Original subtitles

In this section, we're going to now start using our Power BI desktop to start creating our reports.

So you saw in the previous section how we use the Power BI service just to create a simple table and

we're going to be using the same example here just in the desktop, but then we're going to expand on

that.

We're going to show that there's a lot more functionality that we can use both in the desktop and in

the Power BI service.

Okay, So we're back in our report view.

Remember, we got these three different views that we can use in our navigation.

So I'm going to move across when we're going to start off by looking at our different fields.

And you'll remember in the Power BI service we created a table.

So remember the visualization we had was a table and we wanted to see all of the manufacturers and what

was the total sales.

So I'm going to start off by creating the same table.

So I'm going to start by creating a table and we're going to pop it in the middle of our canvas.

And you can see I've got my resizing handles.

I can just make this bigger if I want to, or I can just pick this up and move it around.

Very easy to use this.

Okay.

Now once we've got this, we can actually add our data in a few different ways.

So what we could do is we could just actually select the manufacturer.

So if I click on the tick box here, then you'll see automatically the list of manufacturers is automatically

populated because the table was already selected.

Another way I could do that and what I'm going to do here is I'm actually going to remove the manufacturer

just from the columns because you can see it's now populated in here.

So if I take this out another way, I could have done this was I could have dragged it and I could have

actually dropped it into the columns.

So if I drop it there, you'll see.

Then the manufacturer now populates the table.

Now, the third way, I could have done this, and again, I'm just going to remove this by clicking

on the cross is I could have taken the manufacturer and I could have actually dropped it just straight

into the visualization itself.

So if I drop it in there and you'll see each of them give exactly the same result.

So all three ways give me the same result, which is basically a list of all my manufacturers.

So here's my fields.

And you can see at the moment that we're just dropping everything into our columns.

Now, depending on the visualization that you choose, you may get different options that will appear.

But again, we'll deal with that later on in the course.

So don't worry about that now.

And the second thing we wanted to see was our sales.

So let's say we selected our sales.

So you see that I've got my sales amount over here.

Click on it automatically.

Now what it's done is it's added the sum of sales straight into the columns.

And you can see my visualization now has that sum of sales.

And this is basically what we did in our service just to create a simple table.

However, what we might want to do here is something a little bit more sophisticated.

We may want to make it look a little bit better.

And one of the things you might want to do is actually to change this formatting.

Now, at the moment I've got quite a large numbers, I've got millions, but I've got two decimal places.

It makes it harder for people to read.

If you actually go to your sales field and you click on it.

You may remember earlier that we had these menu options and there's quite a lot of menu options at the

top.

And in traditional Microsoft Way, whenever you select a menu, you get the ribbon.

Then that shows you a whole bunch of options that are underneath.

Now, so far I've avoided the menu and the ribbons.

There's a lot to go through.

So I don't really want to just start off by going through each one individually.

What I'll do is during the course where we need to use the different options will then access them.

But here we've now got this new menu option that is called column tool.

And what it does is it actually allows me to be able to format this sales field.

So if I go across the left hand side, you can actually see that the actual field name can actually

be changed.

So if I wanted a different field name instead of sales, I want to call it something else.

I could actually do that.

It also tells me what is the data type in this case is a decimal number, so I'm happy with that.

But now this is the part that I'm interested in.

So as you've got my formatting, so you see that you get different formatting styles.

So I could say that I want to see this as a currency, as a decimal number, as a whole number, percentage

or scientific.

At the moment we're going to keep it just as general.

Then.

Also though, over here I get my formatting styles that can be used as well, and you'll see that there's

some currency that you can use.

There's also a percentage, but the one I'm interested in is my 1000 separator.

So when I click on the 1000 separator, what it does is it now formats this to a decimal number.

Remember, as a general, now it's a decimal number and it's changed it to two decimal places.

Now you'll see that nothing has changed in terms of what's been shown on the screen.

But if I go now and I change the number of decimals, you'll see that that does change what's been shown

on the screen.

Now, what I've just done is I've actually changed the formatting for this sales value.

Now that means wherever the sales value is going to be used in the future, it will actually use this

formatting, which is 1000 separator and no decimal places.

Now please remember this is just actually a default.

You can go into this and override it.

I'm going to show you in the next lesson that we can change the formatting.

And one of the things you can do is actually change the number of decimals and the formatting that has

been shown.

But this is really useful as a default because you don't really want to be coming into this and changing

it every time that you use it.

So what I want to do now is just show a second example.

Let's say, for example, we also wanted to see what is our total profit for each of the manufacturers.

And again, we could use the same way, let's say, for example, actually just drag and drop the profit

now, and I'm going to drop it into the visualization.

Now you'll see that the total profit has been summed up.

And again, this is telling you over here that it's actually got the sum of the profit that we are using.

Again, though you'll see them are formatting is not great to my profit.

Maybe I don't want all of those decimal places.

So again, I can go to my profit, click on the profit and you'll see in my column tools.

Now that this is now changed the formatting again, because now we are doing the formatting for the

profit field.

And again, I could go to my 1000 separator select that say I don't want any decimal places.

And again, now you see that the profit is now been nicely formatted.

So this makes it really easy just to be able to format your figures that you're working with.

Now, once you've got a table of data, it's actually very easy to be able to create another table of

data.

You'll see that this is very free form.

You can move these around as you want to in terms of placing them.

So let's say, for example, we click over here and we now want to create a new table.

So let's again go to our visualizations.

Click on table.

Get a new table.

It's going to move it.

And you will see that you get alignment guides and things like that that will actually help you with

the formatting and setting up of your your report.

Let's say in this case though, we want to use the product category.

So I'm just going to select the product category and let's say we actually want to see the sales field

on this.

Now you'll see that the sales is automatically defaulted to not have any decimal places.

So as I said, we've changed that default now, which is really quite useful.

So as I say, it's quite easy to actually set up new tables and be able to put new tables into place.

Now, there is another feature that I want to show you before we conclude the lesson, which is something

called cross filtering.

Now, this is really powerful within Power BI.

You're going to find that filtering in itself with Power BI is actually very powerful.

And what can happen is that when you've got two tables, you can use one table to achieve full to the

other table.

So let's say, for example, I just click on a datum here, so I click on that and you see now that

this table is actually being filtered, only show the product categories that are for a datum.

If I go across and I say Choose fabric, for example, now it's only showing the fabric and you can

double check this because you'll see the total sales field here, what the total sales is and you can

see the total sales here equals.

So this is quite a powerful feature and it will also work the opposite way.

Now, if you want to clear a filter, what you do is you just click the item again or you can just click

in whitespace.

Either one of those would work.

Now, if you want to cross to say computers and you click on that, you'll now see that there's a list

of all the manufacturers who produce the computers.

Two cell phones.

Same thing.

So this is a behavior we're going to talk about later on in the course as well.

We're going to look at it a bit more detail.

It's just something to be aware of, especially if you select an item and you see that other tables

are changing.

Just to understand that this cross filtering behavior is at play.

Okay.

We're going to conclude the lesson there.

I will see you in the next one.