The Algebra Teacher Powers to B.I.

 Slicers are great in Power BI reports because they allow for the end-users to see the data filtered in any way they see fit..  What becomes a nuisance, however, is when the end-user wants to see the report page back to its unfiltered state.  For each slicer selection that becomes a click in order to reset the filter. In this video, I show how to quickly set up a bookmark page and insert a shape onto your report to activate your bookmark which will reset your filters with one single click.  There are other ways to accomplish this on the Power BI service, but if you have an inexperienced user they may not know where to go to reset the page to its default view.  With the addition of a button or shape and utilizing the bookmark, there is no way they can't figure it out now.

  Another month and another Power BI Desktop update.   What does April 2021 have in store? Keep reading.   In the April 2021 edition, there are quite a few features I want to highlight for you.   The most exciting feature in my opinion is the new custom visual dedicated to Power Automate.   With this visual, you can kick off a Power Automate with a click of a button directly from your report page.   There are a few templates already in the visual, but Microsoft plans on releasing many more shortly.   You can also create a custom flow and not start with a template.   The Small Multiples preview feature has some updates when it comes to the padding of the visual as well as the ability to access Small Multiples in the combo chart visuals.   The shapes feature has had a complete overhaul.   Instead of the standard 5 shapes that were available in the Power BI Desktop previously, with this release, there are now 21 shapes to choose...

  Organization for me is always a priority.   When things are not in the right place and I can’t find something quickly I get frustrated.   This is not only in my daily home life when trying to find a tiny car that my son remembers from 2 weeks ago and he now has to have to continue playing, but also in my Power BI report building.   When building DAX measures on a report, some users think the measure has to be on the table they are referencing.   The fact of the matter is a DAX measure can be on any table no matter the reference and it will still run properly.   Due to this, I like to put all of my measures on a dedicated table so they are easy to find for me and my end users.   This table is not a data source table, but one I create within the report itself.   You might be asking will this extra table affect the performance of my report or the data refresh.   It will not!   Let me walk you through the process of how easy it easy to...

  The IF function in DAX is a very popular logical function.  It will perform a logical check on a value expression and produce a value of True or False.  Based on the resulting True or False you can then decide what value you want to be reported.  Your value can be a hardcoded string value or some other calculation.  When you only have two outcomes to choose from the IF statement is very straightforward.  But what if you have 3 or more outcomes.  Then you will need to use more than one IF statement.  Instead of reporting a value or calculation for your first false result, you will code in another IF statement to run.  The more outcomes you need the more IF statements you will use.  This can be tiring to code and hard to read.  Here is where the SWITCH function comes into play.   The SWITCH function allows for an easier-to-read function compared to nested IF statements. The SWITCH function can always be used in place of the IF ...

 Recently after a private training, I had a follow-up email from one of the participants.  He asked if there was a way to return a running total for a column of values.  I immediately went to using a DAX function called YTD (Year To Date) which when you reference an expression and feed the function your column of dates from your date table, the formula will continually add your numbers through time until you reach the end of the year.  After sharing my solution, he asked if there was a way to do this without having it reset at the end of the year. He wanted a rolling total for all time and not just a year.  So I had to change my approach. In order to achieve his solution, I made a calculated column, but it wasn't just a basic column.  I had to override the row-level context that is present when running calculated columns.  I needed to return the values for the current date of the row and any previous dates where the value is present.  Also, it nee...