Data Visualization — Data Goblins Blog

In this article, I explain several use-cases for semantic-link-labs with reports, which involves programmatic modifications to report metadata to streamline certain report management tasks. This article explains how to do this with standard reports; future articles will elaborate about using the methods available for PBIR.

Oct 1

Oct 1 Managing Power BI reports or models using semantic-link-labs

Data Modelling, Data Visualization, External Tools

In this article, I introduce semantic-link-labs, a library based upon semantic-link that you can use in Microsoft Fabric notebooks to help you build, use, manage, and audit not only semantic models, but also reports and other items or parts of Fabric.

Jan 30

Jan 30 Fix Power BI “Something is wrong with one or more fields”

In this article, we look at a 5-step process to replace fields in a report when you’ve re-named, moved, or deleted them in the model. You can also use this method to “hot swap” different fields in and out of a visual without losing formatting. This isn’t officially supported, but it’s easy and it’s a huge time-saver.

Jan 4

Jan 4 The Quality Problem: A Call-to-Arms

Data Prep, Data Modelling, Data Culture & Adoption, Governance, Data Visualization

In this article, I discuss why quality is a often problem for data and analytics, and how DataOps can help.

Sep 5

Sep 5 KPIs and cards in Power BI

In this collaboration with Štěpán Rešl, I share some tips and templates to design effective KPI visuals.

Jul 28

Jul 28 Basic Line Charts in Power BI

In this article, I share the different variants of line charts you can create with Power BI, and provide free templates to try them yourself. I also discuss the impact of chart type selection and formatting in Power BI visuals, in the context of line charts.

Jul 26

Jul 26 Bar Charts in Power BI

Data Culture & Adoption, Data Visualization

In this article, I share the different variants of bar charts you can create with Power BI, and provide free templates to try them yourself. I also discuss the impact of “Macguyvering” Power BI visuals too far.

May 24

May 24 Overview of new Microsoft Fabric Power BI Announcements

Data Modelling, Administration, Data Culture & Adoption, Data Visualization, Getting/Transforming Data, Governance/Administration

In this short article, I share a visual overview of the MS Build announcements for Microsoft Fabric that are relevant for Power BI. Hopefully this makes it less overwhelming.

Apr 4

Apr 4 How to manage “Reporting Objects” in a Power BI Dataset

Data Modelling, Data Visualization, Getting/Transforming Data

In this article, we tackle the growing issue of ‘report-specific objects’, dataset measures and tables created to fill specific report visual requirements, why they negatively impact self-service users, and best practices to mitigate this impact.

Feb 28

Feb 28 “It Depends” - Power BI Best Practices & Optimizations

Data Modelling, Data Visualization, Getting/Transforming Data

In this article, we look at the difference between best practices and optimizations. We also define a four-step method to tackle complex issues with dataset/report performance and design.

Dec 27

Dec 27 Learn Power BI with Sample Datasets: Part 2 - Personal Data Projects

In this post, we examine how personal data can be used in personal projects to help us learn Power BI.

Dec 20

Dec 20 Learn Power BI with Sample Datasets: Part 1 - Contoso Data Generator

In this post, we look at how to create our own SQL Database and fill it with data from the Contoso Data Generator, so we can get some hands-on Power BI experience.

Nov 8

Nov 8 Measure Selection in Power BI

In this article, we compare different methods to let users to dynamically select measures in reports & pivot tables.

Oct 18

Oct 18 Power BI Dashboard Checklist

In this article, we look at what we need to make a good dashboard, and some important considerations with access & permissions

Oct 4

Oct 4 Power BI Data Visualization - Ideas & Wishlist

Power BI is a powerful tool that has also enabled millions of people worldwide to easily visualize & explore their data. Despite that, inflexibility to the visualization configuration and formatting can make it difficult to fulfill visual requirements. What are some of the biggest feature gaps with data visualization in Power BI, and why is this important?

Sep 1

Sep 1 Power BI Report Checklist

In this post I list some tips for checking to make sure your report is ready for handover to someone else.

Jul 19

Jul 19 “We need this report in Power BI”

Data Culture & Adoption, Data Visualization

In this article, I discuss 3 common approaches to collecting reporting requirements, arguing in favor of the third approach - working iteratively & collaboratively with business users to make the report.

Jul 5

Jul 5 Disable Auto-scaling in Power BI Visuals

‘Responsive Visuals’ is a lesser-known feature that in general helps users make better graphs without fawning over visual settings & parameters. However, disabling it might be necessary at times when you are trying to achieve a specific result that Power BI default visuals won’t seem to permit.

Jun 28

Jun 28 Visualize Power BI Dependencies with Tabular Editor and Mermaid