Tao Verse 9

 

This is the way of Heaven.  This is the way to Heaven.

Power BI Report and Semantic Model Naming - Snack 11

While thinking about what would be next for this series, I went to access the report we have been working on and found the proper topic before even opening the report.

If you have been following along and using the same sample dataset, you might have noticed a small inconsistency in naming between the Report and the Semantic Model.  This is captured in the screen shot above.  

Yours may or may not have this issue.  If it doesn't, aren't you lucky!?

I am not entirely certain what happened here, and it is mostly irrelevant.  

Usually, whenever you create/publish to the Power BI service, the name used for the report will be exactly the same as the Semantic Model.  For whatever reason, it did not this time.

This kind of bothers me.  I prefer that both names match so that they remained paired up and intend to rename both of them to "Financial Sample."

This can be done within the service and not impact anything.  They will remain connected.

How do we do that?

Access "My workspace," and ...

For the Report,

1. Hover over the row with the report name
1. A ". . ." menu appears next to the report name.
2. Click the " . . . " menu
3. Choose settings
1. Here you can choose to
1. Name / Rename the Report
2. Give the Report a Description
3. Add Contact Information
4. Choose an Endorsement for the report
5. Multiple other useful settings
4. Rename the Report
5. Save

And for the Semantic Model,

1. Hover over the name of the Semantic Model
1. A ". . ." menu appears next to the report name.
2. Click the " . . . " menu
3. Choose "Rename"
4. Rename your Dataset name aka Semantic Model.
5. Save

That is really all there is to it.  To me, everything looks much cleaner now and my mind immediately recognizes that these two are connected.  I do not have to waste any though on that.  Hopefully, it helps you too.

Planning for the Yellow Stone - Phase 2

The next phase in planning for the journey across the western plains involved identifying exactly where we were going to stay, as well as  what might be worth investigating along the way.

Most of where to stay had been decided in the previous, based on availability of lodging and reviews of available lodging.  It was time to narrow things though.

Indeed, the stay in Lincoln had been driven by the alternatives.  Anywhere else within 3-5 hours of home along our route proved wholly unacceptable.  The reviews of establishments along I-80 ranged from horrible to down right frightening, leaving one to wonder if the area were being terrorized by desperados.  It was Lincoln who seemed the only safe haven.  We will confirm that in the post mortem.

The interstate hotel terrorists final destination might as well be Casper.  It seemed to host the same issue with much of the establishments.  We were lucky enough to find a basement apartment Air BnB.  A little more luck and we will survive the night long enough to make a break for Yellowstone the following morning.

image borrowed from YellowstoneParkLodges

The middle of Yellowstone seemed to be the best choice all around for those arrangements.  Rates at Canyon Lodge & Cabins seemed reasonable enough for base camp, and we could not think of a better way to become acquainted with the park, especially if we end up snow bound.

Locating a place more specific than the general locale turned out a much easier exercise for the journey homeward.  Our estimates indicated that adequate overnight facilities were very likely facilitated by a lack of proximity to any highly traveled roadway, in particular the interstate system.

In the midst of all of this decision making was going on, I also began scanning the route for various points of interest.  Actually, this had been happening all along, I just focused on it a bit more.

All of the routing had already been plugged into MyMaps.Google.com.  Adding sights to see was a natural evolution for this situation. 

Locating interesting objects along the way is more awkward and time-consuming than it should be these days. I am not sure who to hate for that, excepting maybe mobile device design trends and an inability of software makers to fully understand user needs.

image borrowed from NewEgg

The best trip planning software Microsoft could produce still trumps anything available now.  "Streets and Trips" could do all of this in a flash.  One could plan a route more easily, get relatively accurate estimates of travel time and costs, customizable based on your specifications, as well as easily identify any sort of category within a certain distance of the route.   For the life of me, I will never understand why such useful software is abandoned.  Nothing even comes close these days.

Lacking that most useful tool, the only option is manual review, which consists of zooming down to whatever scale enables a view of about a couple of miles or so of the route, then simply scanning the route for anything nearby. It does give one a sense of the proximity of more serious points of interest, like somewhere to eat.  That is not something that can really be planned.  It is nice to know available options at end points though.

The result of all of this maneuvering appears in the map below.  When the post mortem is conducted, the actual detailed maps will be shared along.

The only thing to plan now is the visit inside Yellowstone itself.  Given the number of layers already present in the little mapping application, a special map will need dedicated to the next phase.

Simple File Restore in SharePoint or Teams or OneDrive

Ever saved over the top of a file and need to get back to that previous version?

You could "undo," if you still have the file open, but if you made a bunch of changes, you might never get back to that original file state.

Fortunately, it is really simple in SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.

Access the folder in whichever of those places has the file.

1. Right-Click on the file you want to restore.
2. Select "Version History."
3. On the version you want to restoreClick the " . . . "
4. Choose "Restore"
5. Done! That Fast. That Simple.

Power BI Report Table Visual Style - Snack 10

Hopefully, you got things all sorted out in that last session.

Yes. Pun intended.  

For this tenth edition, let's try and make that table visual look a bit easier on the eyes.

I do not care too much about table looks until well into the design.  We have reached a bit of a milestone though. 

Go ahead and jump right into "Edit" mode with your report and select your table visual.

Remember that when the visual is selected, all of the columns chosen for that visual will appear within the Visualizations pane.

Looking at top of that pane, there should be 3 icons.  The first is selected by default.  

Hover over the second icon and it says, "Format your visual."

Click it!

A list of options appears, the first of which is "Style presets"

Click the little ">" appearing next to that and a drop-down appears for "Style." 

Try them all out and see which one brings you the greatest satisfaction.

I tend to lean on "Alternative rows" for everything. 

After you decide on one that makes you happy, notice the choice underneath.

"Reset to default" will restore all changes for "Style presets" back to their original state.

Each of the choices in this arena have that option, which can be very helpful at times, if you just want to start over with one piece of the formatting.

Play with all of the options in this panel, if you like.  We are not going to cover them just now.  In the interest of keeping you as captivated as humanly possible, it will better deal with them, when we actually need them.

That is all we have for this week.  Happy formatting!