Power BI Essentials

Introduction to Power BI

Section 2: Getting Started

 Section
Summary

Section 2: Getting Started

 Section
Summary
• Microsoft Power BI consists of three parts:
• Power BI Desktop
• The Power BI service
• and Power BI mobile apps.

• The key activities carried

out in Power BI Desktop
are:
• Connecting with your
data
• Data cleansing and
transformation
• Creating data models
• Creating reports.
Installing Power BI Desktop

• Power BI Desktop can be downloaded and installed as a

standard executable package.
• However, since the product is updated every month, the
latest version will need to be manually downloaded and
installed each month.

• Power BI Desktop can

also be installed as a
Windows 10 app from
the Microsoft store.
• The key benefit of
installing Power BI
Desktop from the
Microsoft store is that
the product will be
automatically updated
every month.
Power BI Service

• The Power BI service is the cloud-based product where

collaboration and sharing takes place. You can also create
reports and dashboards within the Power BI service, once you
have created and shared content.

Dashboards

• The Power BI Service is also the only place where dashboards

can be created.
• In Power BI Desktop, you can only create reports.
Dashboards versus Reports
• In the Power BI environment, dashboards are single screen
summaries of key information.
• Whereas reports are in-depth multi-page summaries
providing a full breakdown of all the key metrics relating to
one aspect of an organization's data.

Editing Reports in the Power BI Service

• Reports are normally created in Power BI Desktop and then
published to the Power BI service for sharing.
Editing Reports in the Power BI Service
• It is also possible to edit reports in the Power BI service.
• However, only the visual aspects of reports can be edited in
the cloud; changes to the underlying data can only be made
in Power BI Desktop.

Power BI Mobile Apps

• Power BI mobile apps are used to consume Power BI content.
• Apps are available for every major mobile platform.
Optimized Reports

• By default, Power BI reports are displayed in landscape

orientation and are perfectly acceptable as is.

• However, report authors can create an additional view which

is optimized for mobile devices and displays in portrait
orientation.
 Section
Summary
• A tenant is the Microsoft Azure container which stores all
the data relating to an organization’s Microsoft Power BI
subscription.
• A Power BI tenant is created automatically when the first
user from a given organization signs up to the Power BI
service.
Tenant Location

• Part of the sign-up process is to

specify the location of your
organization.
• The region chosen will
determine the Microsoft data
region in which your Power BI
tenant will be located.
• You cannot change the
selection after the tenant has
been created.

Checking Tenant Location

• To check the location of a Power BI tenant, in the Power BI
service, click Settings > Help & Support > About Power BI.
Checking Tenant Location

• The dialog which is displayed contains confirmation of the

Microsoft data region in which your Power BI data is stored.
 Section
Summary
• Power BI Desktop is completely free. However, individuals
using the Power BI service require one of two available
user licenses:
• Power BI Free (which is completely free of charge)
• Power BI Pro (which costs $10 per month).

Limitations of Power BI Free

• The difference between Power BI Free and Power BI Pro is

collaboration.
• Power BI Free cannot be used for sharing and collaboration
but is very useful for learning the product, creating reports
and experimenting.
Power BI Pro Trial

• When using Power BI Free, if a user attempts to perform an

operation which requires a Pro license, they will be offered
the opportunity of having a 60-day trial of Power BI Pro.

• Within each Power BI tenant, approximately 50 such offers

are made. After this, when attempting to use a collaboration
or sharing feature, free users will simply be prompted to
upgrade to Power BI Pro.

• To verify whether you have a Power BI Pro license, in the

Power BI service, try clicking the “Share” button next to any of
your reports or dashboards.
Free or Pro

• If you only have the free license, the “Upgrade to Power BI

Pro” message will be displayed.

• If you have a Pro license, the “Share report” dialog should

be displayed.
• However, bear in mind that you may still only have a
Power BI Free license with a 60-day trial.
Pro or Pro Trial?

• To verify whether you are running a Power BI Pro trial, in the

Power BI service, click on the Settings button in the top right
of your screen.
• If you are running a free trial, the number of days remaining
will be displayed.
Power BI Premium
• Unlike the Power BI Pro and Free licenses, Power BI Premium
is a tenant-level subscription available in various capacity
configurations.
• Power BI Premium provides organizations with dedicated
capacities, in contrast to the shared capacity model, where
Power BI resources are shared by multiple organizations.

Power BI Premium and Pro Users

• Even if an organization
purchases Power BI Premium,
content creators (people who
are creating reports,
dashboards and apps) will still
need to have a Power BI Pro
license.
Power BI Premium and Free Users

• However, anyone who is

simply a content consumer
(looking at reports and
dashboards, but not actually
creating them), can use a free
license; and there are no
limits as to how many free
licenses can be used.