Tao Verse 10

Hold fast to the Power of the One

Power BI Report Chart Visual - Snack 15

That last visual proved interesting.  Let's add something a bit more interactive.

Jump into EDIT mode on your report.

Ensure you do not have anything select by clicking in the blank space.

A quick double-check is to look at the "Build Visual" section of the Visualizations pane.  "Values" should display nothing more than "Add data fields here."

Let's do that.

1. Drag-and-Drop the date field to that little box.
1. A new visual should appear with the date
2. It is broken out by Year, Month, Quarter, Day.
1. That is good.
2. Do the same and Add Sales.
1. You should be able to Drag-and-Drop it just below the Date portion.
3. Add Gross Sales.
4. Add Profit.
1. We are back to a boring table.
5. Under the Visualizations pane, 
1. click on the icon for "Line and clustered column chart."
1. The boring table should change to a fancy bar chart.
1. If it does, great!
2. If it does not, and only a new blank visualization appears, that means your table was not selected when you clicked that icon.  Select your table visual and try again.
1. You can also select the other blank visual, hit that little ". . ." menu and choose to remove it.
6. Stretch out your new visual so you can see more of it.
1. It is probably only displaying 2 years columns, and how come there is a line on the icon and none on the chart?
7. Return to the Visualizations pane,
1. click and drag "Sum of Profit" down to where it says, "Add data fields here" in the section beneath that for "Line-y axis."
1. Ta-Da!  We have a line!
2. Still a little boring though.
8. Hover over the visual.
1. Click the icon that looks like two down arrows that split into two.
9. Save.

That's better.  Your screen should look relatively similar to the screenshot.

Make absolutely sure you saved before reading on.

Did you SAVE?

Are you sure?

You should probably exit and come back into the report to ensure you do not muss anything.

There is no exit.  I am not sure why.  Close the tab.

Access the report again.

Now, about the arrows ... 

The arrows enable you to interact with the visual, as well as set the default appearance.

When I first started helping folks out with using Power BI, I made a little cheat sheet for these little icons that shows up below.

Play around with the arrows to better understand how they work.

Planning for the Yellow Stone - Phase 5

Just when you thought there was nothing left to plan for, guess again.

Things need piled up.  Plans need distributed to those with concern. New hiking shoes need broken in. 

It would be a little ridiculous to get on the trail with a stiff pair of shoes.  

I cannot think of a better way to get blisters.  

Beating up the new foot cushions on local trails are good insurance against that, especially if they are an entirely new model, with different traction and balance considerations dynamics.

There is a distinct difference the new set and my old pair of Columbia Redmond III.  Discovering that they were no longer made proved extremely disappointing.  I have been using that model for years.  They are heavier than most, with a much thicker tread that just seems to grip better.

Replacement tires are Merrell Accentor 3.  They are definitely lighter, though lack the same grip, leaving me stumbling about a little more than anticipated.  There will definitely be a period of adaptation.

Power BI Report Card Visual - Snack 14

That little table we made is nice.  It would be better if it were a little more reactive to changing conditions in the report.

What does that mean, anyway?

As mentioned previously, Power BI is not meant to simply display plain old ordinary data in the same plain old ordinary way that Excel does it.  What would be the point of that?  It is meant to offer opportunities for manipulation, interactivity, and self-service analysis.

Let's jump into EDIT mode on our report and I will show you what I mean.

1. Select the table visualization that we created last time.
2. Right-Click
1. Copy
2. Copy visual
3. On the keyboard <CTRL>+V
1. A copy of the table should appear
4. Grab the new visual and drag it out of the way somewhere but keep it selected.
5. In the Visualizations pane,
1. Click on "Card," which looks like a little box with a "1 2 3" inside.
2. It should change your table to plain white box with 127.93M inside.
6. File -> Save

So, what is this showing?

Look over in the Visualizations and see that there is only one item in your Fields section.  It should be displaying the same number as "Sum of Gross Sales," though abbreviated.

Most folks looking at this sort of thing are probably not interested in gross sales though.  Let's go ahead and change to what everyone really cares about, profit!

Make sure you still have that visual selected, and ...

Drag and drop the [Profit] field from the Data pane into the Fields section of the Visualizations pane.

We started off saying something interactivity though.

Click each of the years in your table in turn now.  

The card visual will change to match your selection.

We can look simply at sales as a table, with profit independent of that in another visual.

This enables me to drop [Profit] out of that table now, since we have it showing up somewhere else.

If you want, if you still have the visual selected, you can visit the "Format visual" tab under the Visualizations pane and change the look and feel to fit your taste.

Otherwise, that is all we have today!  I am hoping to get these out a little earlier in the day on Friday, since it has become more of the catch-up-and-learn-things day for the workforce.

Hold on a minute!!!

There is some sort of little triangle with an exclamation point above the card!  

That doesn't look good.

It is not doing any damage.  It is because we copied the table visual to create another visual.

If you hover over that icon, it will tell you what is going on. 

This is a bug Microsoft recently introduced that is a super annoying.  It seems that they failed to recognize that this copy/paste of visuals happens all the time.  I mean, who wants build everything from scratch?  

Looks like you are going to get to "Format visual" anyway.

To fix that little issue, go over to the Visualizations pane and switch to "Format visual."  That is the one with the paintbrush icon over the bars.  Change your "Style presets" to "Default."  It goes away.  The option for "Style presets" go away too.  

Ain't that fancy?   

Don't forget to SAVE one more time.

Oh, and going forward, the image attached will be my final screen.

Power BI Report Question - Snack 13

For any true analytics to occur, we really need a question.

We cannot just give answers to questions that do not exist.

Sometimes, we have to come up with our own questions too, on top of what has already been asked. 

Other times, we are just given a bunch of data and told to make sense of it.

That is where we are now.

Let's start simple.

What are year-to-year Sales totals and what is our Profit from those Sales?

We could answer that with the table we have, but there is entirely too much noise in there.

We should pair that down into something useful that actually answers that question and gives us some space to answer other questions.

Get into your report and jump into EDIT mode. 

Under the Columns in the Visualization pane, you have a list of all of your columns.

If you have not noticed before, there is a little "x" next to each one. That enables you to remove the column from your visualization, which is our table, in this case.

You can also grab ahold of each one of those little boxes and reorder them (drag-n-drop).

Based on what you already know, see if you can figure out how to make yours look just like that in the screenshot.

You will need to ...

• Add a field
• Remove multiple fields
• Change the style on your table.
• Change how a field is displayed
• Save the report.

OK.  Here's what you need to do ...

• Add the Year column to the beginning of your list of columns
• Change the Year column to "Do not summarize"
• Move "Sum of Gross Sales" behind the "Year" column
• Move "Sum of Sales" behind that column
• Move "Sum of Profit" behind that column
• Change the visualization Style Preset to "Alternating Rows"
• File
• Save

If you are unable to figure it out, message me and I will give you a hand.

Planning for the Yellow Stone - Phase 4

 

The next phase in planning is somewhat easy.  We picked up the Annual Pass, since we will be visiting 3 National Parks, at minimum. We just need to figure out what to wear now, and how to stuff it all in the vehicle. Both of those will be a small challenge.   The transport is small, though we believe sufficient

The weather will range anywhere from 0-10 °C while we are there, so everything from our fall and deep winter wardrobe will be required.  Actually, the plan is for jeans and flannel, at least for me.  Oh, and a parka.

The way things usually go, we will need none of that.  It will be warm and welcoming there, while the homestead plunges into the depths of winter.  I know we could not be that lucky though.  

Other points of interest in this phase including checking the general sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset.  The later will offer no dark night sky on this visit.  It will be a quarter moon advancing quickly on a full moon, setting around and after 11 pm. 

Power BI Report SUM - Snack 12

Welcome back!  It is time to talk maths for a moment.  There is a bit here that is kind of important to know.

If you are using the same fields I am, you will notice something a little unusual at the top of the Table visual that we put together.  Many of the columns begin with "Sum of ...," instead of simply stating the column name.

What does that mean?

It means that it is summarizing that column. It is not the same as adding, but it is.  It is not the same function as Excel, but it is.

I know, that is not exactly helpful.

Well, it is not exactly easy to explain either.

Hopefully, this example will help.

If I have multiple Sales entries on a certain date, it will only show the total of those entries on that date for all of the attributes chosen.

Still confused?

If we only had the one attribute "Sale Amount?" it would summarize that.  Consider these entries.

    6/1/2014 - $3
    6/1/2014 - $2
    6/1/2014 - $6
    7/1/2014 - $4

Using this data, our table would likely appear as follows:

    6/1/2014 - $11
    7/1/2014 - $4

Of course, if you added another attribute to that, such as Country, it would appear differently.  Consider these entries.

    6/1/2014 - $4 - Canada
    6/1/2014 - $1 - France
    6/1/2014 - $5 - France
    7/1/2014 - $2 - Canada

Using this data, our table would likely appear as follows:

    6/1/2014 - $4 - Canada
    6/1/2014 - $6 - France
    7/1/2014 - $2 - Canada

What if I do not want to summarize that data?  What if you want an Average, Median, Standard Deviation, Variance, or some other standard statistical representation?

Get back into your report and ...

1. Choose "Edit" mode
2. Select the Visualization
3. In the Visualization Pane,
1. Click the tiny down arrow next to "Sum of Sales"
1. A somewhat lengthy menu appears, with a checkmark next to "Sum."
2. Choose "Don't Summarize" and watch the results change.
3. Go back and choose any of the other options below that.
4. Try them all if you like.
1. Keep in mind what was just explained.
4. DO NOT SAVE!

Basically, this is how we define the appearance of our data in the visualization.

Most of the time, we are going to want it to "Sum."

There are times, and types of data, that you do not want to "Sum" or cannot "Sum" without some other calculation.

If you choose any of the columns that host text values, you will notice that they do not offer the option to "Sum."  Those only offer First, Last, Count, or Count (Distinct) and that is but one example.  There are others.

Think about how you would use this with your data, and we will come back to it another time.

Planning for the Yellow Stone - Phase 3

Turning attention to Yellowstone National Park required a whole new map.  The original build apparently contained too many layers.  There were nine in all, one for each day on the road, as well as other layers for those sights we wanted to catch up with.  It is now consolidated, and will be shared along in due time, after the expedition is complete.

We knew generally where and what we wanted to do while in Yellowstone.  The layout of things, time distances and accessibility were points of research for this round. Driving a thousand miles seemed to necessitate some sort of plan of attack though.   

A journey down the YouTube rabbit hole revealed many of the essential things.  Don't pet the bison.  Don't swim in the hot springs. Keep a safe distance from all wildlife, lest you become their punching bag or their next meal.  The above video stood out much more than many of the others, when it came to actually planning a handful of days in the park.  Indeed, it impressed us so much so that we modeled our own coming adventure on it, carefully mapping out the stops of their 3-day adventure and modifying it to fit our locale and timeline.  

We expect that he is very likely onto something here, choosing to stay in a different place every night.  It feels a little late to go through adjusting all that though.  We shall see how things work from one centralized location and report back on that.  The little exercise in mapping out their path definitely helped to firm up our plans though, and we discovered along the way that we might want to considering coming in through southern entrance.  

image borrowed from We're in the Rockies

The decision to do so is really for no other reason than to have a look at the Grand Tetons, prior to entering the Yellowstone valley itself.  There was no sense in arriving by way of the same route we came in and that National Park has been on the list of things to do for just as long as Yellowstone.  The only entrance not covered in our plans is the elusive Silver Gate.  I am sure we will find a way.

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!

Planning for the Yellow Stone - Phase 1

Planning for the Yellowstone adventure is well underway, having kicked off in early May.  Many would say that is probably not enough time to put anything together.  We have worked with shorter timelines though.  In addition, we are not exactly planning to travel during high season, which offers a few advantages, the most important being population levels.  Crowds are not what we look for in an escape from the grind.  It might have been at one time, but is no longer.  Besides, one needs an unobstructed view of other tourists making poor choices.

Once the decision was made that Yellowstone was undoubtedly on the horizon, I quickly settled into my initial planning phases.  How long will the journey take?  Where are we going to stay?  How long are we going to stay?  These three points decide everything.

A quick exercise in mapping routes uncovered that we were facing an 18-hour trip across the pavement. However, if we find the eastern entrance closed due to snow, it could be as much as 24 hours; ironically, by way of the north entrance.  

Much of the trip up to the site will be along I-80.  It is not ideal or particularly desirable, but necessary to ensure time savings and keeping attention focused on the primary destination.  There would be time to dawdle along and review some of those points of interest on our return.

Two days to get there did not seem too bad, overnighting in Casper before heading into the Park.  Three days to return seemed reasonable, enabling three full days in Yellowstone.  That seemed simple enough, so we booked the Yellowstone portion, as everything advised that the earlier this happened, the better.

We set about reviewing the return route, considering what we might want to have a look at on the way back.  There were a few things that we had not considered initially.  It would be colder in that region.  Many things would be closed.  That left a lot of points of interest along the way that we had already discovered.

In the meantime, somewhere along the way, my dear comrade concluded that Devil's Tower would be something we must see on the return trip.  There had not been time for it on our previous visit to the Black Hills and we would be in the area after all.

While it is in the same state, and only inches away on the printed map, I sincerely struggled with the perception of being "in the area."  Some things are not worth arguing though, particularly if it means riding home with that disappointment lingering in the vehicle like a plague.

Mapping times and distances over and over again, the return route was as awkward as it could be, felt a little more rushed than it should be, and included much more interstate time than either of us cared to consider either interesting or exciting.

Yellowstone to Rapid City is about 7.5 hours, leaving just enough time to wave at Devil's Tower as we went by.  Heading to Sioux Falls from there offered up the great expanse of prairie across South Dakota, with very little to interest the eye, excepting the Badlands.  

This was about the time I began to truly recognize the scope of this return trip.  It would take much more specific and upfront planning than the rest of the journey did.

We talked around and around on how best to configure this return trip, while continuing to ignore destinations already encountered during previous expeditions.  There was almost no way around it, until we began to consider our timing.

Long ago, we learned that 5 hours is just about the perfect amount of time to travel on the road.  It leaves space to do a few things, as well as stumble upon an array of other odds and ends.  Additionally, it enables time for a decent breakfast on the morning of departure and arrival at a destination early enough to revel in a hearty celebratory meal and perhaps stroll around town, followed by a solid eight hours of sleep, prior to rinsing and repeating the next day.

Placing all of that into the equation related to a strong desire for a more leisurely return to the homestead by abandoning and ignoring the interstate system, we concluded that we would need a fourth day and it was highly probable that Nebraska would likely be involved.

Routing remained difficult, though only momentarily.  New interesting destinations suddenly unfolded.

In the end, we decided that we would treat the departure from Yellowstone, much as we treated the arrival.  Buffalo would be the first overnight.  We would depart there for Devil's Tower and a night in Custer in South Dakota.  Turning south, we intended to cross the Great Sand Hills of Nebraska to arrive in the bustling metropolis of Broken Bow for one last night.  Home will greet us the next day.

With that settled, further consideration of the journey out to Yellowstone led to deciding upon leaving Friday afternoon and overnighting in Lincoln, NE.  That would shave 3 hours off the first day on the road. enabling a slightly more relaxed trip.

In the next phase, we will get a handle on where we stay in the spots and what we are going to do along the way.

Artificial Intelligence Fail

This pretty much says it all.  I saw this little story last year, I think.  The only thing that came to mind was "No Joke!  That's it!"

We do not want AI to do the stuff we actually like doing.  We want AI to take over all the mundane nonsense.  Build us a useful robot.

Even then, I think I would rather just do it myself.

Power BI Report Sorting - Snack 9

Welcome back to snack time!  This one will be a little lighter than the past several.   Today, we are just going to do a little sorting.

Let's get back to our report.  Remember that you have it stored in "My Workspace."

Looking at our table, we probably want that sorted differently, or maybe we don't.

Sometimes we have the data just as we want it and prefer to leave it to the user to do the sorting.

Hovering the column names in the Table visualization, a little black arrow appears beneath the column name.  It points in the direction that data is currently sorted.

• Click on a column to sort that column.
• Click it again to sort the other way.
• Shift-Click to include another column in the sorting. 
• This sort the first column chosen, then the second column.
• Shift-Click the second column again to sort that second column in the other direction.
• Shift-Click to include a third, fourth, or fifth column.

None of this will remain this way.  The default view dictates otherwise.

In order to establish the default sort on this visualization, you will need to access "Edit" mode, sort the visualization as you would prefer it to display using the methods above, then "Save."  Your chosen sort will be the default display.

Another option, if you only one column sort is required, choose the ". . ." menu at the top right of the visual, then choose "Sort by," then the field you want to sort on.

Notice that above "Sort by" is "Sort Ascending" and "Sort Descending."

That is all for today!  Happy Sorting!

Google Photos tries to Cheat Users

Google is playing tricks with their app, very likely in an effort to force users to buy more storage. 

When Google reversed their decision to offer unlimited storage back in June of 2021 ,many users left the platform.  They migrated to destinations they were already using, or to other platforms that simply continued to offer unlimited storage.

Google did offer users the ability to save storage space, using a setting within the app called "Storage Saver," which compressed photos and videos slightly.  Many kept using Google Photos leveraging this option and it worked great.

An update to the app on May 25, 2025 changed that setting.  This was confirmed with several users.  Of course, everyone had a slightly different date.  That was the date that everything began to backup at "Original Quality," using more storage than it should have been.

This sure feels like "as designed."  Folks are finding different solutions and backing away from the "The Cloud."  What better way to force people to make a choice than to tamper with their settings?

If you have fallen victim to this scam, you will need to adjust the settings within the App on your device.

Be aware that you will need to do this for every app on every device that you backup photos from.  If you use Desktop on your computer, you will need to do it there (and in every browser you use to backup).

Tao Verse 8

 

One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things.

Power BI Report Theme Change - Snack 8

Last time we visited, we addressed the formatting of the Date column.  

It got a little ugly, but hopefully everything worked out for you.

Getting back to My Workspace in Power BI, let's see what else we need to do.

Go ahead an open your report; again, mine is called "FinancialSample."

There are multiple things that stand out about the data.  However, the table visual itself does not seem to stand out too well.  It is difficult to discern where that visual begins and where it ends.  

Let's fix that!

The more that you use Power BI, the more you will find that it is extremely helpful to know exactly where those visualization boundaries are.

Viewing your report in My Workspace in Power BI, 

1. Choose "Edit" from the top menu
2. In Edit mode,
1. Choose View
2. Choose Theme
1. A window should appear with some rather colorful themes.
2. I know you really want to choose your own, but for these demo purposes, 
3. Find the one with the blue background.
1. If you hover over that one, it should say "Tidal"
1. I use this one (Tidal) exclusively, because it matches organizational colors almost perfectly.
2. Click "Tidal"
1. The table appears over a blue background now.
2. Also, the boundaries for your table, as well as the handles that enable resizing it should also be more apparent.
1. This just makes everything a lot simpler.
3. In the top left of the screen,
1. Choose File
2. Choose Save

That is all we have for today.

Still hungry? 

If you really want to change the Theme to colors that better match your personality, repeat steps 1-3.

Should you choose one with a white background, I highly recommend adjusting the background color, so you see visual boundaries better.  You can always change it back to white later.

1. To change your background ...
1. Click on the background of your report so that you have NO visualization selected
1. How do I know that I have NO visualization selected?
1. The Visualizations pane will only have 2 icons at the top
2. At the top of the Visualizations pane,
1. Click the "Format your report page" icon (looks like a paper and paintbrush)
2. Select "Wallpaper"
1. Ensure the box for "Image" says "Browse"
1. If it does not, click the "X"
3. Choose a color from the color pallet
3. File > Save

Yes, you can use a picture for a background instead, if you really want to.

You probably noticed that there are two similar choices in there for backgrounds.

"Canvas Background" is the area within the report page. The boundaries of that are the dashed line going around the report screen.  You cannot move your visuals past that line.  That is the "Canvas."  You may have to adjust the transparency on this to see it happen.

"Wallpaper" refers to the area outside the report canvas.

Looking at how I have been doing this for the last bunch of years, it seems that I only use the Wallpaper with the Canvas background Transparency set to 100%.

Why?

I don't know.  The dashed line surrounding the Canvas is good enough for me to know where my layout space ends.

Until next time, play around with it and see what works best for you.

Power BI Report Date Display - Snack 7

It is time for another Snack!  Let's get back to that data we loaded several weeks ago.

Go to Power BI Service online, access "My Workspace," and click on the name of the report we are working on.  

If you are using the same sample data that I am, it is probably called "FinancialSample" or whatever you named it.  The type is a "Report."

It looks like a plain old ordinary table, right now.  It is nothing exciting, so we should start forming into something that is.

If you only added the date column last time, go ahead and add more.

The last time we were here, I added the following:

• Date
• Sales
• COGS
• Country
• Discount Band
• Gross Sales
• Manufacturing Price
• Product
• Profit
• Sale Price
• Units Sold

Viewing these, some of the column names may include "Sum of ..."

This is all OK.

Also, remember the Date is going to appear divided out by Year, Quarter, Month, and Day.

Today, we are going to fix that!

1. Click the EDIT button at the top of the page.
1. You should three panels appear on the right. 
   (One or more might be collapsed.  Don't worry about that too much.)
1. Filters
2. Visualizations
3. Data
2. Click on the data table on the screen so that the table visualization is selected.
3. Under the Visualizations panel, find the column that shows,
1. Date
1. Year
2. Quarter
3. Month
4. Day
2. Click the itty-bitty down arrow to the right of where it says "Date"
1. A menu appears that shows the following (or more items),
1. Remove field 
2. Move >
3. Show items with no data
4. Date
5. ✓ Date Hierarchy
3. Click the one that says Date
1. The data table should change to display something like "Friday, July 25, 2025" instead of all of those extra columns.
1. While that is pretty, it is not really want we want for this.  An adjustment to the Semantic Model is needed to get it to look the way we really want it.
4. Choose File from the top left
5. Choose Save
4. At the top of the screen, click "Open Data Model"
1. A new tab opens, related to your Data Model aka Semantic Model
2. Click the "Viewing" button in the top right
3. Choose "Editing"
4. In the Data panel,
1. Expand your data (click the little > next to "financials"
2. Click "Date"
5. In the Properties panel,
1. Choose "Date time format"
2. Choose "*3/14/2001 (m/d/yyyy)"
6. Close this tab (changes save automatically)
5. Back in your original tab, you may need to reload your window to the see changes.
1. The date column should display all dates in a format that looks like 7/25/2025
6. Choose File
7. Choose Save

We are with this for today.  I know it seems like a lot now, but most of these things will never need touched in this report again.  Power BI will remember everything we did.

Power BI Report Data Refresh - Snack 6

Now that we have everything relatively stable, and before we get to far into it, let's take a moment to consider how we might keep this updated.

This can be done easily, if you are getting data from a source that is consistent in format, meaning it looks exactly the same every time but with new numbers.

This can be done with very little effort and without having to go through the previously discussed process every single time.

Let's go over a couple of facts.

• The data set is in "My Workspace" in the Power BI Service.  
• It is named "Financial%20Sample," if you are using the same dataset that I am.
• The data (aka your spreadsheet) is still stored in OneDrive.
• It is named "Financial Sample.xlsx" if you are using the same file I am.
• I can't tell you where you stored it though.  You need to know that.

That file can be overwritten new data any time and update your Power BI Report with that new data.

There are a couple of conditions. 

• The file must be in the exact same structure every time.
• The file must use the same exact name.
• The original file must be overwritten with the new file.

Let's do it!

1. Get your new file, if you have one.
2. Ensure that file is exactly the same.
3. Ensure that file has the exact same name as the old one.
4. Copy that new file into the folder where you stored your original file.
1. A message will appear indicating "A file with this name already exists so we couldn't upload "Financial Sample.xlsx" Add it as a new version of the existing file or keep them both.
1. Choose "REPLACE"
5. Go to the Power BI service online
6. Go to "My Workspace"
7. Locate your "Semantic Model" (refer to type to discern the difference)
1. When you hover over your "Semantic Model," a circular arrow appears.
1. Hover over that circular arrow and it will say "Refresh"
2. Click that arrow to refresh your data
1. To the right of the "Refreshed" date stamp, you will see some dots chasing each other.   
2. When they stop chasing each other, the report has read your update.
8. Go look at your report.
1. If you have had it open, reload the page and your report now has new data.

Of interest:  If your department has a defined Workspace, you can do all this work there, then go into the settings for that Semantic Model and schedule a refresh, so you do not have to do steps 5-7

Karen drives a Ford

 

Ever wonder what "Karen" drives?  You are looking at it.  Karen loves his Ford F-150 Pick-em Up Truck.  Karen also enjoys cutting people off, break-checking, and then yelling at people for not following their rules of the road, as well as frightening little girls with his own personal brand of crazy and profanity.  If you see Karen, stay away.  He is considered armed with a head full of lunatic and dangerous.  His mother should be proud that he is such a good Christian.

Power BI Snacks Intermission

In case you missed it, we have been walking through how to get yourself going with Power BI Online through little snack size posts over on Viva Engage and Teams.

We learned some terms, grabbed some data, imported it, and created our first simple visual.

There are definitely more exciting things to come!

It seems everyone was out for a super-fabulous holiday weekend, so I thought I might just do a quick recap this week.  Use this opportunity to explore what we have done already, simply catch up, work on your tan, or all of the above.

Below are links to what has been covered so far, to help you in those efforts ... sunscreen not included.

• Power BI DIY Snacks! Starting off with Power BI Online - Snack 1
• Power BI Terms - Snack 2
• Power BI Side Bar - Snack 3
• Power BI Report Data Import - Snack 4
• Power BI Report Simple Table Visual - Snack 5

See you for the next round?

As an interesting side note, I only just now discovered Mina Saad over on LinkedIn wrote along similar lines about a year ago.  Super informative posts on the topic and even tinier bites.  That's where I hijacked this week's image.

Another Fourth of Arkansas

 

It probably comes as no surprise that we again returned to Arkansas for this fourth of July.  It is becoming quite habitual in nature.   The crew of a few grew to a crew of seven on this particular expedition south in the north central area of the state.

The journey offered up a few new intrigues by way of Boliver, Springfield, and the Peel Ferry.  Our ongoing investigation into the location included visits to the usual haunts along the Mossy Bluff and the Sugar Loaf.

The fourth of July exploded all around, fitting with the regular expectations.  Heber Springs stood apart this year, holding its return fire until Saturday the 5th.  That seemed to work well for folks further south, enabling them to stick around in Little Rock for the main event, and arrive the following down for the closer.

The return trip was nothing to write home about but did give up a story idea and some new scenery.  Otherwise, we put our effort into avoiding lake traffic, of which there turned out to be very little.  One can never be too cautious though, especially with boat-trucks unable to maintain their lane.

Tao Verse 7

By having no claims to life, they cannot be claimed by death.

Power BI Report Data Display - Snack 5

Slightly funny story.  Someone contacted me last week and said they can't see anything in their report.  

We only imported the data last time.  

Now, we will visualize it and this won't take any time at all.

Head back over to the Power BI service online and let us see what we can see.

1. Click "Workspaces"
2. Click "My workspace"
1. At least two things are listed and for me, those are:
1. Financial%20Sample
1. Type = Semantic Model
1. This is the data!
2. FinancialSample
1. Type = Report
1. This is the report you created based on that data.
3. Open the one where Type = Report
1. A blank screen appears!!
4. Click "Edit"
5. In the right sidebar is the imported dataset
1. For me, it is simply named "financials"
1. Yours might be "Report-Result1" or "Worksheet" or "Sheet1" or whatever the Excel worksheet was named.
2. Click the little " > " next to the dataset name
1. A list of all the columns that were in the spreadsheet appear.
6. Under "Visualizations" in the right sidebar,
1. Click the little button that looks like a table.
1. That is the one that has a white grid, not the one that is partially blue.
1. See the attached screenshot that has a little red box around this feature.
2. On the left of the screen, a box appears that says "Select or drag fields ..."
7. Under "Data" in the right sidebar, quite literally do what that box says to do.
1. Use the check boxes that appear there or click on those column names and drag them over into the box on the left of the screen.
1. Make absolutely certain one of the columns is a date.
1. Add them all if you like, or just the ones you have a greater appreciation for.
2. If another box appeared when you went through this, that is ok.
1. For the empty one you would like to get rid of ...
1. Hover over the box and a little menu will appear above it.
1. Click the " . . . "
2. Choose "Remove"
8. File > Save

Your screen should look somewhat similar to the screenshot.  That with your data box has handles you can grab and stretch it out to see more of your data.

You might have noticed that the date looks kind of funny too.

This is what is called a hierarchal view.  

Power BI always displays dates in that format by default. 

We will get that fixed next time.

Questions? As always, post them up below.

Power BI Report Data Import - Snack 4

Enough fooling around, let's get down to making a basic Power BI Report.

You will need a properly formatted Excel file of your data.

If you are not sure of what that is, take a look at this sample file. Even if you think you are sure, take a look at the sample file anyway.

What do I mean by properly formatted?

Named Columns and their data ONLY.

If you have totals at the bottom, or special calculations off to the side or pretty colors representing something only known to you, none of that is going to work.

Named Columns with data. Period.

Make sure it is all in one worksheet too.

The Instructions Below (using that sample file)

In OneDrive

1. Create a New Folder
1. I called mine "Power BI Data"
2. You will use this to store all of your data for Power BI there.
2. Copy your Excel file in that folder

In Power BI,

1. Click "New Report"
2. Choose "Excel"
3. Window appears -> Connect to data source
1. In some instances, you may need to "Create a new connection"
1. Do that now, if you are unable to access your OneDrive.
2. Browse to your Excel file
3. Select your Excel file
4. Click "Next"
5. Window Appears -> Choose Data
1. Select the worksheet that has the data you want
1. If the data is in two sheets, you will need to merge it into one.
2. Click "Create"
6. Window Appears > Loading your data
1. After it is done processing ...
1. If your screen looks like the screenshot below, you win this round!
1. Note:  The Data sidebar in the right panel must display the name of your data to win (in this case, financials - highlighted).  
1. Yours will not be highlighted.
7. Last Step - Save your work!
1. At the top left of the screen, choose File > Save
2. In the screen presented after that, click "My Workspace"
3. At the bottom "Enter a name for your r..."
4. Click Save

Snack time is over.

Oh!  

Wait!

That reminds me!

There are a few more terms to know, related to that screen shot.

• Build visuals with your data
• This is where the report building will happen.
• Filters Panel
• Filters applied to your data.
• Visualizations Panel (there are 2 hidden beneath icons)
• Choose which visualizations to use and customize them.
• Data Panel
• The data associated with this particular report.
  

Copilot, the Artificial Idiot

I remain unconvinced of the usefulness of AI at this time.  It is the equivalent of attempting to hike with a car.  While it may work, it is a bit of overkill.

Multiple model collapse situations reinforced this belief. Building a little app in Power Platform, I asked Copilot to import all rows from my spreadsheet.  It imported 20 and not the 78 requested.  I asked that it import the remainder of the rows, so it made stuff up, 5 at a time.  Then, when asked to list the rows for me to review, Copilot insisted that it had, when it had not.  

This is not the first time either.  

I should not have to argue with the Artificial Idiot.

"We're in the midst of the AI Slop, where the internet feeds itself."  

What happened to the Mall?

What exactly happened here?  The shopping mall has become a zombie artifact from the 1980s.  What was once a thriving shopping community is no longer.  A recent visit to the East Hills Mall in St. Joseph found a space mostly devoid of life.  There were three or four shops open.  Everything else stood shuttered.  Contrast that with the photo below, which is of another photo of the mall, taken at the mall, displaying thriving storefronts.

According to one source at the mall, "everyone wants to go to the strip mall down the street," with storefronts stretching across a mile of open air.  Shoppers buzz in and out of these stores, as they once did in the climate controlled mall.  The difference now is they can drive right to the store they want and ignore all the others.  They do have to trudge through the heat, snow, and whatever other elements accost them, should they decide to visit more than one store.   It is all very ironic, really.

The question remains though, what happened here?  Was it the mall rats or was it that stores no longer wanted to share space.  I have a hard time believing Midwesterners would rather shop outside.  There are only a handful of months in the year that are good for that.

What will become of East Hills, a mall that still proudly displays its 60+ year history in a diorama for all to see that the end began with acquisition by the Craig Realty Group in 2014.  Ten years later, their quest to dismantle the property is nearly complete.

. . .

further reading

East Hills Mall
St Joseph, MO

East Hills Mall
Craig Realty Group

Teams Storyline

image borrowed form Thurrott.com

A few weeks ago, Microsoft introduced a cool new feature to Teams called "Storyline."  

It looks as though it could be quite a little game changer for keeping up with colleagues, customers, and friends, as well as enabling them to keep up with what is going on in your world.

Microsoft explains it as "a feature that enhances team communication by allowing users to share updates, experiences, and milestones in a social media-like format within Teams and Viva Engage."

This feature has always been over on Engage and is now integrated with Teams!

So how did I get there?!?!

1. Go to Teams
2. Go to Chat
3. Choose yourself, as if you might chat with yourself!

At the top, you will see ...

• Your Name (You)
• Chat
• Yes, you can actually talk to yourself here, if you are so inclined
• ... or just make notes to yourself for later.
• Shared
• Send a file or link to yourself in Chat and it will show up here.
• Viewing someone else, these are files and links you shared with them.
• Storyline
• This is what I am talking about ... click it!

That's neat.  So how do I follow people?

If you are using the latest version of Teams, you kind of already are.  All you have to do is click their name from chat, like you did in the previous steps, and go to their Storyline.

If you want to be updated when someone adds something to their Storyline, simply click the "Follow Storyline" button, when you are viewing their Storyline.

Note:  That will activate notifications for their Storyline.   To adjust the how and when ...

1. Go to your Storyline
2. Choose Following
3. Choose an Individual
4. Look for the little bell next to "Following" and Click It!

. . .

Read all about it this new feature here, from Microsoft.