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Power BI Desktop Update for May 2024 Part two of a seven-part series of blogs |
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This month's bigger than average update sees new pivot table style matrix layouts, the emergence of modern tooltips, calculation groups and the DAX query pane from preview and a couple of other smaller changes.
We've been creating our idiosyncratic monthly blogs on Power BI updates since November 2016, and also deliver online and classroom Power BI courses. |
You probably already know and love the matrix visual:
A typical matrix, showing sales by environment and habitat (on the left) and centre type (across the top).
Well, Microsoft are now trying to make it behave more like a pivot table:
The same thing, but as a pivot table in Excel with the report layout options shown.
I'm not totally convinced that this is a good thing. The ethos of Power BI Desktop was to start with a completely blank slate - it's a slippery slope if Microsoft start trying now to shoehorn it into an Excel mould.
It's easy enough to change the layout of a matrix in Power BI Desktop:
You'll find this Layout dropdown in the matrix's formatting properties.
Here's what the 3 different views look like for a typical matrix:
In order: Compact, Outline and Tabular view,
Staying with the Excel pivot table theme, you can now choose to repeat row headers in a matrix, provided that you choose the Outline or Tabular layouts:
The option to repeat row headers.
Here's what this will give for one of our examples:
The only thing I ever used this for in Excel was to copy the data; I'm not clear why I'd want to do this from Power BI.
I should have led with this, as I think it's by far the best new change:
You can now choose to separate sections with blank rows.
I like this!
The sections are much easier now to distinguish.
To use Microsoft's words, "It’s a thoughtful addition that brings a new level of clarity and organization to Power BI’s matrix visuals".
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