Power BI — Data Goblins Blog

All tagged Power BI

Oct 1

Oct 1 Recover Power BI reports or models that you can’t download

In this article, I explain several approaches to recover models and reports from a Power BI workspace when the Download this file (.pbix) option is greyed out. These methods involve use of either external tools or a Fabric notebook.

Oct 1

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

Kurt Buhler

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.

Sep 5

Sep 5 Myths, Magic, and Copilot for Power BI

Kurt Buhler

Other Topics

In this article, I explain Copilot in Fabric and Copilot in Power BI, walking through what it is, how it works, and three common scenarios when it might be used. More importantly, I evaluate whether using it over other, non-AI approaches makes sense, and evaluate the current state.

Apr 16

Apr 16 Fabric is a team sport

Kurt Buhler

Other Topics

In this article, I share some unfiltered thoughts about why it’s unrealistic to expect one person to know everything in Fabric, and concerns I have about unrealistic expectations being put in the market regarding Fabric.

Jan 30

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

Kurt Buhler

Data Visualization

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

Kurt Buhler

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.

Oct 18

Oct 18 Case-sensitive models in Power BI: consequences & considerations

Kurt Buhler

Data Modelling

In this short article, we look at the consequences of having a case-specific collation in your Power BI semantic model. This is particularly important as Direct Lake models created in the Fabric user experience have a case-sensitive collation applied, automatically.

Oct 17

Oct 17 How to use Tableau with Power BI and Fabric

Kurt Buhler

Getting/Transforming Data, Governance/Administration

In this post, I’ll explain the how and why of:

How to connect Tableau to Power BI semantic models.
How to connect Tableau to Fabric lakehouses (and other items that have a SQL endpoint).

Oct 8

Oct 8 Does it feel like too much?

Kurt Buhler

Other Topics

If you feel like the pace and volume of updates surrounding Power BI have increased, you’re not alone. In this article, I discuss why many people feel like “it’s just too much” lately, why that’s a problem, and what we might do about it.

Sep 5

Sep 5 KPIs and cards in Power BI

Kurt Buhler

Data Visualization

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

Aug 29

Aug 29 How to set table or matrix column widths in a Power BI report

Kurt Buhler

Other Topics

In this article, I share a quick and easy way to manually set table and matrix column widths in Power BI by using the new Power BI Projects (.pbip) file format. This is an unsupported feature, but it works reliably.

Aug 22

Aug 22 Analyze Video Game Data for Personal Data Projects

Kurt Buhler

Other Topics

In this article, we examine why video games provide the perfect data sources for learning Fabric, Power BI, and honing your data skills, in general.

Aug 2

Aug 2 Solve the Right Problems

Kurt Buhler

Data Culture & Adoption

In this article, we discuss how we might have more impact and deliver more value with data and analytics by shifting our mentality from a focus on technical problems to equal focus on technical, business and adoption problems.

Aug 1

Aug 1 Format Power Query in Power BI (Updated)

Kurt Buhler

Data Modelling

This short post explains how to format Power Query automatically in Tabular Editor using a C# Script to call the powerqueryformatter API.

Jul 28

Jul 28 Basic Line Charts in Power BI

Kurt Buhler

Data Visualization

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

Kurt Buhler

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 28

May 28 DAX.do quiz

Kurt Buhler

May 24 Overview of new Microsoft Fabric Power BI Announcements

Kurt Buhler

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 25

Apr 25 How to unlock new features in Power BI datasets managed with Tabular Editor

Kurt Buhler

Data Modelling

In this short article, I show you how to upgrade the compatibility level of models managed in Tabular Editor to be able to use new/preview features like Dynamic Format Strings.

Apr 4

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

Kurt Buhler

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.