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Multilingual reports in Power BI

This post is also available in: Deutsch For a while, it was only possible to provide a Power BI report in multiple languages using workarounds. Recently, the enhanced dataset metadata has made it very easy to change the language of a report in Power BI, making it multilingual, for example in German and English. Since the Power BI September Update, the enhanced dataset metadata is now the standard for metadata, upgrading a Power BI report almost to the level of an SSAS Tabular Model. Enhanced dataset metadata enables SSAS Tabular functionalities One of these new capabilities is to offer the data model of each Power BI report in multiple languages. The easiest way to maintain multiple languages is currently using Tabular Editor. As an example we use the following simple report based on the Adventure Works database: And the tables to be translated: Once the Tabular Editor is installed, it can be started under “External Tools” with connection to the open file: Maintaining translations in the Tabular Editor In Tabular Editor we see the folder “Translations” at the very bottom, where we are able to create a new language for our data model by a click on the right […]

Using enterprise or custom fonts in Power BI

This post is also available in: Deutsch Many companies are trying to achieve a consistent appearance and have corresponding or Corporate Identity / Corporate Design (CI/CD) guidelines. As a reporting platform, Power BI should of course be no exception and fit into the corresponding specifications. However, this is often a big question mark, because at first glance there is no option to add additional fonts in Power BI. There is only a selection of standard fonts to choose from: […]

How do I get an older version of Power BI Desktop?

This post is also available in: Deutsch When you often work in different IT environments, you can easily reach the point where a customer is working with a different Power BI desktop version than the latest one. As a developer this can become a problem, because the PBIX files are generally not backward compatible to older Power BI versions. As a result, the completed work may not even be accessible to the customer. Why the download from the Power BI Blog does not work In the past I used to google for the wanted release article in the Power BI Blog and then download the file there. Unfortunately, this approach no longer works, as the links now all point to the latest release. This may be good for end users, but as soon as you need a specific version, it is a disadvantage. The solution the update archive Fortunately, there is a solution after all. Microsoft provides at the following link an archive of all releases, including updates, a video about the update and the corresponding setup files since the release in 2015. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-latest-update-archive So it’s better to save the link as a favorite if you have to change […]

My frequently used Power BI snippets

This post is also available in: Deutsch In my first blog post, I briefly mentioned that my digital notebook – in the form of OneNote – is well filled with plenty of notes and approaches that I want to share here on the blog. One category is DAX and M code snippets, which I use regularly. For example, creating a date or time table or creating ID columns from a date and other similar things. Simply approaches that you need again and again, and give you a bit of a headache every time you have to rethink them again. So I came to the decision that I share them here on the blog as well. For this purpose I have created a separate page with all snippets.Update from Jul 15, 2021: Since it got confusing, I decided to make the code snippets available on GitHub instead: https://github.com/selimovd/PowerBISnippets/ I will add to the list bit by bit with the examples from the blog articles and when I come across new scenarios that could also serve my readers. […]

Combine multiple tables with UNION / UNION ALL in SQL Server, APPEND in Power Query or UNION in DAX

This post is also available in: Deutsch If you want to combine several tables, you have to ask yourself whether you should do this already in the data source such as SQL Server, in the processing of the data (ETL) in Power Query or in Power BI and, above all, where exactly there is a difference. First of all, the post is relatively detailed, for all of those who consider it too long (tl;dr) here is the comparison table: Duplicate entries remain Duplicate entries are removed Unequal number of columns Deviating column names Different order of the columns Combine more than 2 tables UNION in SQL Server With UNION ALL With UNION – x – x APPEND in Power Query x Possible with “Remove duplicates” x – x x UNION in DAX x Possible with “DISTINCT” – x – x Overview of the different possible combinations Data transformation in the data source or in the frontend? A question that comes up right at the beginning is, where should the joining of the tables take place?In fact, this cannot be stated in a generalized way, since it depends on a number of factors. But in most cases it is better […]