Now that it's published, let's explore! 🥾🏔️
Once your report is published to the Power BI online service, and you've set up scheduled refresh, you're ready to start using it!
Here’s a simple guide to the user interface. We'll cover the Power BI online user interface, as well as the basic structure of our template reports, and some handy tips on how to interact with the report to get the most from it.
User Interface
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Navigation Pane: On the left-hand side, you’ll see the navigation pane. This is where you can access different parts of Power BI Online.
- Pages: Next to the Navigation Pane, you'll see a collapsible list of all the pages in the currently selected report. Navigate through your report by selecting different pages.
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Canvas: The large area in the middle is the canvas. This is where your reporting insights are displayed via visualizations - bar charts, donuts, slicers, tables, you name it!
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Icon Buttons: There are several icon buttons at the top, allowing you to interact with your report. Included here are File, Export, Share, Edit, Help and Comments.
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Title: The report title is displayed at the top. This is also known as the navigation path or breadcrumb trail.
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Office 365 Application Launcher: On the left-hand side, there’s the Office 365 application launcher.
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Power BI Home Button: Next to the Office 365 application launcher, there’s the Power BI home button to take you back to the Power BI online home page.
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Labeled Icon Buttons: There are several labeled icon buttons on the left-hand side, to give you quick access to areas like Apps, Workspaces, and Learn.
Structure
Like our software, the reports we provide blend powerful, deep insights with an easy-to-use front end that's engaging and beautiful. We've provided a consistent structure throughout our reports to make it easy for your to get actionable insights, quickly.
- Info Bar
- Key Metrics and Filters
- Summarized Data
- Granular Data
Info Bar
- Logo: the edison365 logo in the top left hand side is there so your users know exactly where they are and what they're looking at. If you click on the logo, it takes you to our website, where you can find plenty of useful resources, from project management 101, to gamifying innovation, and much more...
- Report title: Next to the logo is the report title. We've included this for maximum usability when sharing or embedding this report across different services, in case the report is being consumed outside of the Power BI service. This way, users always know what they're looking at.
- Page title: In the top right is the page title. Like the report title, we've included this for maximum usability when sharing or embedding this report across different services, in case the report is being consumed outside of the Power BI service. This way, users always know what they're looking at.
- Help button: This will bring you to the edison365 Help Center, where you can learn more about the edsion365 software, Power BI reports, and much more.
- edison365 button: This takes you to your own instance of edison365.
- Eraser button: Remove any filters applied to the page.
Tip: If you want to remove just one of the filters, hover over the specific filter and an eraser should appear next to it.
- Return button: Go back to the Summary page.
- Back button: Go back to the previous page in the report.
- Next button: Go forward to the next page in the report.
Key Metrics and Filters
This is where you'll find important, simple bits of information. This prominent part of your report is highlighted to make it easy for your users to find important information at a glance.
We also use this area for any page-level filters (or slicers, as they're called in Power BI). Using these slicers gives you control over the information that's displayed on a page, so you can interrogate large amounts of data easily, and narrow down your search with just a few clicks.
Summarized Data
In the middle of the page, you'll find summarized information. This could come in many forms, but the purpose is generally the same; to higlight trends, groups, outliers, anomalies - basically, to help you identify areas that need your attention. There are plenty of different visualizations used to summarize data, and we've picked the best ways to present this data based on what it's showing you.
Granular Data
At the bottom of the page, you'll find data in it's most detailed (or granular) state. This will be some form of table, with lots of rows and columns of data, allowing you to see the very finest level of information for your most detailed insights and analysis.
Interactions
One of the best parts of Power BI, which is often least understood, is the ability to interact with the elements on each page. There are a couple of ways you can do this, and when used effectively, can help to produce excellent insights that take a long time to manually produce.
Your options are:
- Visual data
- Visual header icons
Visual data
The visualizations in your report aren't just there to show you your data. They're also there to act as dynamic filters for your data, making it easier for you to explore the report quickly. In practice, this means you can click on different data points, and it will use your selection as a filter for the rest of the page.
Let's take a look at an example: the Issues page. By default, every issue is shown here.
Let's say we're only interested in seeing the issues where priority is Urgent. Usually this means manual effort to export the data, shape it, and create a whole bunch of confusing pivot tables that are redundant as soon as the next issue gets logged. Good news; it's just one click with Power BI. We'll use the Issue by priority visual, and select the Urgent bar
This single interaction means that all we see is issues that are urgent. We can also see when they are due, what their impact is, and what their current status is. With a single click, we've got insight into the entire data set, and we can see the data through various lenses of each of the properties on the page.
The best way to get comfortable with this is to experiment - so get into the report and start clicking stuff! This won't impact anyone else's report, so feel free to play around and see what you find.
Visual header icons
Visual headers are those nifty little icons that pop up when you hover over a visual in Power BI. They’re like your personal toolbox for each visual, giving you options to do things like export data, focus mode, and more.
Now, let’s break down what each of these icons does:
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Export Data: This icon allows you to export the data from your visual into a CSV file. This can be handy when you want to do some extra analysis outside of Power BI.
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Focus Mode: Clicking on this icon will make your visual go full screen. This is great when you want to remove distractions and focus on a single piece of data.
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Spotlight: This icon dims the rest of the report and highlights your chosen visual. It’s a great way to draw attention to a specific piece of data.
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Sort Ascending/Sort Descending: These icons allow you to sort your data in ascending or descending order. This can be useful when you want to see your data from highest to lowest, or vice versa.
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Drill Down/Drill Up: These icons allow you to explore your data at different levels. For example, you could start by looking at sales by region, then drill down to see sales by individual stores.
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Go to Next Level in Hierarchy: This button, represented by a double arrow icon, allows you to drill down to the next level in your data hierarchy1. For example, if you’re looking at sales data by region, clicking this button could take you to sales data by individual cities within each region. Each click on this button takes you one step further down the hierarchy, providing more detailed information at each step.
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Expand All Down One Level in Hierarchy: This button is a bit different. Instead of taking you to the next level for a specific data point, it expands the entire visual down one level in the hierarchy. For example, if you’re looking at sales data by year, clicking this button would expand the visual to show sales data by year and quarter for all years. This can be particularly useful when you want to see trends over time at a more granular level.
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Refresh: This icon refreshes your visual, ensuring you’re looking at the most up-to-date data.
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Pin Visual: This icon allows you to pin your visual to a dashboard. This is useful when you want to keep an eye on a specific piece of data.
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More Options (the three dots): Clicking on this icon will open up a menu with even more options. This can include things like duplicating the visual, spotlighting the visual, and more.
Remember, not all visuals will have all these options available. The options you see will depend on the type of visual you’re working with.
Here's an example from one of our reports, where the Drill Down, Drill Up, Next Level and Expand buttons are especially helpful. In this visual, the X axis is displaying a date hierarchy. That means it's showing year, quarter, and month.
By default, it's showing the data at the most granular level; monthly. Prefer a more high-level view? Click the Drill Up button to go from a monthly view, to quarterly.
Want to go even higher? Click the button again to go from a quarterly view, to yearly.
Want to go back down? You can use the Drill Down button to focus on an individual data point. To see all your data at a deeper level, use the Expand All Down One Level in Hierarchy button.