This month we have seen the Power BI update 2.111.265.0. It brings about new and improved options for formatting and filtering as well as new DAX functions that will help with debugging and table format conversion. Creating reports with the new Optimize ribbon has never been more streamlined.

Read on to discover the highlights of this month’s update as well as the new features that have been added. Find out our team’s thoughts and ideas about the impact this update could have on the Power BI experience.

What’s new

Announcing New Power BI Colour Accent

Summary: Accent colouring for Power BI has changed from yellow to teal. This allows greater accessibility for users with disabilities. It increases contract as well as the user interface visibility. Brand colour and icon logo are remaining yellow.

Our Thoughts: Great to hear that there is now a greater inclusivity for the wider community and is accommodating for a wider audience.

Streamline your report authoring experience with the Optimize ribbon (Preview)

Summary: This new ribbon provides new tools that let you create optimised experiences for the users. Visuals can be paused and resumed, giving control as to when visuals send out DAX queries; this allows you to stop visuals from loading while editing. There is now the ability to fully control when visuals refresh, customise Optimization presets, as well as launch Performance Analyser.

Our Thoughts: Editing will become easier with the ability to pause loading of visuals and will let authoring reports become smoother and more intuitive.

New DAX functions: EVALUATEANDLOG, TOCSV and TOJSON

Summary: EVALUATEANDLOG now lets you view intermediate results of DAX expressions, evaluating and returning the results, whilst also logging it. TOCSV and TOJSON now allow you to convert input tables to CSV and JSON.

Our Thoughts: TOCSV and TOJSN are new functions will be useful in giving more flexibility in the format in which tables can be viewed/stored. The EVALUATEANDLOG will be especially helpful for debugging.

New way to upload Power BI and Excel files

Summary: There is now the option to upload Excel files to a workspace from OneDrive for Business or any SharePoint site using the Upload function by creating a connection, syncing any changes made to the original files. There is also the option to upload files from your local computer via the Browse option which creates and uses a copy of the file.

Our Thoughts: This gives a great new option to upload files, providing familiarity to the file picker that you’re used to seeing in other Microsoft products. It will be a less tedious task than using SharePoint URLs with the option to access the Quick Access tab!

New visuals in AppSource

New visuals have also been added to give a wider range in visualisation models:

• Traqplan Timeline and Roadmaps
• Supermetrics Charts – Tile grid map
• CP Radar Chart
• Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo
• Gantt by Lingaro

What’s changed

Unshared and unsynchronized axes for small multiples charts

Summary: Axis scaling no longer has to be shared for multiple charts. Individual y axes can now be given so that scaling is different for each plot.

Our Thoughts: This feature has been a much requested ask from users! It will be a useful feature especially for those working with multiple plots that have a different range in y values. If unconcerned about absolute values, it will make comparing overall trends of each plot easier.

Controlling and customizing labels on Azure Maps

Summary: Labels on maps now have the option to be set as visible or hidden. Category labels can also be customised, toggling them on and off as well as changing the font and colour.

Our thoughts: This gives the possibility to produce clean maps and can let users focus more on the data if the labels are not important to the interpretation of data.

Create dynamic slicers using field parameters (Preview)

Summary: Building upon summer’s release of being able to control the fields for different visuals by the slicers and filter cards, this month’s update now allows slicers to also be parameterised in situations that call for dynamic filtering as well. It can now slice depending on not just the field parameters but also the values of the selected fields.

Our thoughts: This improved and powerful feature will allow the parametrisation feature to have greater usage. It will give users greater flexibility in their slicing since further filtering for data subsets can be performed.

Composite models over Power BI datasets and Analysis Services (Preview)

Summary: Unlike previous versions where multiple tables could not be filtered simultaneously, a single table can now filter multiple tables in a remote source group at any given time.

Our thoughts: This improvement will really be useful in giving flexibility to the filtering function and allows a more streamlined filtering process.

Formatted Table authoring experience

Summary: New features for formatted tables have been added this update and include:

• Accessible Navigation – A ribbon toolbar appears when using formatted tables that gives contextual tabs that are relevant to the selected object.
• Grand Totals – Grand totals for formatted tables now have the option to be toggled on and off.
• Move and Resize – Column widths can now be resized as well as reposition tables on the canvas. Cut, copy, paste and remove functions are accessible via right clicking the mouse.

Our thoughts: This new update will make formatting canvases with formatted tables and the readability of columns much easier. Accessible navigation will provide a better user experience when creating canvases as well as including grand totals where necessary.

Additional changes

The following visuals have been updated:

• accoPLANNING by Accobat – writeback numbers, text and dates
• ADWISE RoadMap / Gantt v2.5 – actual vs. plan in bars and multiple new formatting options
• Control Chart XmR by Nova Silva – define multiple targets at a time
• Zebra BI Cards 1.3 – three different layouts for KPIs and overall enhanced design options
• ZoomCharts Drill Down Graph PRO – multiple graph layout options now available including hierarchical, radial and dynamic

Closing comments

This update brings more options to both the functionality of Power BI as well as the visualisations. There are new formatting options for several features such as an enhanced authoring experience for formatted tables and greater control over labels for Azure maps. There is also an increase in filtering features via both the introduction of dynamic slicers as well as improvements to composite model features.

This is just a glimpse as to the entire Power BI November update but already it shows much to look forward to if the previews are anything to go by.

Access our wide range of insights in our Power BI hub here.