ChristianSteven BI Blog

What Are The Different Views in Power BI Desktop?

Written by Christian Ofori-Boateng | Jul 16, 2020 11:08:00 AM

Power BI is one of the best business intelligence tools that you could have at your fingertips. For those who want to make the most of their data, Power BI allows them to create simple visuals out of complex information. From that point, if they have the Power BI Service, they can send reports to team members and make decisions for maximum effectiveness.

 

Power BI includes a mode called Power BI Desktop, which is free for anyone to use. Though the Desktop version alone doesn’t come with all the capabilities of the Power BI Service, it does let creators model their data and see the relationships between their data sets. To help creators make the most of their data, Power BI Desktop includes three views:

  • Report
  • Data
  • Relationships

These three functions help creators build their visualizations, access their data quickly, and work with multiple charts at the same time to see how they relate to one another. You can find all three of these views when you open Power BI Desktop and look at the navigation screen to your left. Keep reading to see a more detailed analysis on each view.

Report View

The Report view is the one at the top of the list. It’s also the default view, so it’s the one that you’ll see right away when you open Power BI Desktop. Creators use this view to create visual reports based on their data. For many creators, this is the screen that they work with most often.

The Report view starts with a blank square space on the left side, along with a list of tools and functions on the right. This space is where you’ll build your visualizations, including bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and a lot more. In Report view, take some time to click around your visualization options and familiarize yourself with them. When you become more familiar with the available visualizations, you’ll quickly figure out which choices best represent your data and communicate what your data is saying most effectively. You can also add multiple pages to a single report while in this view, so that if you ever send these models via Power BI Service, you can keep all of your related data in a convenient and readable location.

The Report view has other features as well. For example, you can copy and paste visuals, and you can also hide report pages.

Data View

Next, take a look at the Data view. The Data view is the option in the middle. Once you’ve taken the time to model your data, you can see it in the Data view. Instead of showing you visuals like the ones that you’ve created, Data view lays it out piece by piece in a grid format.

Just like with Report View, you’ll want to take some time to get to know Data view so that you can learn how to use it to your advantage. Once you’ve explored Data view and become comfortable with using it, you can gain a lot of advantages from seeing your data this way. For one thing, you can examine the smaller pieces of your data up close. You can also search for individual pieces of data, find the data that you need, and sort the data. The Data view can help you gain further insights on your data so that you can examine it from different angles. This way, you can maximize your data knowledge and make the most well-informed decisions based on that data.

Relationship View

Finally, there’s the Relationship view, which is the third option on the navigation bar views. The Relationship view is also called the Model view, and as you’ve probably guessed based on the name, it allows creators to see the relationships between their data models.

On this screen, you can see all the models that you’ve created for your report on a single page. While you’re there, you can also create diagrams based on only certain subsets of models. As a result, you can compare and contrast as many datasets as you like without seeing them piece by piece like you would in the Data view.

Adding Power BI Service

Once again, all these views are available for free through the Power BI Desktop. However, the Desktop is limited to creating and comparing your visualizations. While it’s a great tool by itself, some business owners need to take their data a step further, and that’s where the Power BI Service comes in. By adding the Pro or Premium version of the Power BI Service to your repertoire, you can take your data to that next step.

With Power BI Service, you get desktop as well as cloud options, letting you share your data visualizations with the rest of your team. As a result, you and your team members can collaborate remotely based on the available data, which is invaluable if your business has multiple departments. If you use Content Packs, you can even give your team members a way to copy their own versions of the data visualizations so that they can work on them within their own departments.

Automated Reporting With ChristianSteven Software

Once you have a way to create, model, and send your Power BI reports, why not look into automated reporting solutions, too? In fact, why not find a way to maximize all your Power BI options? With ChristianSteven software, you can absolutely do both. ChristianSteven software solutions expand the capabilities of your Power BI Service, letting you get the most of your data visualizations so that you can make the most effective decisions. When it comes to knowing, analyzing, and using your data in the best way, ChristianSteven software makes everything simpler and more streamlined.

Take the PBRS software, for example. It automatically filters and distributes your Power BI reports so that you and your team members can access regular, usable information on a consistent basis. Start with your free trial of PBRS today.

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