Book Image

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide - Third Edition

By : Devin Knight, Erin Ostrowsky, Mitchell Pearson, Bradley Schacht
Book Image

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide - Third Edition

By: Devin Knight, Erin Ostrowsky, Mitchell Pearson, Bradley Schacht

Overview of this book

Updated with the latest features and improvements in Power BI, this fast-paced yet comprehensive guide will help you master the core concepts of data visualization quickly. You’ll learn how to install Power BI, design effective data models, and build basic dashboards and visualizations to help you make better business decisions. This new edition will also help you bridge the gap between MS Excel and Power BI. Throughout this book, you’ll learn how to obtain data from a variety of sources and clean it using the Power Query Editor. You’ll also start designing data models to navigate and explore relationships within your data and building DAX formulas to make data easier to work with. Visualizing data is a key element of this book, so there’s an emphasis on helping you get to grips with data visualization styles and enhanced digital storytelling. As you progress, you’ll start building your own dataflows, gain an understanding of the Common Data Model, and automate dataflow refreshes to eradicate data cleaning inefficiency. You’ll learn how to administer your organization's Power BI environment so that deployment can be made seamless, data refreshes can run properly, and security can be fully implemented. By the end of this Power BI book, you’ll know how to get the most out of Power BI for better business intelligence.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
11
Other Books You May Enjoy
12
Index

Visualizing data using cards

The ways for Power BI to get detailed data into the hands of a user are vast. Tables, matrices, bar charts, and combo charts all provide large quantities of data to users in a single visual. Sometimes, like with a KPI, users just need to see a number. When the trend or target components of a KPI are not required, turn to the Card visualization. The Card is the most basic of visuals displaying only a single value. If slightly more detail is necessary but required at a group level, look to the Multi-row card.

Before moving on, create a new report page called Card Data.

Card

The Card is useful for highlighting a series of related metrics in a dashboard, displaying the most recent or oldest date in a dataset, and calling out important numbers for a detailed report. Some formatting options are available to change the font size or color, but at its core, the card visual just displays a single value.

Let’s look at setting up a Card:

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