Power BI Weekly

Issue #302 - 8th April 2025

Apologies for the missed edition last week - I was so engrossed in FabCon that I thought it better to let the articles gather for a mega-edition this week! And mega-edition it is. First of all, if you'd like to read my thoughts on the conference, take a look at my Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 LinkedIn posts. And if that's not enough, you can see Barry's here too: Day 1, Day 2. All in all - a brilliant conference with even better announcements...

Most of the announcements are highlighted in Arun's post from the start of conference: FabCon 2025: Fueling tomorrow’s AI with new agentic capabilities and security innovations in Fabric and/or in the Fabric March 2025 Feature Summary, but those most applicable to Power BI (IMHO) are the following:

Copilot and AI Capabilities are now accessible to all paid SKUs in Microsoft Fabric - yes, you read that right
Announcing Fabric User Data Functions (Preview) - write-back from Power BI reports
The next evolution of OneLake security (Preview) - row/column level security across Lakehouses, SQL Endpoints and semantic models
DAX and semantic models announcements at the Fabric Conference 2025 - Marco summarizing some more specific Power BI updates

Other updates of note are as follows:

Finally, we have also been given the Power BI March 2025 Feature Summary, including the ability to Create semantic models in Direct Lake storage mode from one or more Fabric artifacts in Power BI Desktop, Category enhancements for new the card visual (Preview) and Improved Desktop start-up performance.

🛠️ Data Prep

On the RADACAD blog, Reza Rad (@RADACAD_COM) explains how to Find Mismatch Rows with Power Query in Power BI and talks about Fuzzy Matching in Power BI and Power Query Match based on Similarity Threshold
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) walks through Using Excel Copilot To Import Data With Power Query and covers Fabric Data Agents: Unlocking The Full Power Of DAX For Data Analysis
Paul Turley (@paul_turley) blogs about Preparing Power BI and Fabric for AI & Copilot
Antriksh Sharma (@AntrikshShar) describes how to Split delimeted text to multiple rows in Power Query
Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) talks about Nested Lists in Power Query: Youll Wish You Knew This Sooner and describes Smart Way to Combine CSVs with Inconsistent Headers in Power Query
On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science (@learn_scitech) shares a Power Query Trick: Sum Multiple Column Values in One Go in Power Query using Power BI / Excel
Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) writes about the Power Query Editor — M Language Play: Fun with Names!
On the Excel Basement YouTube channel, Rahim Zulfiqar Ali (@rahimzulfiqar) discusses Power Query and Power Pivot for the Data having Merged Cells Issues and to get Calculations in Excel
Lars Schreiber (@SchreiberLars) writes Monatsbudgets AUSSCHLIESSLICH auf Arbeitstage verteilen | Power Query

🧩 Data Modeling

On the Power BI community blog, Abhilash Pullakanti writes about Enhanced DAX Query Writing with Copilot Smarter Suggestions
Barrett Studdard (@Data_Stud) explains how to Build a DAX Code Generator AI LLM
Justin Martin (@dax_noob_justin) writes DAXing with DAX Noob: Episode 1 and Episode 2
On the SQL Server Central blog, Jared Westover (@WestoverJared) covers DAX CASE Statement Functionality using IF, SWITCH and SWITCH True
Valerie Junk (@porcubi) explains how to Refresh on Change in Power BI with real-time data and talks about This vs. Last Year in Power BI - SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR
Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) covers Fabric Data Agents: Unlocking The Full Power Of DAX For Data Analysis
Reid Havens (@HavensBI) talks about Making a Real Report Fully Bilingual: Harder Than you Thought! (with Bernat Agulló)
Also on the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya explains How to Use the Numeric Range Parameter in Power BI
Andrzej Leszkiewicz (@avatorl) writes about Multiple Stars in a Star Schema
On the SQLBI blog, Marco Russo (@marcorus) writes about the DAX and semantic models announcements at the Fabric Conference 2025
Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) writes about Understanding PERCENTILE.INC and PERCENTILEX.INC in DAX

📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity

On the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya discusses Retaining Slicer Selection Between Bookmarks Using the "Selected Visuals" Option in Power BI
On the SQLBI blog, Kurt Buhler (@kurtbuhler) discusses Using AI assistance to create Power BI custom visuals
On the Power BI blog, Maya Shenhav (@MSPowerBI) describes how to Uplift your storytelling by using annotations on your Power BI visualization in PowerPoint (Preview)
On the Purple Frog Systems blog, Matt Mair-Durrant (@PurpleFrogSys) writes about From Practical to Impactful: Using Base64 Encoded Images to Transform Power BI Button Slicers
Reid Havens (@HavensBI) hosts Inforiver Super Filter for Power BI – Visual Slicer Reimagined (with Prachi Mishra)
On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science (@learn_scitech) describes How to change the bar/column/line color for each small multiple's Chart visual in Power BI
Valerie Junk (@porcubi) writes about a Butterfly Tornado Chart in Power BI
Bas Dohmen (@HowToPowerBI) shares a few videos: UX Design Feature No One Talks About | Side Drop Lines in Power BI, Power BI Finally FIXED This... and It's a Game Changer! Conditional Formatting on Elements of Card and New Secret Weapon for Power BI Designers | Style Presets
Philipp Lenz (@lenz_philipp) discusses SVG image inside Power BI with Figma
Kim Leblanc (@lecfomasque) describes how to Optimisez vos rapports Power BI avec les petits multiples [French]
Danni Olson talks about Paginated Reports.. When to use and how to create

🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations

On the Power BI blog, Kim Manis (@kimmanis) writes about the Grace period for transitioning from Power BI Premium to Microsoft Fabric
Also on the Power BI blog, Maya Shenhav (@MSPowerBI) describes Upcoming Changes to Power BI Mobile App Support for ADFS 2016
Also on the Power BI blog, Emily Lisa (@emilyklisa) shares a Deep dive into using notebooks with your semantic model (Preview)
Also on the Power BI blog, Dustin Askins shares the Updates to org apps (Preview) – more customization, deployment pipelines, and Git – plus what’s next like new license support and audiences!
On the Fabric blog, Aaron Merrill writes about The next evolution of OneLake security (Preview)
On the Power BI community blog, Chinmaya Patra, Pradip VS and Vivienne Vereen writes about Dynamic Row-Level Security (RLS) Implementation in Power BI (Part 1)
Also on the Power BI community blog, Kumail Raza writes about Migrating from Power BI Premium to Microsoft Fabric: A Comprehensive Guide
Also on the Power BI community blog, Tharun Kumar Ravikrindhi discusses Power BI Report subscriptions does not respect RLS
Also on the Power BI community blog, Vivienne Vereen describes how to Programmatically deploy Semantic Models and Reports via Semantic Link Labs
On the Data Bear blog, Althea Van Zyl explains How Enterprises Benefit from Power BI Embedded Reports
On the MSSQLTips site, Kenneth A. Omorodion (@mssqltips) covers Power BI Workspaces Management and Archiving Best Practices
On the Power GI blog, Cyrus Christian presents a Power BI Admin Monitoring Deep Dive in GCC (3/27/25)
Valerie Junk (@porcubi) walks through Creating an APP in Power BI
On the Fabric blog, Leo Li shares the On-premises data gateway February 2025 release
Ignacio Barrau (@ignacho_07) writes Migrando capacidad Premium a Fabric [Spanish]

🌐 General

On the Power BI blog, Patrick Leblanc (@GuyInACube) shares the Power BI March 2025 Feature Summary
On the Fabric blog, Luis Bósquez (@_lbosq) announces Announcing Fabric User Data Functions (Preview)
On the BIFocal podcast, John White and Jason Himmelstein (@bifocalshow) present Episode 288 - Power BI February 2025 Feature Summary
Eugene Meidinger (@sqlgene) shares a few free episodes from a Power BI Consulting Course
Purna (Chandoo) Duggirala (@r1c1) explains How to Create a Power BI Dashboard for Insurance Analytics With Examples