This September Microsoft has released a new Power BI update that comes with amny new features: new sharing options, new visuals, simplified reporting, new connectors and much more. Take a look at the 9 most relevant new features of the latest Power BI September 2022 release.
Those of you who work regularly with Power BI probably know that the set of services is constantly being renewed. Microsoft expands Power BI's functionalities and possibilities several times a year and this September a new update has been released, full of new features that improve the possibilities for the creation of reports and dashboards in Power BI.
At Bismart, as a Microsoft Power BI Partner, we have a team of professional experts in Power BI and we always try to keep you informed of all the updates, news and changes in the platform.
Without a doubt, the most notable change in the new Power BI update is the new ability to share datasets between users, already available in public preview.
This new functionality allows users to share Power BI datasets with external users who will access the data from their own Power BI tenant. External users will be able to work with the shared data sets from their own tenant and create composite models by combining the shared data with their internal data, which can then be published in Power BI for creating reports and dashboards, as well as analyzing data in Excel.
It is important to note that, with this option, the shared data remains in the tenant of the data provider and that external users will have direct access to the data source.
With this new capability, Microsoft intends to get rid of the need for organizations to transfer data manually and make it easier for business users to share datasets with their customers, stakeholders, external partners, etc.
Obviously, this new measure could compromise data security in the Power BI environment. Therefore, Microsoft has strengthened data governance in Power BI, making it possible for administrators to completely disable this feature.
Let's take a look at a a new feature that also aims to facilitate the exchange of content for B2B companies.
Users invited to external tenants will now see a new tab on their home page —"From external orgs"— where they will find a list of all the items they have access to as invited users to the tenant. They will also be able to filter and sort files to find them more easily and see which companies are sharing specific documents with them. Through the interface, the user will be able to click on any item and will be taken to the company's tenant to access the document.
It's time for the new reporting features.
One of the most useful capabilities of Power BI cartesian charts is the option to display multiple categorical fields on a hierarchical x-axis to visualize additional dimensions in a more organized way.
However, prior to the new Power BI update, doing so was quite complex.
Now, Microsoft has adjusted some fields so that the hierarchical axis is automatically activated when users drag multiple fields into the x-axis field for visuals that support this feature. Also, the option to concatenate labels, previously enabled by default, is now disabled by default.
Details of the new feature
| Functionality | By default before the September 2022 update | By default after the September 2022 update |
| Concatenate labels option |
On by default | Off by default |
| Adding new fields to the x-axis field well | Adding new fields did not change the fields displayed in the visual. The user had to expand them manually. | Fields are expanded to the lowest level when
|
| Sort behavior | Fields were sorted by measure when the user has not explicitly set an order. | Fields are sorted by category when:
In other cases the fields are sorted by measure (or by the order set by the user). |
Microsoft has clarified that this change will not affect Power BI reports already created and that the new measure is meant to simplify the creation of visuals and make the process more intuitive. However, the company is waiting to see how Power BI users react.
The new Power BI update also simplifies the display name of summary fields, which will now include the default or selected aggregation.
Until now, the default aggregate fields were not displayed in the name. According to Microsoft, this was leading users to misunderstand which aggregate they were applying.
Again, the new functionality will only be applied automatically to new reports. However, it can also be enabled on existing reports.
Last August 2022 Power BI updated the conditional formatting of data labels so that they were applied to each individual data point.
Now, Power BI takes this update one step further by also applying this measure to visuals with a field in the 'Legend' field.
As with the other updates, this conditional formatting rule will not apply to existing reports.
Power BI now supports translations for composite models in Power BI datasets and analysis services!
This means that users can now choose the language they prefer to be displayed in the text of tables and columns in their datasets. Previously, translations did not apply to composite models in datasets.
With this new release, the translations defined will also apply to the composite model. Thus, the source datasets and the table and column names will be translated into the language defined by the user.
The latest Power BI update also comes with 6 new Power BI visuals already available on Microsoft's AppSource.
To check the functionalities of the new visuals, just search for them in the Microsoft AppSource. However, we have to remind you that the original Power BI visuals usually provide better performance results than customized visuals.
As usual, this Power BI update also comes with new data connectors, as well as the optimization of some of the existing connectors.
New connectors
Connector Updates
Microsoft is striving to make Power BI reports as readable from a mobile device as from a computer screen. From now on, formatting options for mobile devices are widely available.
With this new functionality, users will be able to adapt the format and style they want visuals to have when displayed on a mobile device without affecting the format or design of the original visual intended to be displayed on computer screens.
Source: Power BI
Before you go...
Among all the new features on the list, which is the one you think you will use the most? Let us know in the comments.
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