Power BI Weekly
Issue #343 - 3rd February 2026
On the official blog, Zoe Douglas has provided a
Deep dive into composite semantic models with Direct Lake and import tables
- the new public preview capability allowing you to mix Direct Lake and Import tables and achieve the expected performance with the creation of regular (rather than limited) relationships. Marco Russo has shown us how to
Show transaction details on the matrix visual in Power BI
, stepping through various DAX calculations culminating in the optimal method. Just Blindbæk has written about
Bringing Databricks Metric Views into the Power BI world
with the new Tabular Editor 3 (Commercial) feature called "Semantic Bridge", which offers automatic conversion of the two data model representations. Finally, the Icon Map team has written an interesting article about
Gradient colour schemes in Power BI: keep your map and legend colours aligned
, describing where gradient legends can fall short in your dashboards and how instead to use them effectively.
🛠️ Data Prep
Chandeep Chhabra (
@chandeep2786
) writes about
Most People Merge Excel Files Wrong ❌ Here’s a Smarter Way ✅
🧩 Data Modeling
On the Power BI blog, Zoe Douglas (
@MSPowerBI
) shares a
Deep dive into composite semantic models with Direct Lake and import tables
On the SQLBI blog, Marco Russo (
@marcorus
) describes various ways to
Show transaction details on the matrix visual in Power BI
Just Blindbæk (
@justblindbaek
) describes
Bringing Databricks Metric Views into the Power BI world
Antriksh Sharma (
@AntrikshShar
) blogs about the
Relationship between Date and DateTime column in Power BI
Ben Richardson (
@AcuityTraining
) writes
Power BI Relationships Explained (And Why “Many-to-Many” Is Almost Always Wrong!)
📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity
On the Power BI community blog, Dane Belarmino explains how to
Build a Universal Search Slicer in Power BI
Also on the Power BI community blog, EsraaKamal blogs about
Streamlining Conditional Formatting in Power BI: DAX Workarounds & The Case for Global Rules
Also on the Power BI community blog, Tharun Kumar Ravikrindhi talks about
The Hidden Meaning of Percent Option in Rules Based Conditional Formatting
The Icon Map team writes about
Gradient colour schemes in Power BI: keep your map and legend colours aligned
Bas Dohmen (
@HowToPowerBI
) highlights the
NEW Custom Icons in Power BI Maps (Finally!)
On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science (
@learn_scitech
) covers
Field parameters persist hierarchy level setting for Matrix visual in Power BI
🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations
On the Power BI community blog, Leandro Zanqueta discusses
Power BI Security: A practical guide to RLS, OLS and Masking
On the Microsoft Fabric Café YouTube channel, Dániel Gábor Patkós presents
Power BI Meets GitHub: Automating CI/CD Workflows and Collaboration
Chris Webb (
@cwebb_bi
) highlights the
New Performance Optimisation for Excel PivotTables Connected To Power BI Semantic Models
Gilbert Quevauvilliers (
@GilbertQue
) writes about
Direct Lake or Import which Semantic Model has the best performance
Also on the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya describes
How to Configure Schedule Refresh in Power BI Service
🌐 General
Eugene Meidinger (
@sqlgene
) writes
Is AI taking our Power BI jobs? Not exactly, but it’s getting bumpy.
Valerie Junk (
@porcubi
) shares
Power BI Roadmap Explained - Find new Power BI features