Power BI Weekly

Issue #290 - 7th January 2025

I hope everyone had a wonderful break (at least, those of you that had one!), and that you're now suitably refreshed for what promises to be another busy year in the Power BI space. Since there are no announcements yet, I'll start off this year by highlighting a blog from my fellow endjineer Jess, who's continued her Power BI developers series, writing Why Power BI developers should care about the Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL). Jess walks through the reasons why TMDL has become an invaluable tool which bring greater maturity and reliability to scripting changes to your semantic model - do take a read.

Elsewhere this week, Kurt Buhler has written about how to Recover Power BI reports or models that you can’t download by leveraging the PBIP format, Mimoune Djouallah has written an interesting article showing how to manually tweak things to Optimize Parquet Layout for Power BI Direct Lake Mode, and Daan Oosters has broken down the options around Export or Not in Power BI? Who Decides and Why?

🛠️ Data Prep

On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science (@learn_scitech) explains How to append two or more tables in Power Query using Power BI or Excel? and describes How to merge tables in Power Query | Differences between Merge Queries and Merge Queries as New
Rick de Groot (@Rickmaurinus) writes about The Let Expression in Power Query M

🧩 Data Modeling

On the endjin blog, Jessica Hill (@JessRoseHill_) writes about Why Power BI developers should care about the Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL)
On the Power BI community blog, Ilgar Zarbali writes about Working with X-Functions in DAX (SUMX, AVERAGEX, etc.)
Sunil Mathew (@_sunil_mathew_) demonstrates Short Month Names using DAX
Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) talks about the 5 Worst DAX Mistakes You're Probably Making
On the SQL Server Central blog, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) writes about Why you should avoid Implicit Measures in your Power BI model
Justin Martin (@dax_noob_justin) writes about Optimizing Rolling Distinct Count Measures
On the RADACAD YouTube channel, Reza Rad (@RADACAD_COM) describes Power BI Performance Tuning Step 3 Aggregation Dual Storage Mode
On the MSSQLTips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) describes How to use Perspectives in Power BI
On the Tabular Editor blog, Morten Lønskov shares Tabular Editor 3: December 2024 Release
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) writes about Why Setting Sort By Column Is Important For Power BI Copilot and describes Power BI Copilot And The Data Category Property
Mimoune Djouallah (@mim_djo) discusses Optimizing Parquet Layout for Power BI Direct Lake Mode
Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) writes about Using DATESBETWEEN to Enhance Radial Gauges in Power BI

📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity

Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) blogs about Text Analysis With Power BI Copilot
On the Power BI community blog, Saud Ansari blogs about Introducing the new text slicer in Power BI
Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) describes Replacing Images in PBIR Format Reports
On the SQLBI blog, Kurt Buhler (@kurtbuhler) talks about Re-using visual formatting in and across Power BI reports
Bas Dohmen (@HowToPowerBI) presents This Made My Card Visuals Look Incredible
Reid Havens (@HavensBI) hosts Box (and Whisker) Plot Visual with Native Visuals + Error Bars (with Daniel Marsh-Patrick) and Introducing the Core Visuals - Vision Board (with Miguel Myers & Alper Sarikaya)
Valerie Junk (@porcubi) describes Adding Icons and data bars in a Power BI table or matrix – Conditional formatting and talks about Changing the Power BI Report Page Size in A Few Clicks - Power BI Canvas Size Tip
Jon Stjernegaard Vöge writes about Advanced Filter/Parameter passing from Power BI to Power Apps

🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations

Valerie Junk (@porcubi) talks about Power BI Mobile - Connect Reports and Workspaces to NFC Tags to get insights
On the Purple Frog Systems blog, James Snow (@PurpleFrogSys) writes about Metric Sets in Power BI
Daan Oosters (@daanoosters) describes Export or Not in Power BI? Who Decides and Why?
Kurt Buhler (@kurtbuhler) describes how to Recover Power BI reports or models that you can’t download
Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) describes How to Monitor, Optimize, and Govern Power BI Fabric with Ease

🌐 General

On the RADACAD YouTube channel, Reza Rad (@RADACAD_COM) presents Power BI Announcements at Microsoft Ignite 2024 Interview with Mo
Soheil Bakhshi (@biinsightnz) describes how to Separate Your Power BI Versions: How to Change Icons in Windows 11
Nadim Abou-Khalil talks about Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft Fabric