Power BI

Top 23 Analytics Tricks in

Power BI

Founder, YL Academy (Yoda Learning)

Table of Contents

01. Power BI Desktop – How does the UI look? 12. Scatter Chart for Analytics
02. Common Settings to Format Visuals 13. Decomposition Tree
03. Slicer 14. Create bins using “New Group” to explore data
04. Card & Multi-Row Card patterns
05. Donut + Card 15. Custom Visuals
06. Clustered Column Analytics 16. Custom Visuals: Power KPI Matrix
07. Gauge 17. Custom Visuals: Attribute Slicer
08. Waterfall 18. Custom Visuals: Calendar by Tallan
09. Line: Time Series Analytics 19. Custom Visuals: Time Brush Slicer
10. Table & Matrix Heat Map & Data Bars 20. Custom Visuals: Table Sorter
11. Create automatic clusters with >2 variable using Table 21. Custom Themes
(not Matrix) 22. Q&A: Ask a question using natural language
23. Bonus: Our videos on YouTube

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Top 4 Custom Visuals in Power BI How to Create Line Chart and Area Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/VpeLFZdUvNA https://youtu.be/Iy5FGdTrXw4

How to Use Decomposition Tree Visual in Power BI How to create a table to a matrix in Power BI
https://youtu.be/Lb5Vn8E7U2Q https://youtu.be/pu0a070_xPA

Conditional Formatting in Power Bi Matrix Visual How to create 100% Stacked Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/klX7JQ-WWf4 https://youtu.be/iqqulMi_-UU

How to use Treemap Chart in Microsoft Power BI How to create Ribbon Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/50vqQrid1mQ https://youtu.be/FM_LZ0otwdI

Power BI : Scatter Chart Tricks from Scratch How to Create Pie & Donut Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/0RVNkemPmRY https://youtu.be/UsUpDavfqWQ

Clustered Bar and Clustered Column in Power BI How to Use Filter Function in DAX
https://youtu.be/y1E_r_L-68w https://youtu.be/c1eCaybf69M

Power BI Visualization Line and Area Multiple JOINS Types for Beginners
https://youtu.be/LG539hlW9yw https://youtu.be/JF_x0qTd5vA

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01 | Power BI Desktop – How does the UI
look?
 1 2
Field names
(column headers)
of the datasets
4 Connect to Data source
Report view (~Canvas) Data Preparation using 6 3
Power Query Editor
Data view Configure
Visuals
Data Model view (Table Relationships, Cardinality)

Visuals (Charts) 5

Power BI Desktop –
How does the UI look like?

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 Data Preparation
5 techniques LOOKUP on ‘steroids’
(JOIN types)
8 6
Exit

M-Query 3
4

7
1 Data Type

Get
data
Audit Trail
& Ctrl Z

Power Query Editor –

How does the UI look like?

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Bonus Tip: Power Query in Excel

Power BI – Old
Excel 2010-2013: Download Power Query
Versions

Power Query Editor can be used

with Excel too!

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Bonus Tip: Copy Table from Power BI for pasting it to Excel

Right-click on a column

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02 | Common Settings to Format
Visuals
02A | How to format visuals using a simple trick?

List of keywords for use in

the ‘Search’ box above -
• Size
• Display
• Decimal
• Label
• Color
• Background
• Legends
• Title
• Border
• Shadow

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02B | Change SUM to COUNT (DISTINT) or rename a visual

Rename Labels

Calculations

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02C | Using the ‘triple-dot’ icon on top-right corner of every visual

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02D | Conditional Formatting (fx)

Quick Tip: Use the keyword

‘color’ to locate the fx button

Conditional Formatting
icon - fx

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03 | Slicer
03A | Use ‘Slicer’ to visually filter the data displayed on reports

Add a ‘Search’ box if the slicer

has text values

FYI - Excel’s Slicer

1
Different
layouts

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03B | Slicer - Other essential settings

1 Convert Slicer to a horizontally placed tile format.

Pre-requisite: Slicer must be a ‘List’ and not a dropdown

2 3
Options: Single select,
Select All

Hierarchical slicer

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04 | Card & Multi-Row Card
Cards are used to show KPI

Card Visual

Multi-row Card

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05 | Donut + Card
Centre of the Donut can show a Card with transparent background

Donut with Card

1 2

Donut without Card

Slicer setting Donut setting

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06 | Clustered Column Analytics
06A | Use Clustered Column to analyse changes between months (1) …

Select any 2 bars usingCtrl and right-click

Select ONLY 1 bar and right-click

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 06B | … or find difference in trends across multiple categories (2)
1 2
Explain the increase Find where this distribution is different

Narration Add to page

Clickable button

More visualizations More options

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06C | Add an Average Line (1) or use Conditional Formatting to create
heatmap based on a different parameter (2)
1

Conditional Formatting

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07 | Gauge
Use Gauge to compare Actual vs. Target vs. Max
Quick Tip to remember: GMAT Scores – Max is 800, Actual is 680 vs Target is to get 700 for admission

*use only when MAX > ACTUAL

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08 | Waterfall
08A | Waterfall (Basic)
Months must be arranged in the
fiscal year format

“Grand Total” bar is

self-calculated

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08B | Waterfall with Breakdown (Advanced)

“Breakdown” by
Region

Without “Breakdown”

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09 | Line: Time Series Analytics
(Trend Line & Forecast)
 1

Must be continuous
for Trend Line
2

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10 | Table & Matrix Heat Map & Data
Bars
10A | Matrix behaves like a Excel’s Pivot Table (cross-tab table)

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10B | Using Heatmap and Data bar in Matrix and Table visuals
2

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10C | Common formatting settings in Table / Matrix
2 4

Format Values area of Matrix

1
Adding subtotal

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11 | Create automatic clusters with >2
variable using Table (not Matrix)
Create automatic clusters

>2 Variables

Before

1
Triple-dot icon
2

After

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12 | Scatter Chart for Analytics
12A | Scatter chart - helps to show numerical data pairs, with one
variable on each of the two axis

Scatter chart - helps to show numerical data

pairs, with one variable on each of the two axis.

E.g., which countries are highly ranked on both –

life expectancy AND freedom to make life
choices
Before
clustering

After
clustering

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12B | Use Bubble size to show the strength of the third variable
1

GDP per capita

Before
Healthy life expectant
2

Freedom to make life

Bubble size indicates

the strength of the
third variable (e.g.,
GDP per capita)

After

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13 | Decomposition Tree
07 | Decomposition
Drill-down Tree
to find what parameter dominates your total

1
1

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14 | Create bins using “New Group” to
explore data patterns
1 3 6

right-click

4 5

Output Group by Count

2

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15 | Custom Visuals
Custom Visuals

Pin custom visual as default

by Right Click & Pin

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16 | Custom Visuals: Power KPI Matrix
Compares current & historical trends

Date Row-based Metric Name Comparison Value Second Comparison Value

Actual Value

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17 | Custom Visuals: Attribute Slicer
Use ‘Search box’ to quickly filter multiple categories

1
2

Enable Brush Mode

to quickly filter data

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18 | Custom Visuals: Calendar by Tallan
Calendar heatmap uses colored cells, to show relative volume

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19 | Custom Visuals: Time Brush Slicer
14 | Time Brush Slicer
Select ‘time-window’ to filter data for selected period

Select ‘time-window’ to filter

data for selected period

With Values Date

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20 | Custom Visuals: Table Sorter
Analyse data using - remove outliers, filters, data distribution,
rankings etc.

Imp - Remove Outliers setting

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21 | Custom Themes
Customize Theme

++ Check out – Power BI Theme Generator:

themes.powerbi.tips

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22 | Q&A: Ask a question using natural
language
Activate it by a simple double-click on the canvas area

Ask Questions
1 2

Will create automatic visuals

based on asked questions

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23 | Bonus: Our videos on YouTube
Top 4 Custom Visuals in Power BI How to Create Line Chart and Area Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/VpeLFZdUvNA https://youtu.be/Iy5FGdTrXw4

How to Use Decomposition Tree Visual in Power BI How to create a table to a matrix in Power BI
https://youtu.be/Lb5Vn8E7U2Q https://youtu.be/pu0a070_xPA

Conditional Formatting in Power Bi Matrix Visual How to create 100% Stacked Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/klX7JQ-WWf4 https://youtu.be/iqqulMi_-UU

How to use Treemap Chart in Microsoft Power BI How to create Ribbon Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/50vqQrid1mQ https://youtu.be/FM_LZ0otwdI

Power BI : Scatter Chart Tricks from Scratch How to Create Pie & Donut Chart in Power BI
https://youtu.be/0RVNkemPmRY https://youtu.be/UsUpDavfqWQ

Clustered Bar and Clustered Column in Power BI How to Use Filter Function in DAX
https://youtu.be/y1E_r_L-68w https://youtu.be/c1eCaybf69M

Power BI Visualization Line and Area Multiple JOINS Types for Beginners
https://youtu.be/LG539hlW9yw https://youtu.be/JF_x0qTd5vA

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