon! If your reports rely heavily on text fields, such as product names, customer comments, or long descriptions, you’ve likely faced slow performance when users search or filter on large semantic models. String Indexing is designed to improve text-search performance in supported semantic models. Why String Indexing? Common text operations like DAX functions (SEARCH(), CONTAINSSTRING()) and advanced text slicers in reports traditionally scan data row-by-row. As datasets grow, these scans slow down query times. String Indexing builds specialized indexes so the engine can locate matching text more efficiently, which can improve report responsiveness for both Import and Direct Lake semantic models. Indexing modes You can configure String Indexing via model metadata to fit your workload needs: Auto Mode: Automatically builds the index on the first query execution for a qualifying column. The index does not persist in storage; it remains in memory only while the column is loaded and will be rebuilt on subsequent queries if evicted. Ideal for smaller models. Full Mode: Builds and persists the index during scheduled data refreshes. While refresh times and model size may slightly increase, users enjoy consistently fast query performance right out of the box. Get started String Indexing requires a semantic model running at 1707 compatibility level. During this initial preview phase, indexing can be configured through TMDL on the web or XMLA metadata. Desktop support and a dedicated UI experience within Power BI are planned for a future release to simplify setup. Check out the String Indexing documentation for setting up instructions, prerequisites, and guidance on choosing the right indexing mode for your models. We look forward to seeing how this feature helps make text-heavy reporting experiences faster and more responsive! Introducing Full-Text Search in Power BI Semantic Models (Preview) Full-Text Indexing for Power BI semantic models is coming soon! While traditional string searches look for exact character matches, Full-Text Indexing enables a more intelligent search experience based on the meaning of words and natural language concepts. This capability powers two new DAX functions, TEXTCONTAINS() and TEXTSIMILARITY(), making it easier than ever to analyze large volumes of textual data directly in your semantic models. Why Full-Text Indexing? Business data increasingly contains rich text content such as customer feedback, support tickets, product descriptions, incident summaries, and knowledge articles. Searching this data using traditional string matching often requires exact matches and can miss relevant results due to differences in spelling, word forms, or phrasing. Full-Text Indexing builds a specialized search index at the column level, allowing semantic models to understand words rather than just character sequences. This enables advanced search experiences such as: Finding related words through linguistic analysis (for example, run, running, and runs) Matching singular and plural variations automatically Ignoring common stop words such as "the" or "and" Supporting phrase-based searches Tolerating minor spelling mistakes through fuzzy matching Enabling semantic similarity search scenarios Getting Started FTS Indexing requires a semantic model running at 1708 compatibility level. During this initial preview phase, indexing can be configured through TMDL on the web or XMLA metadata. Desktop support and a dedicated UI experience within Power BI are planned for a future release to simplify setup. New DAX functions Full-Text Indexing is required for two new DAX functions: TEXTCONTAINS() Returns TRUE when a text value matches a search expression using full-text search semantics rather than simple substring matching. It supports multiple search modes, including keyword matching, phrase matching, and fuzzy matching for typo tolerance TextContains(<WithinTextColumn>, <SearchText>, [MatchMode]) Example: "Show me all reviews that mention spa." The review either matches or it doesn't. TEXTSIMILARITY() Returns a relevance score indicating how well the text in <WithinTextColumn> matches <SearchText>. It enables similarity-based text comparisons, helping identify records that are semantically related even when they do not contain the exact same words. TextSimilarity(<WithinTextColumn>, <SearchText> [, <MatchMode>]) Example: "Show me the 10 reviews most relevant to 'good breakfast'." Reviews mentioning both terms prominently rank higher than reviews that only partially match. Learn more about these two new DAX functions (TEXTCONTAINS, TEXTSIMILARITY) in our documentation. Full-Text Indexing is supported for both Import and Direct Lake models, with Full mode recommended (during Preview) for the best out-of-the-box performance and user experience. Refer to the Full Text Indexing documentation to learn more about prerequisites, configuration options, and setup instructions. Data connectivity New Power Query editor (Preview) Since May of this year, the modern Get Data experience has been available in preview inside Power BI Desktop; the feedback we've gathered from that rollout has directly shaped what comes next. Your reports of friction points, missing capabilities, and rough edges between the legacy and modern interfaces went straight into the backlog, and this month that work pays off: the full modern Power Query Editor experience moves into preview. It's the same trusted engine, wrapped in a completely refreshed editing surface — and we're still closing the remaining gaps with the legacy UI as we go. Let's explore six key reasons to enable and try this feature. Modern Get Data - The same connector browsing and search experience you already know from Fabric Dataflow Gen2 — now in Desktop. Searchable, categorized, and designed to make connectors easier to find and navigate than the legacy dialog. Try it: Connect to a new data source and browse the OneLake catalog. To learn more, refer to the Data sources in Power BI Desktop documentation. Dark theme, end to end - No more jarring light-mode panes breaking your flow. The legacy editor only partially supported dark theme. The modern editor applies it consistently across the preview grid, dialogs, and other parts of the editing surface. Folding visibility - Stop guessing whether your query folds. Step folding indicators mark each step as folding or not, and the new query plan shows exactly how the engine intends to evaluate your query — and where folding breaks down. Try it: Open the query plan on a query with several steps and find where folding stops. To learn more, refer to the Understanding Query Evaluation and Query Folding in Power Query documentation. Diagram view - See how your queries relate to each other visually, instead of reverse-engineering it from names. A gamechanger for files you've inherited or models with long reference/merge chains. Try it: Open a file with referenced queries and trace a merge visually. To learn more, refer to the Diagram view documentation. New capabilities, now on Desktop - Features that used to live only on the web are now here: rank column, cluster values, schema view, query script view, plus upgrades to transforms you already use daily. Try it: Add a rank column or cluster values on a messy text column. To learn more, refer to the Rank column and Use Schema View documentation. Export a Power Query template - Capture your solution at a point in time and take it with you. Export a template from Desktop and import it straight into a Dataflow Gen2 — queries, steps, and structure intact. Try it: Export a template from a multi-query file and import it into a Dataflow Gen2 to compare. Figure: Screenshot of the Export template experience in the Power Query editor. To learn more, refer to the Power Query template documentation. Ready to try it? Enabling the modern Power Query experience takes just a few seconds — no restart required: Open Power BI Desktop. Locate: File > Options and settings > Options. Under Preview features, check New Power Query experience. Open (or reopen) the Power Query Editor — you're now in the modern experience. Once you've had a chance to explore this new user interface and its experiences, we want to hear from you. Share your thoughts on the new Power Query experience in the Fabric Community — what's working, what's missing, and what would make it a compelling alternative from the legacy editor. Every comment helps shape what ships next. Microsoft Outlook Mail connector (Preview) We're introducing the new Microsoft Outlook Mail connector (Preview) for Power BI Desktop. Built on the Microsoft Graph API, it lets you read your mailbox data — folders, messages, and attachments — using an organizational account. This is the first in a set of new connectors we'll be releasing as a modern alternative to the Exchange Online connector. The initial preview is scoped to Mail in Power BI Desktop. Additional connectors for Calendar Events, Contacts, and Tasks are on the roadmap, along with Excel and Power BI service / Fabric Dataflows Gen2 support. Scheduled refresh isn't supported yet — this applies to both the Power BI service and refreshes routed through the on-premises data gateway. To try it, enable the Microsoft Outlook Mail preview feature under Options in Power BI Desktop, then open Get Data → Online Services → Microsoft Outlook Mail and sign in with your organizational account. To learn more, refer to the Microsoft Outlook Mail connector documentation. More flexible Data Privacy Firewall query patterns in Power BI Desktop (Preview) Power BI Desktop now allows Data Privacy Firewall partitions that reference other partitions also access data sources when the privacy levels of the involved data sources are compatible. Introduced in the July 2026 release and enabled by default, this preview setting aligns Power BI Desktop with Power Query Online, gateways, and the Power BI service. This change supports common query patterns in which one query returns a value that another query uses to build a web request, SQL statement, file path, or other data source request. These patterns can now run without refactoring queries or duplicating logic solely to satisfy the previous partition restriction. The Data Privacy Firewall remains active. Power Query continues to evaluate the privacy levels of the involved data sources before combining data, helping authors use more flexible query designs while preserving privacy protections. To learn more, refer to the Allow data privacy firewall partitions that reference other partitions to also access data sources documentation. Mobile Mobile page indicator (Generally Available) Know immediately which report pages are mobile-ready, without clicking through them. Each page that has a mobile layout shows an icon on its page tab in the footer, so you can spot your mobile coverage instantly. Pages without a mobile layout stay unmarked, making it easy to see what's left to optimize. The icon is coming soon to both Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service. In Power BI Desktop, it appears in both desktop layout view and mobile layout view, so you can track mobile coverage right where you work. In the Power BI service, it appears in mobile layout view. Page tabs marked with an icon to show which pages have a mobile layout. To learn how to build mobile-optimized reports, refer to the Mobile-optimized Power BI reports overview documentation. Contact details in Info drawer (Generally Available) We’re making it easier to connect with the right people from the Power BI Mobile app. You can now find contact details in the Info drawer for reports, apps, and dashboards, and email the relevant contact directly from your phone. To learn more about Power BI in mobile, refer to the What Are the Power BI Mobile Apps? documentation. Developers and APIs Power BI Projects (PBIP) (Generally Available) Since entering preview in 2023, PBIP has changed how developers build and manage Power BI content. It stores report and semantic model definitions as human-readable text files, turning a Power BI solution into a codebase. Developers can search these files, track changes in Git, review diffs in pull requests, automate updates with scripts and pipelines, and use AI agents to work with models and reports. Changes remain visible and reversible, which makes team development easier and safer. Recent improvements have made the workflow more practical. These include opening a project directly in Visual Studio Code and detecting external file changes in Power BI Desktop. New underlying formats capabilities: Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL) for semantic models. Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) for reports. PBIR is now the default report format for PBIX and PBIP files. New reports use it from the start. When you edit a report that uses the legacy format, Power BI tools automatically convert it to PBIR. To learn more, refer to the Power BI Projects documentation. New Purge Data option for Fabric APIs The new Purge Data option for Fabric APIs gives developers and administrators greater control over programmatic semantic model deployments. This capability allows users to explicitly approve deployments that may require removing existing data, helping unblock scenarios such as schema or data type changes that previously failed validation checks. Designed with both safety and automation in mind, purgeData keeps data protection safeguards enabled by default while giving developers the flexibility they need to manage complex deployment scenarios at scale. To learn more, refer to the Purge Data documentation. Other Data updated and sensitivity fields of Power BI report in Microsoft Teams preview card (Coming Soon) Power BI report previews in Microsoft Teams will soon surface the report's last refresh date and sensitivity label. These additional signals will help users quickly assess the freshness, relevance, and classification of a report before opening it. To learn how Power BI content is displayed in Microsoft Teams, refer to the Link preview cards in Microsoft Teams chats and channels documentation. Artifact info header for Power BI tabs in Microsoft Teams (Generally Available) Power BI content in Microsoft Teams tabs now includes the artifact info header, giving users the context they need without leaving their flow of work. Available for reports, apps, organizational apps, dashboards, and scorecards, the header brings key artifact information and actions together in one place. The new header displays the artifact name and sensitivity label and provides an entry point to artifact metadata. You can open the artifact in the Power BI personal app in Teams, open it in a browser, and refresh the tab. Tab owners can control their experience with the new Show info header setting on the tab settings page. The setting is 'on’ by default and can be turned off when a more compact tab experience is preferred. To learn how to add Power BI content as a tab in Microsoft Teams, refer to the Embed Power BI reports in Microsoft Teams documentation. Third-party custom visuals graphomate matrix The graphomate chartrix is a brand-new charting visual, and it offers various improvements over graphomate charts. First and probably most obvious is the new interactive user interface which enables users to define most elements of the chart layout directly on the visual. To keep this interface effective and uncluttered it focuses on the most important parameters of your chart. Users can now create combination charts which were simply not possible before. There are also new chart types like the variance waterfall, which automatically renders from one measure and two dimensions. Of course, the graphomate chartrix is IBCS® certified. With the latest release an XFL editor has been introduced, which helps you write scripts to format the chartrix far beyond the possibilities of the regular option set. XFL scripts also provide a way to conditionally format the visualization, dynamically changing properties in relation to the actual data. This new visual is provided free of charge to existing customers of the graphomate charts. All development efforts will be focused on making the graphomate chartrix the best IBCS® charting visual there is. Video Link: graphomate chartrix for Microsoft Power BI AppSource Link: graphomate chartrix Sample Report Link Drill Down Bubble PRO by ZoomCharts Drill Down Bubble PRO is a Power BI visual designed for exploring relationships, trends, and outliers across multiple dimensions of data. It adds richer exploration, selection, and analytical capabilities directly inside the visual. Key features include: Multi-level drill down to explore data hierarchies from a high-level overview to detailed insights. Pan and zoom controls to navigate dense datasets and focus on specific clusters or individual data points. Area and lasso selection to quickly isolate groups of bubbles and use selections for interactive analysis and filtering. Dynamic regression lines that recalculate as the displayed data changes, making trends and relationships easier to identify. Line and area thresholds to highlight targets, ranges, exceptions, or other important business benchmarks. Area shading to visually group and compare selected segments of data. 200+ formatting settings to tailor the chart to different reporting and branding needs. Figure: Drill Down Bubble PRO demonstrates multi-level drill down, panning, and zoom controls for exploring data from high-level patterns to detailed points. These capabilities make Drill Down Bubble PRO especially useful for customer segmentation, sales analysis, portfolio analysis, performance monitoring, and other scenarios where users need to actively explore patterns rather than simply display them. Get on Markeplace Commenting in view mode: introducing Zebra BI Tables+ & Charts+ It's month-end. A regional manager opens the report, spots a variance in their region, and knows exactly why it happened. But the report isn't theirs to edit, so the explanation ends up where it always does: a screenshot pasted into PowerPoint, emailed around, detached from the number that prompted it. That's the collaboration gap. Your report shows what happened; the why and the what next leave the report and get lost. Meet Zebra BI Tables+ and Charts+: two new visuals that keep everything existing Zebra BI Tables and Charts offer and add a built-in collaboration layer. Report viewers can add comments directly on a data point, in view mode, with no Power BI edit access. Each comment is anchored to the exact figure and stored in your own SharePoint file. Zebra BI stores nothing. ting files from SharePoint, and collaborate directly in view mode. So instead of screenshotting insights into PowerPoint or maintaining a custom workaround, the whole team explains and decides right on the report. Instead of slides or emails, the next steps can be defined directly on the spot. Stop losing good decisions to a missing context. Start making them on the report. Try Zebra BI Tables+ and Charts+ free for 14 days on AppSource. Network Graph by Powerviz The Powerviz Network Graph is a visual representation of Nodes and the relationships or connections between them. Its primary purpose is to illustrate how different entities are related or interact with one another. Key Features Line Options: Customise node links with different styles and colors. Node Shape: Choose from various shapes, icons, or upload your own. Labels: Display categories, values, and percentage labels. Data Colors: Access 30+ color palettes, including color-blind-safe options. Fill Patterns: Highlight nodes with patterns or upload your own. Conditional Formatting: Highlight outliers based on measures or category rules. Clusters: Group related nodes to reveal patterns. Relationships: Analyze node connections at a glance. Animation: Add pop-ups and highlight effects. Import/Export: Save and reuse themes easily. Toolbars: Gain advanced control over the graph. Other features included are Sorting, Ranking, Lasso / Reverse Lasso, Grid View and more. Business Use Cases Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Optimization, Social Network Analysis (SNA). Resources Try Network Graph visual for FREE from AppSource Check out all features of the visual Step-by-step instructions YouTube Video Learn more about visuals Follow Powerviz on LinkedIn Hierarchical Bar Chart New, exciting changes were made to Hierarchical Bar Chart. Bubble Matrix for stacks - The visual now provides the option to show stacks as bubbles below the bars. lues into bar-and-bubble matrix layouts for clearer comparison of category totals and component contributions. Display Stacks as Clustered Columns - From the format pane settings, you can choose to display stacks as clustered column chart. Filter using legends - You can click on a stack legend to filter out other stacks. On mouse hover relevant stack gets highlighted. Stack ribbons and %age of total - You can now choose to connect stacks with ribbon and show percentage of total for each stack. Resources Check out the Hierarchical Bar Chart Update YouTube video. Download the visual from APPSOURCE Download a sample pbix file For more information refer to Hierarchical Bar Chart or contact us. That’s a wrap! The European Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference is just getting started, and there's never been a more exciting time to be part of the Power BI community. We hope these updates help you discover new capabilities, streamline your workflows, and get even more value from your data. Be sure to explore the links throughout this post for deeper technical guidance and follow along with the latest announcements and sessions from Barcelona.Power BI January 2026 Feature Summary
The January 2026 Power BI Feature Summary is packed with exciting news—there are fresh updates, important announcements, and some big changes, especially around upcoming events, feature retirements, and the latest in AI and Copilot advancements. Some of the standout features include new reporting tools, smarter data modeling options, enhanced resources for developers, broader global standards support and upgraded visualizations. With these improvements, Power BI is making analytics easier to use, helping you work more efficiently, and connecting all your tools even better than before. FabCon Atlanta is fast approaching! If you’re looking for more details, check out the Events & Announcements section. We hope you’ll join us! Contents Events & Announcements General Deprecation of Power BI Q&A SQL Server Reporting Services Report Viewer Web Part Support Discontinuation The Power BI application is accessible within Teams on Microsoft 365 Operated by 21Vianet Copilot and AI Attach reference to Copilot chat in the Power BI mobile app Updating Prepped for AI setting name to Approved for Copilot Standalone Copilot Access on Power BI Home Reporting Field parameters persist hierarchy level setting Format Pane Improvements Introducing Markers in Azure Maps Visual Modern Visual Tooltips (Generally Available) Column Sizing Update in Tables and Matrices Modeling Updates on Editing Semantic Models in the Power BI Service Chinese coded character set (GB18030-2022) support Developers + API’s Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) as Default Format Visualizations Funnel Chart by Powerviz Nebula by BI Samurai Events & Announcements Could you be the next Power BI Dataviz World Champion? There’s only one way to find out! By joining this global contest, you will have the opportunity to tackle three weekly challenges designed to stretch visualization skills and inspire innovation. Four finalists will be selected to compete for the title of world champion LIVE on stage at FabCon Atlanta. Learn more about how to enter and view the entries from the first week, happening now. Two months until FabCon – will we see you there? Join us for the ultimate Power BI, Microsoft Fabric SQL, Real-Time Intelligence, AI, and Databases community-led event from March 16-20, 2026, in Atlanta, GA. The third annual FabCon Americas will feature sessions from your favorite Microsoft and community speakers, keynotes, more opportunities to Ask the Experts for 1:1 support, an engaging community lounge with opportunities to network and connect with your peers, a dedicated partner pre-day, a packed expo hall, attendee favorites Power Hour and the Data Viz World Championships live finals, and a can’t-miss attendee party at the Georgia Aquarium. Register with code FABCOMM to save $200. General Deprecation of Power BI Q&A Q&A, our legacy natural language tool, will be deprecated in December 2026. Moving forward, use Power BI Copilot, which provides a more advanced and integrated solution for querying data with natural language. For more details and recommended alternatives, refer to the blog post on Deprecating Power BI Q&A. SQL Server Reporting Services Report Viewer Web Part Support Discontinuation Support for SSRS SharePoint Webpart, a component that allows you to embed on-prem paginated reports directly into SharePoint Server pages, will end on April 13, 2026. While the download will continue to be available, there will be no future updates for this component. For more information and recommended alternatives, refer to SSRS SharePoint Webpart documentation. The Power BI application is accessible within Teams on Microsoft 365 Operated by 21Vianet Users can acquire the Power BI app from the app store, or admins can centrally install it for them. Once added, users can view their Power BI content in Teams using the app, and pin Power BI items to chats or channels using Tabs. The following features are not supported in the Power BI app for Teams operated by 21Vianet environment: Power BI notifications in Microsoft Teams Power BI preview cards Please also refer to the service description of Power BI in 21Vianet: Power BI operated by 21Vianet in China. For installation instructions, please refer to: Add the Power BI app to Microsoft Teams. Copilot and AI Attach reference to Copilot chat in the Power BI mobile app In certain situations, you may know precisely which item you want Copilot to reference when generating its response. For those cases, we added the ability to attach a Report or Semantic model to Copilot chat as a grounded reference. To add a reference, tap the + icon or type / to search and select an item. The selected item appears in the chat Copilot uses it to ground its answers. Updating Prepped for AI setting name to Approved for Copilot In May 2025, we launched the capability to mark a model as prepped for AI. The name of this setting has been updated to “approved for Copilot”. Enabling this setting in a semantic model applies three main functionalities: The standalone Copilot agent doesn’t apply friction treatment to answers from that model. Authors can turn on the admin setting to only show approved items in the standalone Copilot experience. Models marked as approved for AI are boosted in the Copilot search experience. After you prepare your semantic model for AI and it's ready for consumption, you can mark your model Approved for Copilot by following these steps: Navigate to the Power BI service and find your semantic model. Select the Settings icon in the upper left corner. Expand the Approved Copilot section. Select the Approved Copilot box, and then select the Apply button. Standalone Copilot Access on Power BI Home Introducing a new Standalone Copilot entry point right on the Power BI Home page! This update brings Copilot closer to where you start your day, making it faster and easier to jump into AI‑powered insights. Why bring Copilot to Home? Placing Copilot directly on the Home page comes with several benefits: Faster insights - start asking questions the moment you land on Home. Easier discovery - new users see Copilot right away, encouraging them to use it as part of their natural workflow. When does it appear? The new entry point will show up automatically when: Standalone Copilot is enabled by your tenant admin. You have a valid Copilot capacity available. If either requirement isn’t met, don’t worry—you’ll continue to see the classic home experience. Prefer the classic view? You can always switch back to Recommended content using the picker at the top of the Home page. Toggle between the experiences your workflow needs. To learn more, visit: Standalone Copilot experience in Power BI (Preview). Reporting Field parameters persist hierarchy level setting In July 2025, field parameters became generally available, improving how matrices remember their expanded or collapsed state when the field parameter selection changes. Previously, many users found it confusing that a matrix would fully collapse whenever a field parameter value changed. Since the update, however, some users have shared that they preferred the earlier behavior because it felt more familiar and better suited for their workflows. To address this, we've added a new report-level setting that lets you restore the pre-July 2025 behavior for field parameters' expansion and collapse of hierarchy levels. By default, hierarchy levels remain persistent, but you can switch off this feature for a report using the Persist Hierarchy Level setting. The following examples are where to find it: In Power BI Desktop, navigate to Options and settings > Options > Current File > Report settings > Field Parameters > Persist hierarchy level. In Fabric, navigate to the report settings and find Persist hierarchy level under Field parameter options. To illustrate the difference, consider a matrix showing a field parameter called Product Group and a column called Year on the rows, displaying Total sales. The field parameter allows selection of Category, Class, Color, or any combination. In the following example, Category is selected, and the Categories are expanded, so you can see values broken down by Year: Now, when you change the field parameter from Category to Class, what happens depends on the Persist hierarchy level setting. If it's on, the matrix remains expanded, keeping the Year column visible; If it's off, the matrix collapses and displays only values for Class. The following table provides a comparison showing both behaviors based on whether the toggle is enabled or disabled. On Off We greatly value user feedback and continuously strive to improve the experience based on your input. The introduction of the persist hierarchy level setting is a direct result of listening to your suggestions, and we hope this new option enhances your reporting workflows and satisfaction. To learn more about the toggle and its impact, refer to the documentation on Let report readers use field parameters to change visuals. Format Pane Improvements With this version, we are releasing two improvements to Format Pane – Improved Color picker and reset to default experiences. Improved Color Picker Experience in Power BI Power BI report creators can customize colors in visuals with a theme color picker and custom color picker. We have added additional capabilities to this release. A clear indicator for the currently selected theme color. A simple way to reset colors to their default settings. A back button to return from custom colors to theme colors. This enhancement makes color customization more intuitive and efficient, helping you design reports with confidence and ease. Learn more about color formatting your visuals in the Tips and tricks for formatting color in reports documentation. Granular Reset Options in the Format Pane Format pane reset to default quickly let’s report creators undo customizations made to a visual. With this release, you can now reset default with finer control, for a single formatting group in the format pane. This is in addition to the existing functionality of reset to default for the whole visual and each section of the format pane. Reset this group settings to default within each section. Reset group settings without impacting the rest of the section. This enhancement delivers greater flexibility and usability, making it easier to fine-tune your report formatting with confidence. Learn more about formatting visuals in Power BI reports in the Get started formatting report visualizations documentation. Introducing Markers in Azure Maps Visual Azure Maps Visual for Power BI now supports a powerful new capability: Markers. Display your data points using customized icons, varying sizes, and advanced formatting features to improve narrative clarity in geospatial analysis. Replace basic shape markers with icons or custom images to represent deliveries, facilities, or assets using meaningful symbols like trucks, warehouses, or alerts. Scale marker sizes dynamically reflect the data measures such as shipment volume, population density, or sales. Customize colors and transparency for improved contrast and visibility on the map. Use distinct icons for each category, making reports easier to interpret. Learn more about the rich capabilities of Azure maps in Power BI reports in the Get started with Azure Maps Power BI visual documentation. Modern Visual Tooltips (Generally Available) Modern visual tooltips introduces enhanced usability, accessibility, and interactivity to your reports. These tooltips offer new capabilities in Power BI reports. Drill actions: The new Actions footer lets users drill down, drill up, or drill through data points directly from the tooltip—no need to use the right-click menu or visual header. This streamlines navigation and makes exploring data more intuitive. Styling: Tooltips automatically match your report’s theme colors, with options to further customize background, text, and icon colors in both the theme and Format pane. New reports get updated styling and the Actions footer by default. Existing reports keep their previous customizations, and you can enable or disable the Actions footer anytime via the Format pane. Modern visual tooltips in Power BI reports enhance usability and interactivity by allowing users to drill down, up, or through data directly from the tooltip Actions footer. These tooltips automatically adopt report theme colors, offer customization options, and provide updated styling by default for new reports, with flexibility to enable or disable the Actions footer as needed in the Format pane. To learn more, refer to the Create Visual Tooltips documentation. Column Sizing Update in Tables and Matrices In previous releases, table and matrix visuals automatically expanded their columns to fill the available space. This feature was introduced for tables in October 2025 and for matrices in November 2025. You gave us feedback that this often meant that even small fields stretched wider than necessary, creating layouts that felt inconsistent or wasted screen real estate. With this month’s release, that behavior has changed. In reports created from this release onward, columns are once again sized by default based on the content they contain. This makes tables and matrices more compact, easier to read, and better aligned with the actual data. You can still manually adjust column widths, or use Grow to Fit to expand columns when needed. But by default, visuals now prioritize content-driven sizing, giving you cleaner and more predictable layouts right out of the box. Here’s a before and after of the defaults: Before After We want to thank everyone who provided feedback. We greatly appreciate it! To learn more, refer to the documentation on adjusting column width in the table and matrix. Modeling Updates on Editing Semantic Models in the Power BI Service In September 2025, we announced the General Availability of editing semantic models in the Power BI Service. Models configured with incremental refresh are now supported, eliminating the prior restriction that prevented these models from being opened in the service. You can now seamlessly open and edit these models directly into the Power BI Service. However, note that semantic models with incremental refresh still cannot be downloaded as PBIX files, and you cannot use the Power Query editor when editing these models in the web experience. To learn more about editing semantic models in the service, refer to the Edit semantic models in the Power BI service documentation. Chinese coded character set (GB18030-2022) support China’s GB18030‑2022 standard is the latest update to the national character set requirements. It ensures compatibility with Unicode 11.0 and mandates support for additional characters, including minority scripts and emoji. For organizations operating in or with China, compliance is not optional. Rather, it’s a regulatory requirement. Starting with this release, Power BI can be configured to respect GB18030‑2022 encoding using the UnicodeCharacterBehavior setting. This setting is set to CodeUnits by default. To ensure your model is compatible with GB18030-2022, you’ll need to execute a specific XMLA command to set UnicodeCharacterBehavior to CodePoints: <Alter AllowCreate="true" ObjectExpansion="ObjectProperties" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine"> <Object> <DatabaseID>[your database id]</DatabaseID> </Object> <ObjectDefinition> <Database ....> <ID>[your model id]</ID> <Name>[your model name]</Name> <Language>[your language code]</Language> <ddl200:CompatibilityLevel>[your model compatibility level]</ddl200:CompatibilityLevel> <ddl200_200:StorageEngineUsed>[your storage engine]</ddl200_200:StorageEngineUsed> <UnicodeCharacterBehavior xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2025/engine/924/924">CodePoints</UnicodeCharacterBehavior> ... </Database> </ObjectDefinition> </Alter> Adding GB18030‑2022 support in Power BI isn’t just a technical tweak; it’s a compliance safeguard and a way to ensure your reports remain globally accessible. With the above XMLA command, you can align your semantic models with modern encoding standards and avoid downstream issues in multilingual environments. The UnicodeCharacterBehavior influences any DAX function that determines the length of a text string, which include FIND, LEFT, LEN, MID, REPLACE, RIGHT. These functions will exhibit different behaviors when working with text strings that contain Unicode characters. Let's look at how this works in practice. Here’s a measure that uses LEN to calculate the length of a text string: StringLength = LEN ( SELECTEDVALUE ( 'Table'[Column1] ) ) Here’s a before and after comparison of the result of StringLength on a column that contains Unicode characters: UnicodeCharacterBehavior = CodeUnits (default) UnicodeCharacterBehavior = CodePoints Notice how on the left each Unicode character has length 2, where on the right, each Unicode character has length 1. To learn more, refer to the documentation. Developers + API’s Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) as Default Format In November 2025, we announced PBIR will become the default Power BI Report Format for both PBIX and PBIP files (For PBIX users, switching to the PBIR report format does not impact their experience). PBIR will be activated by default in the Power BI service as part of a phased rollout, with full availability anticipated by the end of February. Beginning with the March release, PBIR will be set as the default format in Power BI Desktop. PBIR is currently in Preview with an opt-out option. Switching to PBIR is the last step before its General Availability, planned for Q3 2026. Any issues found now will be prioritized and addressed. Any issues identified during this period will be prioritized and addressed by our support team. We recommend preparing for this transition ahead of GA, as PBIR will be the only supported report format once it becomes generally available. Visualizations Funnel Chart by Powerviz The Funnel Chart by Powerviz is a stunning and informative visualization. It has 4 chart types in 1 visual, including a pyramid chart. The Power BI-certified visual is useful for tracking progress through different stages. It can also group data with legends for detailed insights. Key Features: Funnel Settings: Multiple display types are available, including vertical and horizontal orientation. Data Colors: Offers 7 schemes and 30+ color palettes. Labels: Select from multiple display styles with a custom label option included. Conversion Rate: In a single click measure the percentage of top and bottom stages to identify bottlenecks. Fill Patterns: Highlight stages with custom or pre-filled patterns. Conditional Formatting: Create rules based on measure or category rules. Totals: Display the total value at the top or bottom of the funnel chart. Ranking: Filter out Top/Bottom N stages. Annotation: Create multiple stories from one visual with comments for easy collaboration and clarity. Many other features included are grid view, show condition, and accessibility support. Business Use Cases: Sales Funnel Analysis, Marketing Campaigns, User Onboarding, & Website Traffic Try Funnel Chart for FREE from AppSource Check out all features of the visual: Demo_file Step-by-step instructions: Documentation YouTube Video: Video_Link Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U Nebula by BI Samurai Nebula by BI Samurai is a free certified Power BI custom visual for layout and background design, helping you create structured, consistent, and visually polished report pages—directly inside Power BI. Nebula simplifies report design by letting you build layouts that guide user attention, improve readability, and enhance storytelling—without using external design tools. Key Features: Customizable shapes – create precise layouts and background sections. Flexible color and transparency controls – match your report’s theme perfectly. Layer control – easily arrange and reorder elements. Custom default styles – set your own shape presets once and apply them easily across multiple pages. Lightweight and performance-optimized – designed to keep reports fast and responsive. Whether you're a designer or analyst, Nebula helps you transform plain Power BI pages into professional-looking, structured dashboards that communicate clearly and consistently. Microsoft Certified and available on AppSource, Nebula meets Microsoft’s standards for security, quality, and reliability. Learn more and explore design examples at bisamurai.com/nebula. Download Nebula from the AppSource: Nebula by BI Samurai. Check our Nebula demo video. Closing This concludes this month’s update. We hope the information provided in this update is useful. If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review. As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We look forward to hearing from you!
Power BI Desktop Bridge (Preview)
Power BI Desktop Bridge (Preview) Power BI Desktop Bridge introduces a new way of working, allowing external applications and agents to interact directly with Power BI Desktop! What is Power BI Desktop Bridge? The bridge is a lightweight local server that lets external applications interact directly with Power BI Desktop. Think of it as a direct, secure channel between your tools and Power BI Desktop. Your agents, scripts, and external applications can now: Check the current state of your report. Trigger key actions, like reloading files after edits. Capture screenshots to validate changes. Iterate and improve in real time, without manual handoffs. The following core capabilities are available through the bridge: Discover What's Available Method: bridge.manifest Capabilities: Returns a complete list of all capabilities and their specifications. Think of this as a "menu" of what your version of Desktop can do. Always check this first to see what's available. Check Report State Method: application.state.get/v1 Capabilities: Returns information about the currently open file and whether there are unsaved changes. In plain language: Know which file is open and if there are pending edits. Essential before running automation that might affect your work. Capture Report Snapshots Method: report.snapshot.capture/v1 Capabilities: Captures a PNG screenshot of a specific report page at any resolution you want. In plain language: See exactly how your report looks right now. Perfect for validating changes visually or sharing proof of work. Reload files from Disk Method: file.reload/v1 Capabilities: Reloads the open PBIP/PBIR file from disk to pick up on-disk edits. In plain language: After making changes to report files, refresh Desktop to see them. You can control whether the semantic model is also reloaded. Why this is a big step for agents? Before the bridge, agents could be incredibly smart about generating code and automating repetitive tasks. But they hit a wall: they couldn't talk directly to Power BI Desktop. They couldn't reload files to see changes in real time. They couldn't capture screenshots to validate what they'd built. They were flying blind. Now, with the bridge, that changes completely, agents can: Read the current report state. Edit report files directly on disk. Reload to see changes instantly in Desktop. Validate with a live screenshot. Iterate immediately—observing, learning, and improving. Ready to see this in action? The Report Authoring Skill is a perfect example. It leverages the bridge to read state, make edits, reload instantly, validate visually with screenshots, and iterate continuously in one seamless loop. Now, reports that would take hours to build, debug, and refine manually can now be authored, validated, and polished by agents in minutes. But this is just the beginning. The bridge opens the door for you to build the custom solutions you need. How to get started Desktop Bridge is enabled by default. To disable or enable it: Open Power BI Desktop. Go to File > Options and settings > Options. Open Preview features. Enable external tool access to Power BI Desktop through secure local APIs. Start using the Desktop Bridge The easiest way to start is with the Power BI Desktop Bridge CLI. It lets you leverage the bridge in a simple, practical way, without building custom integrations first. Built on top of the bridge, it includes a set of intuitive commands ready to use. The reload command is a great example. If you are making external changes to your PBIR files, you can simply run: powerbi-desktop reload This command reloads your on-disk changes in Power BI Desktop through the bridge, so you can keep iterating without closing and reopening Desktop. The following are other useful commands at your fingertips: # See what the bridge can do powerbi-desktop manifest # Check which Desktop instances are running powerbi-desktop status # Reload after making edits powerbi-desktop reload # Capture screenshots of every report page powerbi-desktop screenshot-all Ready to try it? The Desktop Bridge is here, and it's ready to transform how you work with Power BI Desktop. Stop waiting for manual steps. Start automating. Get started now: Power BI Desktop Bridge.
Unlocking new self-service BI scenarios with ExecuteQueries support in Power Automate
As part of our GA work for the ExecuteQueries REST API, we delivered a new Power Automate action to run queries against Power BI datasets. This action delivers a straightforward low-code/no-code experience to BI users who want to streamline repetitive, mundane tasks and processes. You can conveniently select the desired workspace and dataset in the user interface, paste your DAX query into the query textbox, and automate away! That’s it! You don’t need to know anything about the REST API. You don’t even need to know DAX to get started because you can copy queries straight from Power BI Desktop by using Performance Analyzer. Our new action to run queries against Power BI datasets unlocks entirely new self-service BI scenarios in Power Automate! Power BI datasets represent a significant investment and vital asset. Organizations already use shared and certified datasets to support their office workers and decision makers through curated data, verified business logic, and trustworthy analysis. These datasets provide the foundation for rich interactive and paginated data visualizations that deliver business insights that drive success. But what about workflows and other automated business processes? All too often, organizations must reinvent the wheel here because it is just too hard to leverage datasets in these areas directly. You need to be a developer, you need to write code, you need to know Web services and REST APIs, you need to register apps in Azure Active Directory, you need to load client libraries, and so on. Let’s remove these hurdles! You already have the curated data, the verified business logic, the trustworthy analytical measures. Your users already build fantastic Power BI reports on top of your datasets. Let them leverage the very same approved and trustworthy datasets in self-service cloud flows. Let’s maximize the return on investment into Power BI datasets you already have! The purpose of this blog post is to help you get started running queries against datasets in Power Automate based on the following three scenarios: Exporting data into csv files. This is a limited scenario because the ExecuteQueries REST API restricts query results to 100,000 rows or 1,000,000 values per query (whichever is encountered first) and the number of queries to 120 per minute. We have no plans to increase these limits. So, if you must export query results, keep the data quantities manageable. Testing Power BI datasets.The new Power Automate action makes this task a joyful walk in the park. Read in a table with test cases, iterate row-by-row, run a predefined query, compare the returned results with expected results, job done! And each individual query can impersonate a different user account if you want to test Row Level Security (RLS). Note that you must have dataset write permissions to use impersonation, which you generally have if you are the dataset owner or a member of the workspace admin, member, or contributor roles. Creating BI-driven cloud flows. An event takes place somewhere, another event must take place somewhere else, and BI-based logic in between determines how the events unfold. Power Automate offers a vast assortment of triggers. Perhaps someone uploaded a csv file to SharePoint Online, updated a record in a customer support database, or tweeted an important keyword, or perhaps updated a Power BI Metric, or a data alert just fired. There are hundreds of triggers, but whatever the event, your flow now needs to make some data-driven decisions. Instead of going to individual data silos and stitching results together in true one-off fashion, you can now rely on the curated data and verified measures of your shared and certified datasets that give you trustworthy results. Sounds too good to be true? Strap on your seatbelt! For starters, to export the results of a dataset query in csv format, you can begin with a manually triggered flow. Add a new step, search for Power BI in the connector search area, and select Power BI, and then on the Actions tab, select the action labelled Run a query against a dataset. Note that there is also a Run a JSON query against a dataset action if you want to construct the entire JSON request body from scratch, but the Run a query against a dataset action is much more user friendly because you can paste your DAX query straight into the Query textbox without having to deal with the JSON details. A simple DAX query would be ‘Evaluate <tablename>’ or perhaps ‘EVALUATE TOPN(100, <tablename>)’ to make sure the results stay within the row count limits. Of course, you can create more useful and more realistic DAX expressions using your favorite DAX editor tool. Using AdventureWorks sample data, a sample query could be ‘EVALUATE TOPN(100, vFactInternetSalesReason)’. Don’t forget to select the desired workspace and dataset conveniently from the listboxes in the action card. Save and test the flow. The results should look as in the following screenshot. The remaining steps are routine Power Automate actions. For csv output, you must convert the rows into a csv table. Edit the flow again, add a Create CSV table action, as in the screenshot below, and select the content object called First table rows from the Run a query against a dataset action as input. First table rows contains the results of your query. (In the future, the ExecuteQueries API might possibly support queries with multiple Evaluate blocks resulting in multiple tables in the response. For now, however, only a single Evaluate per query is supported.) The Create CSV table action converts the query results into a csv table and lets you customize the column headers if desired, but it doesn’t save the data. To save it, choose a Create file action as the next step, such as to create a file in SharePoint Online, and assign the Output from the Create CSV table action as the File content. Save and test the flow. The following screenshot shows the results. Of course, you should also have a new csv file with the expected data in your target SharePoint library. So far so good. How about we take this one step further by adding a Power Automate visual to a Power BI report that launches a cloud flow that exports a snapshot of interesting data, such as the Daily Support Incidents report depicted in the following screenshot. This report shows fictitious support call volume by day and by feature area along with the 30-day moving average of the incident count (green line) and an alert threshold based on the same moving average plus 2 times the 7-day standard deviation (light purple line). Be this as it may, notice the Take snapshot button in the upper right corner of the report? This button lets you export the support incidents of the most recent day directly from your report based on the current selections in the report. For details about how to add a Power Automate visual to a Power BI report, see the topic Trigger a cloud flow from any Power BI report in the product documentation. Among other things, you can add data fields to this visual, which then serve as input parameters to the cloud flow. For example, the report above lets you slice support incident counts based on feature areas. It therefore makes sense to pass the selected Area values to the visual so that the Take snapshot flow can limit the exported support incidents to the currently selected areas as well. If you follow the instructions in the product documentation to create a new cloud flow, the Power Automate visual automatically wires up the input parameters with the On Power BI button clicked trigger. You only need to get the input parameters from the On Power BI button clicked action into the query text of our Run a query against a dataset action. The following is the starting point for the query text. DEFINE VAR selectedAreas = TREATAS({"Data access", "Front-end"}, 'SupportRequests'[Area]) VAR maxAbsDate = MAX('SupportRequests'[Created]) VAR maxSelDate = CALCULATE(MAX('SupportRequests'[Created]), selectedAreas) EVALUATE ( SUMMARIZECOLUMNS( 'SupportRequests'[Created], 'SupportRequests'[Issue], 'SupportRequests'[Area], 'SupportRequests'[Subarea], 'SupportRequests'[Status], 'SupportRequests'[Owner], FILTER(SupportRequests, maxAbsDate = maxSelDate && 'SupportRequests'[Created] = maxSelDate), selectedAreas ) ) The above DAX query retrieves the support incidents for two areas "Data access" and "Front-end". Notice the use of the TREATAS function. As you can glean from the screenshot below, our cloud flow must replace these static values with a dynamically constructed string. Accordingly, our cloud flow must transform the array of Area values passed in from the report into a string that the flow then inserts into the query text. This is a multistep process. First, add a Select action, click in the From box, and select the Power BI data object. Then switch the Select action into text mode by clicking on the little T button for the Map, and then click into the Map textbox. You could directly choose the Area content object, but it is a better idea to use an expression that escapes any quotation marks in the values with a second quotation mark and encloses each value in quotation marks. This will make it easier to convert the array into a correctly formatted string subsequently. Properly escaped and quotation-mark enclosed, you only need to join the array members together to create the string that you then can insert into the query. The following table summarizes the steps. Action Expression Result Select concat('"', replace(item()?['Area'], '"', '""'), '"') [ "\"Data access\"", "\"Front-end\"", "\"Login/Auth\"", "\"REST APIs\"", "\"Web service\"" ] Run a query against a dataset join(variables('Selected Areas'), ', ') "\"Data access\", \"Front-end\", \"Login/Auth\", \"REST APIs\", \"Web service\"" And here is the resulting cloud flow that gets the job done. The Create CSV table and Create file steps are identical to the previous export example. Now you can export data directly from the convenience of your Power BI report! And that’s all there is to it. With these data-export scenarios under the belt, let’s now turn our attention to an even more dynamic scenario: dataset testing. The following screenshot shows a table with four columns: a test id, a query to run, a user identity in UPN format to impersonate, and the expected result of the query. Our Power Automate solution will parse each row, run the query with the specified user identity, and verify that the returned result matches the expected result. If the results don’t match, it will send an email to tell us. This time let’s create a scheduled flow to run the dataset tests daily. Add a List rows present in a table action from Excel Online, specify the correct location and path to your Excel workbook and select the table with the test definitions. Then add an Apply to each control action and select the dynamic output object value from the List rows present in a table action as the input. Now you can click on Add an action in the Apply to each action card and select the Power BI action Run a query against a dataset. Select your workspace and dataset, and then click into the Query text textbox to display the Dynamic Content dialog box. Select DAX Query as the input for the Query text. Then click on Show advanced options, click into the Impersonate user textbox, and select User UPN from the Dynamic Content dialog. The configuration should look as in the following screenshot. So far, this is relatively easy. Perhaps slightly more complicated is the comparison of the returned result for each query with its expected result. Let’s first complete the flow and then discuss the details. As the next step in the Apply to each action card, add a Condition control action. Click into the left textbox to display the Dynamic Content dialog, click on Expression, and enter the following expression: string(outputs('Run_a_query_against_a_dataset')?['body/firstTableRows']?[0]?['[Result]']). Click OK. The selected comparison should be is equal to and then click into the right box and choose Expected Result from the List rows present in a table action. As mentioned, if the returned result does not match the expected result, the flow should send an email notification. Just add a Send an email action to the If no card and specify recipient, subject line, and message body. It might be useful to include the test id, returned result, expected result, and the actual test query in the email message, as in the following screenshot. Test the flow with an intentionally wrong value in the expected result column of a test case. You should get an email promptly. The expression to get to the returned results requires a deeper explanation. All test queries use a SUMMARIZECOLUMNS function with the calculated result in a column called [Result]. Per ExecuteQueries REST API convention, columns that are renamed or created in the query will be returned within square brackets. And because the calculations each return a single value, the summary table has effectively only a single row. The following table breaks down the expression string(outputs('Run_a_query_against_a_dataset')?['body/firstTableRows']?[0]?['[Result]']) into its individual parts to get to that calculated value. Expression Description outputs('Run_a_query_against_a_dataset') Gets the entire response of the ExecuteQueries REST API for the action named Run a query against a dataset. outputs(…)?['body/firstTableRows'] Selects all the rows of the first result set within the response body. outputs(…)?[…]?[0] Selects the first row within all the rows of the first result set. outputs(…)?[…]?[0]?['[Result]'] Selects the value of the [Result] column of the first row. string(…) Converts the selected value into a string. This is necessary because the returned results might be of any data type while the List rows present in a table action reads the expected result value as a string. And there you have it. Testing datasets can be so easy, including impersonation if your dataset is RLS-enabled! But wait there is more! BI-driven cloud flows! Going back to the earlier Daily Support Incidents example, wouldn’t you want to know more about this massive spike in support volume on the most recent day? Way over the threshold! This support department is getting hammered! What caused this spike? And perhaps even more important, which support engineers would be best suited to help to get this situation back under control quickly? A BI-driven cloud flow can deliver these answers before you even ask the questions! The Daily Support Incidents report already measures the most recent support volume and calculates the alert threshold. Out of these two parameters, we can construct a trigger for a cloud flow. One option is to use a data alert, as demonstrated in the How-to guide Integrate Power BI data alerts with Power Automate in the product documentation. Yet, data alerts use static threshold values while our alert threshold is dynamic in nature because it relies on moving average and standard deviation. Fortunately, there is a much, much better choice these days: Power BI Metrics connected to data values! Power BI Metrics, too, can be integrated into a Power Automate flow, as explained in detail in Use Power Automate to update goals automatically in the product documentation. Note that Power BI Metrics is the new name of the feature formerly known as Goals. Customer feedback during the goals preview indicated that the old name caused confusion. Power BI Metrics does indeed convey much more intuitively the purpose of measuring achievement and progress in an effort or initiative, but the Metrics-related Power Automate actions are still labeled ‘Goals’ until the name changes are fully deployed in Power Automate as well. Because the changes are not fully rolled out yet, the following explanations still refer to goals in the Power Automate actions. A huge advantage of Power BI Metrics is that data-connected Metrics can apply slicers and filters. This makes it very easy to define top-level and submetrics. Take a look at the following scorecard. It has a submetric for each support area. It’s the same measures for support volume and alert threshold, just with different Area slicer selections. Status rules define that the metric status should be At risk if the support volume is greater than the alert threshold and On track otherwise. The metric name reflects the support area so that you can already glean important status information just from the scorecard. You can immediately see the Front-end area is running hot. Identifying the troubled area is a good start, but we want more actionable information delivered right to our fingertips when a critical situation unfolds. Accordingly, our cloud flow could use the trigger When status of a goal changes. Yet, our Product Support Scorecard has multiple goals/metrics. Fortunately, the Power BI connector also includes a Get multiple goals action. A scheduled flow can use this action to retrieve all the goals/metrics from the scorecard and then filter the list down to those that have a status of ‘At risk’. An Apply to each loop then iterates over these goals/metrics, queries the dataset for the desired actionable information, and then sends a notification email to the manager who owns the support area. The following screenshot depicts the flow and the resulting email message. The dataset queries in the above screenshot are abbreviated to save space. A subsequent blog post might explore these queries in greater detail. With the assumption that the goal/metric name matches the name of a support area, the first Run a query against a dataset action takes the name as an input parameter and returns the ids or keys of all the next-level subareas that exceeded their individual alert threshold. This finer level of detail within the broader support area helps to narrow down possible root causes more quickly. The flow uses the following expression to escape possible quotation marks in the goal/metric name and then again encloses the entire string in quotation marks, as already explained previously for the data export example: concat('"', replace(item()['name'], '"', '""'), '"'). The second query expects the subarea keys and the name of the support manager as input. A Select action creates the array with the subarea keys from the first query’s response, which the flow then converts into a string by using the join() function, as in the previous data export example. The support manager, on the other hand, can be found in the goal/metric’s owner property (item()['owner']). Again, all values are escaped and enclosed in quotation marks using the same concat() function as before. This second query looks up the support engineers reporting to the indicated manager and then analyzes their past and current support work items to summarize each engineer’s experience and current workload. For example, an engineer who has worked on more than 20 support cases in the same subareas is considered experienced while engineers with no work history have no experience. The remaining steps assemble the email message body. They are rather uneventful. You can create an HTML table in much the same way as a CSV table demonstrated earlier in this blog post. The flow also applies a few HTML and CSS cosmetics and then sends the email message on its merry way to the intended recipient. And that’s it for a whirlwind tour through Power Automate flows that use the new action to run queries against Power BI datasets. Hopefully, you find the covered examples relevant to your scenarios and helpful to get started taking your self-service BI game to the next level. The integration of the ExecuteQueries REST API with Power Automate empowers office workers and decision makers in new and innovative ways, while at the same time maximizing an organization’s return on investment in shared and certified datasets. You can compound the benefits further by combining the Run a query against a dataset action with other Power BI actions, such as to read, update, and even create Power BI Metrics. You no longer need to hunt down data silos and reinvent the wheel. Power BI and Power Automate let you reuse the curated data, verified business logic, and trustworthy analysis you already have in your datasets. You can build BI-driven flows in minutes without having to write any complex code. A few basic expressions to access properties and escape string values is all it takes. With self-service BI scenarios in Power Automate, your insight-driven business processes get even more insight-driven. You can indeed get answers before you even ask the questions. We hope that you are as excited about these groundbreaking new possibilities as we are. And as always, please provide us with feedback as you try out the Power BI actions in Power Automate. We would love to hear from you!
Power BI February 2022 Feature Summary
Welcome to the February 2022 update. We are thrilled to announce a variety of new and highly anticipated features such as new mobile formatting options, Dynamic M Query Parameters support for more data sources, deployment pipeline enhancements and improvements to downloading a PBIX file. There is more to explore, please continue to read on. Reporting New mobile formatting options Sensitivity labels downstream Inheritance Default label policies in Power BI Mandatory label policy New Format Pane – On by default Multi row card selection Data preparation Dynamic M Query Parameters now supports SQL Server and more data sources Data connectivity Amazon OpenSearch Service (New Connector) OpenSearch Project (New Connector) Digital Construction Works Insights (New Connector) Azure Databricks (Connector Update) BQE Core (Connector Update) MicroStrategy (Connector Update) Starburst Enterprise (Connector Update) Service Power BI Goals Notifications Multiple Owners My Workspace Deployment pipelines enhancements Download .pbix improvements Mobile Dark mode now available in the Power BI Windows app Power BI Windows app new look Embedded Analytics Support Power BI dataset as a data source for embedding paginated reports Azure Power BI Embedded A7 and A8 capacity nodes self-service New Dataset Permissions APIs Delete Dashboard API Access Token Expiry Callback Developers New Power BI visuals' category list in AppSource Expand entire level in matrix Dynamic format string support Visualizations New visuals in AppSource The editor’s pick for this quarter Download visual's sample file from the in-product AppSource Drill Down Graph PRO by ZoomCharts Plotly.js visual by Akvelon HTML Text Styler 2.0 (Microsoft certified) Multiple Sparklines by Excelnaccess.com Merged Bar Chart by Nova Silva Financial Reporting Matrix by Profitbase Inforiver premium edition by Lumel Zebra BI Tables version 5.2 by Zebra BI Other WebView2 now required Find out new features releasing in Power BI by using Power BI Release Plan app. Optimize your processes and gain deep insights with Process Mining New settings to enable or disable Map and Filled Map visuals Check out the video below for this month's summary: https://youtu.be/vNK4xygN8Xw Reporting New mobile formatting options Have you ever created a mobile-optimized report and struggled with its design? Did you want to change the text size in a visual to better fit the mobile screen but didn’t have a way to do it? Did you duplicate and hide visuals in web layout to have visuals that look good in mobile? Over the past several months we’ve been working to make it possible for you to format visuals in mobile layout, and to have those formatting changes affect only the mobile-optimized view. Today as part of Power BI Desktop’s February update we are thrilled to announce the public preview of this major improvement to the mobile-optimized report authoring experience. To enjoy the new mobile formatting experience, please switch on the “Modify visuals settings for mobile layout” preview feature (File > Options and settings > Options > Preview features > Modify visuals settings for mobile layout). For more details about the new capabilities, check out the full blog post here. Sensitivity labels downstream Inheritance Downstream inheritance enables you to automatically apply a dataset’s or report’s sensitivity label on all downstream reports and dashboards. When a sensitivity label is applied to a dataset or report in the Power BI service, the label will trickle down and be applied to content that is built from that dataset or report as well. Downstream inheritance is now generally available. For example, when a label is applied to the dataset “Customer profitability”, that label gets applied to the dataset’s downstream content. Sensitivity label downstream inheritance in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Docs Default label policies in Power BI Default label policies enable you to define a baseline level of protection to be applied to Power BI files and to artifacts in the Power BI service. This capability is now generally available. Default labeling applies when you create a new file in Power BI Desktop or a new dataset or report in the Power BI service. The default label is set automatically on the new file or artifact, without interfering with your workflow. Default label policy in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Docs Mandatory label policy Mandatory label policies enable organizations to ensure that MIP sensitivity labels will be applied to new content when it is created in or uploaded to Power BI. This capability is now generally available. When a user tries to save a PBIX file in Power BI Desktop, or a Power BI artifact in the service, that doesn’t have a sensitivity label applied, you will be prompted to choose a label before the item will be saved. Also, the option to remove a label isn’t available when a mandatory label policy applies. New Format Pane – On by default The new format pane is now on by default for users upgrading to the February release. We’ve added a notification dialog to call attention to this change. If you need to turn this preview off, you can find the preview switch from: File > Options and settings > Options > Preview Features > New format pane. Please submit your feedback directly in the comments of this blog post or add to the discussion via our new “share feedback” link next to the preview switch so we can continue to improve! Improvements added this month include: Outline settings for matrix and table have been re-added, previously missing. Ability to toggle axis title independent of axis has been re-added, previously missing. Ability to add shade area to combo charts has been re-added, previously missing. Ability to customize marker shape by series for scatter charts has been re-added, previously missing. Minor reordering of the field wells within the Build pane to match the order of the new format pane cards for pie chart, donut chart, and scatter chart. Multi row card selection You can now select rows in your multi row card to cross highlight and cross filter the other visuals in your report! Unselected rows will dim to help you identify which rows you have selected, and you can ctrl or shift click to select multiple rows at once. This brings interactivity in multi row cards closer to parity with our other visual offerings. UPDATE: This feature did not ship in the February 2022 release. It will be coming in the March release instead. Data preparation Dynamic M Query Parameters now supports SQL Server and more data sources When Dynamic M Query Parameters was released, the feature supported M-based data sources (such has Azure Data Explorer, Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake and more) but did not support other sources like SQL Server. This month we’re excited to announce that Dynamic M Query Parameters now supports more DirectQuery data sources: T-SQL based data sources: SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Synapse SQL pools (such as Azure Synapse Analytics), and Synapse SQL OnDemand pools Oracle Teradata Dataflows (enhanced compute engine enabled) SAP Hana Relational As a refresher, Dynamic M Query Parameters is preview feature that allows report viewers to dynamically set the value(s) for an M Query Parameter using filters or slicers. This feature can be especially useful for query performance optimizations without sacrificing report interactivity. To learn more about the feature, check out our documentation or video demo. Data connectivity Amazon OpenSearch Service (New Connector) We are excited to release the new Amazon OpenSearch Service connector, by Amazon! Below is a short introduction about the connector from the Amazon team. Amazon OpenSearch Service now supports integrating with Microsoft Power BI, a business analytics service that delivers insights to enable fast, informed decisions. Powered by the OpenSearch ODBC Driver you can now integrate your Microsoft Power BI environment with your Amazon OpenSearch Service domains using the OpenSearch SQL Engine. The OpenSearch SQL Engine uses Structured Query Language (SQL) to manifest search results in a tabular format. One of the key features of this engine is the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver which enables you to integrate various business intelligence (BI) and analytics applications with OpenSearch. You can now connect Amazon OpenSearch Service with Microsoft PowerBI to create sophisticated and intelligent data visualizations on top of the search results obtained from Amazon OpenSearch Service by leveraging the PowerBI Integration, to provide data insights. Amazon OpenSearch Service PowerBI integration is powered by OpenSearch, an Apache 2.0-licensed project. OpenSearch Project (New Connector) We are excited to release the new OpenSearch Project connector, by Amazon! Below is a short introduction about the connector from the Amazon team. OpenSearch project now supports integrating with Microsoft Power BI, a business analytics service that delivers insights to enable fast, informed decisions. Powered by the OpenSearch ODBC Driver you can now integrate your Microsoft Power BI environment with your OpenSearch project using the OpenSearch SQL Engine. The OpenSearch SQL Engine uses Structured Query Language (SQL) to manifest search results in a tabular format. One of the key features of this engine is the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver which enables you to integrate various business intelligence (BI) and analytics applications with OpenSearch. You can now connect OpenSearch with Microsoft PowerBI to create sophisticated and intelligent data visualizations on top of the search results obtained from OpenSearch by leveraging the PowerBI Integration, to provide data insights. OpenSearch project PowerBI integration is powered by OpenSearch, an Apache 2.0-licensed project. Digital Construction Works Insights (New Connector) We are also excited to announce the release of the new Digital Construction Works Insights connector! Here are a few notes from the Digital Construction Works (DCW) team below. We are very excited to release the first version of the Digital Construction Works (DCW) PowerBi Data Connector! This connector works with data from your DCW Integrations Platform Organizational and Project Data Warehouses. It enables you to query all of your project data via one single source and build impressive visuals and reports. Here’s how: The DCW Insights connector works using a standard OData V4 connection to your DCW Platform API subscription. This connector allows you to query your project data via one single source. Simply enter the project URL in the connectors configuration screen and click OK. Secondarily, enter in your unique platform project API key to securely connect to your project. Data will be returned, and you will be able to build impressive visualizations and reports at your leisure. Refresh your reports automatically, keeping your construction and project scheduling dashboards up to date. We hope you enjoy using the connector and value any feedback! Please visit our website for more information on the DCW Integrations Platform. Azure Databricks (Connector Update) This update of the Azure Databricks connector adds the ability to provide custom SQL queries, by using the Power Query function ‘Databricks.Query’. BQE Core (Connector Update) The BQE Core connector has been updated. See notes from the BQE Core team below. What's new in BQE CORE Connector 3.0? Access to the budgetId field in Projects, which allows you to identify the budget linked to a project. MicroStrategy (Connector Update) The MicroStrategy connector has been updated. See notes from the MicroStrategy team below. Connector version: 2.4.5 Bug fixes/improvements: Added support for OIDC authentication Fixed issue with path detection on Power Bi online when “/“ was not added at the end of MicroStrategy REST API URL. Starburst Enterprise (Connector Update) The Starburst Enterprise connector has been updated. See notes from the Starburst team below. Broken catalogs are ignored when connecting to SEP or Starburst Galaxy. Previously, if any catalogs were broken the whole connection would fail. Service Power BI Goals We have a few exciting updates to announce for Power BI Goals. This month, we have updates on Teams notifications integration, the ability to add multiple owners to a goal, and the ability to create scorecards in My Workspace. Additionally, Goals is now available in all US Government clouds. Notifications The Power BI Teams notifications integration helps users stay up to date about the goals they’re responsible for without having to leave Teams to view the updates to the scorecard. With this month’s release, you’ll be notified when someone assigns you a goal, mentions you in a note, or when the status of a goal you own gets updated by an automated status rule. Goal assignment notifications Goal assignment notifications are sent when an owner is assigned or changed for a goal. The goal owner receives a Teams notification from the user assigning the goal if they have the Power BI app for Teams installed. They’ll get a notification right in the activity feed and as a banner (toast card). When they click the notification, the scorecard opens and the Details pane for the goal is shown. This notification will help users be aware of the goals that are assigned to them immediately, without relying on someone to tell them what scorecard their goals are on. Notifications for mentions These notifications help users get someone’s attention on a goal without having to leave the scorecard by tagging them in a note. When a user is @mentioned in a note on a new or existing check-in, they get an activity feed notification from the note creator, which opens the Details pane showing the note. Status update notifications This notification helps users get an immediate notification when the status of the goal gets updated by an automated status rule, so they don’t have to rely on checking their goals in the scorecards. The owner of the goal gets an activity feed notification from the user who configured the data connection in the case of connected goals or the user who edited the value in the case of manual goals. Note that you need to have the Power BI app for Microsoft Teams and the recipient needs to have access to the scorecards to get these notifications. Read the documentation to learn more. We are working on other Teams notifications as well as emails and Power BI mobile notifications. If you have any requests for specific notifications you’d like to see, please share in the comments below. Multiple Owners One common request we got from our users is the ability to add multiple owners to a single goal. You will now be able to do just that by typing additional names in the owner field of a goal. You can add up to five owners. These additional owners will also work seamlessly with notifications and Power Automate integrations. My Workspace You will now be able to create scorecards in My Workspace in Power BI, making it easier than ever to create and keep personal scorecards and share them out when they’re ready. Free users can author scorecards in My workspace, but a Pro license is required to share them. Deployment pipelines enhancements This month we have released highly anticipated features for deployment pipelines Azure DevOps extension (Preview)- automate your deployments and pipeline creation using Tasks in your Azure pipeline. Multiple pipelines working together- sync the connections between items managed in different pipelines. Dataflows GA and support for linked entities Please find more details in this blog post. Download .pbix improvements We have been hard at work enabling the download a .pbix file preview feature in more scenarios. Thanks to everyone who provided input – we know this is an important topic to many of you! Previously, you were not able to download a .pbix file for reports when the report connected to a single dataset and that dataset was configured for large models, incremental refresh or had been modified by using the XMLA endpoint. Starting with this release, that limitation has been partially removed and we plan to make more improvements in the future. Specifically, starting with this release you can download a .pbix file for reports, that meet the following requirements: the report was created in Power BI Desktop the report was published or manually uploaded to the Power BI Service the report connects in live mode to a dataset (not using DirectQuery) the dataset that the report connects to is configured for large models, incremental refresh or has been modified using the XMLA endpoint. Note that downloading a .pbix for such a dataset itself is not supported, nor can a report be downloaded if it was created on the Power BI service and connects to such a dataset. Please refer to our documentation for more information and an up-to-date overview of considerations and limitations. We have more improvements planned, so stay tuned for more updates in this space. Mobile Dark mode now available in the Power BI Windows app The Power BI app for Windows is designed and optimized for viewing and interacting with Power BI content. In this update we’ve added support for dark mode. When the app is in dark mode, all screens and dialogs are presented in a dark theme, reducing the brightness of the screen, and making it easier to view it. The Power BI content itself, however, such as reports and dashboards, does not change - the colors and themes published by the person who created the content remain the same. You can choose between the light and dark themes in the app’s appearance settings, or you can leave the setting as “System default”, in which case the app will use whatever theme your operating system is using. Power BI Windows app new look The Power BI Windows app new look has now become standard, and the old look is no longer available. Starting with this update, when you open the Power BI Windows app, it will open directly in the new look, and you’ll land on the new home page, where you can easily find and access the most frequent and recent items you usually use in Power BI. Embedded Analytics Support Power BI dataset as a data source for embedding paginated reports With Power BI embedded analytics, ISVs and customers can create Power BI content that displays paginated reports in a fully integrated and interactive application. They can embed paginated reports using the solution that works best for you, embed for your customers, or embed for your organization. Until now, Power BI dataset was not supported as a datasource for those scenarios, and now we’re enabling it. When embedding a paginated report with a Power BI dataset as a datasource for the embed for your customers scenario, you need a service principal and a multi-resource embed token, that contains a new parameter called “XMLA permissions”. Using this parameter, ISVs and customers can control the access to XMLA endpoints with the embed token. For allowing embedding of paginated report with a Power BI dataset as a datasource a "Read Only” value is required. Power BI datasets with datasources that require single sign-on (SSO) are not supported yet, but that’s coming soon. Azure Power BI Embedded A7 and A8 capacity nodes self-service A7 is like P4 capacity node, carrying 64 v-cores and 200GB RAM. A8 is like P5 capacity node, carrying 128 v-cores and 400GB RAM. Both capacity nodes could be purchased by special request only, and now we’ve enabled their purchase in self-service, either through the Azure Portal or using an ARM API. Self-service purchase of A7 and A8 in sovereign cloud will be enabled later this year. New Dataset Permissions APIs The dataset permissions APIs are a set of APIs that allow you to easily manage the permissions of your datasets to allow users to perform read, reshare and explore (build) operations. This lets you manage your datasets not only through the Power BI service, but also through your application. The APIs that are currently supported are PUT and POST. The POST API allows you to grant new permissions to a dataset. It requires having read and reshare permissions for the dataset, and all the permissions you wish to grant. Keep in mind that the POST API cannot be used for deleting permissions, and that calling the API with permissions which the target already has will have no effect. The PUT API lets you update the target’s permissions to a given dataset. It requires having read, write and reshare permissions for the dataset, and all the permissions you wish to update. The PUT API cannot be used for changing write permissions or any folder level inherited permissions. This API also supports removing all permissions for a dataset for a given target. Click here for more information, examples, and limitations. Delete Dashboard API You can now programmatically delete dashboards from your workspaces using the deleteDashboard and deleteDashboardInGroup APIs. Access Token Expiry Callback Embedding Power BI artifacts requires the use of access tokens, which have an expiration time and must be refreshed before expiration to allow a continuous embedding experience. When using an Azure AD token for the embed for your organization scenario, this can now be done automatically by setting an event hook in your embedding configuration parameters which will call a function responsible for generating new tokens and assign the generated token to the embedded artifact before the expiration of the token. With this new configuration, all you need to do is provide the token generating function, and the rest will be taken care of automatically so that your users will get a fluent and continuous experience. Learn more about this here. Developers New Power BI visuals' category list in AppSource You can now log-in to Partner Center and retag your visuals with the new categories. The revised category list has more, easier to understand options to help report authors find a suitable visual easily and quickly. Please note that you can tag a visual with up to two categories from the list. If your visual was previously tagged with a category that has been removed, update your visual with a new one. The new categories are: Comparison Correlation Distribution Flow Filters Infographics KPIs Narratives Maps Part-to-Whole R visuals Change over time Other Expand entire level in matrix With the 4.2 API release you can expand/collapse entire level programmatically. For more details about the new API see this article. Note that if you need to expand a large number of data points, you can use the fetch more data API with the expand/collapse API. Dynamic format string support In order to support dynamic format string in your custom visual, add the following definition to capabilities.json "objects": { "general": { "properties": { "formatString": { "type": { "formatting": { "formatString": true } } } } }, It is available from API 4.2. Visualizations New visuals in AppSource The following are new visuals this update: Line with Bubble Chart Custom tree view with bar chart Custom Slicer Bar Chart with Top N Selection Merged_Bar_Chart Clustered Stack Chart 100% Stacked Column chart with value label (Not %) Bullet_Chart Ultimate Upset Plot Lollipop Column Visual Line Dot Chart Overlapped Bar Chart Scatter Plot with Line marks (instead of Dots) Power ON Visual Planner Service The editor’s pick for this quarter Acterys Reporting PmBI - Process Mining by ProcessM Merged Bar Chart Timeline Box Inforiver Professional Matrix / Table Download visual's sample file from the in-product AppSource Now you can click on "Download Sample" from the visual page in the in-product AppSource and download sample Power BI report created by the visual publisher. The sample report demonstrates what the visual looks like and how it can be used. It can also include useful comments, tips, and tricks from the publisher. hical_user_interface_text_application_Description_automatically_generated Drill Down Graph PRO by ZoomCharts Drill Down Graph PRO is the first true graph visual for Power BI. Now you can build networks and explore relations among data points, identify outliers and discover patterns. All while enjoying exceptional navigation, cross-chart filtering, and advanced customization options. Drill Down Graph PRO keeps the bar high for custom visuals by ZoomCharts through being mobile friendly and supporting interactions, selections, custom and native tooltips, filtering, fetching more data, bookmarks, and context menu. Main features include: Multiple graph layout options On-chart interactions Focus node support Auras Cross-Chart Filtering Multiple node selection Most popular use cases: Banking & Finance - transactional data, AML analysis. Information Technologies – asset management, IT infrastructure, IoT monitoring. Cybersecurity & Risk Management – business process analysis, attack vector prevention. Logistics & Transportation – fleet management, stock management, parcel tracking. Sales & Marketing – community detection, commercial account management, web analytics and more. To evaluate Drill Down Graph PRO on your own, get it now from the AppSource! https://vimeo.com/665504240/a8db1ef3de Learn More about our Drill Down Graph Pro. Plotly.js visual by Akvelon Plotly.js visual by Akvelon Inc., empowers data scientists to create custom sophisticated charts in Power BI using a potent combination of empowers data scientists to create custom sophisticated charts in Power BI using a potent combination Plotly.js and react-chart-editor. Visual allows users to visualize data by using Plotly.js capabilities and provides a chart editor to create and customize more than 40 types of charts in Power BI. Plotly.js community members can start using Plotly.js visual in Power BI with support for new chart types in the Power BI community: Contour Plots 2d Density Plots Ternary Plots Ribbon Plots 3D Surface Plots 3D Scatter Plot 3D Mesh Plots 3D Line Plots 3D charts help visualize complex data, bringing an extra dimension to Power BI's visualization capabilities. If you aren't familiar with the tool or Plotly graphing library you can learn by using official documentation of plotly or tutorials of Chart Studio. HTML Text Styler 2.0 (Microsoft certified) The HTML Text Styler is now Microsoft certified. This means that Microsoft has inspected the source code of the visual and confirms that it is safe to use. For the end-user this means that the visual can now be exported to PDF and PowerPoint from Power BI Service and that it is also displayed in e-mail subscriptions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjdTQME9DGc What makes the HTML Text Styler so powerful? With the combination of DAX and HTML it is possible to create all kind of dynamic and cool elements in Power BI. It can be used for custom KPI cards, fully formatted tables, dynamic text, animated GIFs and much more. In this video, we walk you through our sample report which contains just a couple of examples of elements that can be created with the visual. To get started, we recommend downloading the sample report and taking a look at the online knowledge base. For users that prefer a private one-on-one session, free demo sessions can be scheduled here. To learn more about the visual, visit kteam.ch/text-styler. Multiple Sparklines by Excelnaccess.com Many new features were added to “Multiple sparklines” after its initial release in May 2021. 1. Combo Chart menu Now you can add a line plus column chart or a double line chart as a micro chart (sparkline). If you choose “Chart Type” as “Double Line” you can also conditionally color the area between them. 2. Conditional coloring ebruary_2022_Feature_Summary 3. Waterfall Chart You can insert a vertical waterfall sparkline. You can set a bar as “pillar“ or “variance” by right clicking the cell as shown in the image below. 4. Dumbell Chart Dumbbell or Range Bar graph is useful for illustrating change and comparing the distance between two groups of data points. You can create this chart just like a bullet chart. You need to have 2 columns (start values and end values) against each category. 5. Waffle Chart and Ratings Chart mmary 6. Customized headings Now you can add customized heading for “Combo chart” and “Bullet Charts” Download this visual from APPSOURCE For more information visit https://www.excelnaccess.com/sparklines/ Merged Bar Chart by Nova Silva On the surface the Merged Bar Chart has a lot of similarities with small multiples. The key difference is the way these charts allow you to compare values. The Merged Bar Chart focusses on comparing multiple measures (like EBITDA & Marketcap in the example below) within one specific categorical variable (here Industries of S&P 500 stocks). Based on your excellent feedback we have added several exciting features to this visual: Conditional formatting: bars within a measure can change color (the example above shows the EBITDA/FTE in red when it concerns a negative revenue growth) Data Labels: besides the bar you can show the data label. You can even change the location of the labels. Partial highlighting: when your selection results in a partial match (in the example above this is the selection of Washington State) the partial highlight will display this with the highlighted color. Do you want to compare multiple independent measures? Try the Merged Bar Chart now by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate this visual within Power BI Desktop. Please visit us: https://visuals.novasilva.com for questions or remarks. Financial Reporting Matrix by Profitbase With the Financial Reporting Matrix you can develop and maintain your reports in one place using JSON, embed formulas, styling and formatting in a JSON-string, speeding up the process of building your reports, while requiring a minimum of DAX. This is particularly useful if you want to ensure consistency across multiple reports with the same layout. https://youtu.be/2VZKxOQgQrU JSON allows you to centrally control reports across your organization: Reports have the same structure KPI or Ratios calculations are consistent Correct format strings per row Highlight important rows using styling Change all reports at once Add a new KPI or Ratio in the source à it appears in all reports Change a calculation à change happens in all reports After the groundwork is done using JSON, you are still free to build on top of that using the full flexibility of the Financial Reporting Matrix: Adding custom rows Applying company/customer specific themes Expand/collapse columns Conditionally hide columns + much more And all files used in the video are available from our GitHub, if you’re curious! Please watch the below videos about highlighted new features: Ragged hierarchy Hide empty rows Conditional formatting based on Row Level Get the visual from AppSource and find more videos here! Inforiver premium edition by Lumel Inforiver delivers the fastest way to build reports in Power BI. The Inforiver premium edition includes everything available in Standard and Professional editions (such as number formatting, calculated rows & columns, notes & annotations, conditional formatting and in-cell visualizations), and additional new capabilities such as manual data capture / inputs for budgets/forecasts, advanced what-if simulations, formatted & paginated exports to PDF & excel, blended measures, and more. These additional capabilities go beyond reporting, visualization & analysis, and unlock new use cases such as sales planning, financial budgeting, operations forecasting and more. For additional information see the blog on Inforiver and the feature preview video. Zebra BI Tables version 5.2 by Zebra BI The 5.2 version of Zebra BI Tables visual brings the ability to look at multiple plans and forecasts, bookmark most of the settings, and other improvements that empower you to create even more actionable and insightful reports! https://youtu.be/81g_POK2yNU With Multiforecast and Multiplan functionality of Zebra BI Tables 5.2, you can simply add up to three measures for Forecast and/or Plan and compare several values against your performance to always stay flexible and agile. Zebra BI automatically adds calculations for absolute and relative variances for each value that you add. Everything remains completely flexible. Visualize each measure with a different chart type where Zebra BI distinguishes between the measures with slight moderations of the chart pattern. Bookmarkable settings From now on, you can select the settings you want to bookmark and save the view to make it easier for the report viewers to check the report page most relevant to them. Apply this to different chart settings, layouts, titles, data labels, and design options. For other important new features and improvements in the Zebra BI Tables visual, visit Zebra BI for Power BI – 5.2. and watch the video to learn about new functionality in details. Other WebView2 now required As announced in October last year, starting with this release, we will require WebView2 to be installed on your machine. Please refer to this blog post to learn more about how to install WebView2 if you have not done so already. Also, please refer to the troubleshooting information available here in case you are having any issues. Find out new features releasing in Power BI by using Power BI Release Plan app. We are very excited to announce a new template app that describes new features releasing in Power BI! The Power BI Release Plan app visualizes features from the Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans, making it easy for organizations to track monthly releases and to stay up to date with upcoming features! With searchable text and direct links to feature details, organizations can now easily share the excitement of each Power BI release! The Power BI Release Plan app is brought to you by the Power BI team and is available on AppSource. Learn more about the app’s functionality in our documentation. Optimize your processes and gain deep insights with Process Mining Now with the preview of process mining in process advisor, which leverages Power BI Embedded, you can use your business data to produce analytics and detailed process maps, gleaning new insights into ways to optimize your business processes. Learn More about how to Optimize your Processes and Gain Deep Insights with Process Mining. New settings to enable or disable Map and Filled Map visuals Back in October, we announced that we were introducing a tenant-level setting to enable or disable Bing Maps visuals for all users signed in on that tenant. This setting was made available in the Admin Portal on the Service, and new tenants from then on were required to explicitly opt-in to the Bing Maps service before the Map and Filled Map visuals can be used. We mentioned that these changes would make their way to Power BI Desktop in a future release, and that until then, report authors may see inconsistencies between what they can see in Power BI Desktop and what their users can access on the Service. This release aligns the behaviors between Desktop and Service. When a user is signed in on Power BI Desktop, the Map and Filled Map visuals will be enabled or disabled based on their organization’s Admin settings. If a user on Power BI Desktop attempts to view a Map visual when their tenant has not enabled the feature, they will be prompted to ask their admin to enable it: When a user is not signed in, the visuals will be enabled based on a new setting in File -> Options and Settings -> Options -> Global -> Security named “Use Map and Filled Map Visuals.” Just like with new tenants, new Power BI users will need to explicitly opt in to using these visuals. Otherwise, attempting to create a map visual will prompt users to enable them in their settings. That is all for this month! Please continue sending us your feedback and do not forget to vote for other features that you would like to see in Power BI! We hope that you enjoy the update! If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, please leave us a review. Also, don't forget to vote on your favorite feature this month over on our community website. As always, keep voting on Ideas to help us determine what to build next. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
