I love helping people, and I feel there is space for a book that gives an overall instructional guide on how to get started in Power BI aimed at the Excel Analysts of the world. There are millions of us and Power BI’s popularity is continuing to grow. 

There are many great books out there that I have learned from, and they tend to have a focus on single elements such as Power Query or DAX or come at Power BI from an IT user perspective.

I wanted to be able to recommend a book to people that covers the whole Power BI process aimed at Excel users transitioning to Power BI. This has been my story and I think I have learned from enough mistakes over the last 7 years and seen enough people struggle with certain elements that I’m well positioned to write a book that helps Excel users make a successful start with Power BI.

The challenge with writing a book on Power BI is how quickly it changes and what to leave out.  Since its launch in May 2015 Power BI has developed at an astonishing pace. Every month there are multiple updates, and it has now grown into a fully-fledged Business Intelligence ecosystem.  It pulls together the two worlds of the Excel Analysts and the corporate IT departments with a shared product and language.  

This book aims to help you learn the core essentials of Power BI from the viewpoint of an Excel user. Excel is the world’s most popular programming platform. That’s right, if you’re writing Excel formulas you ARE a programmer. Put “Functional Language Programmer” on your résumé right now! Many of us push Excel to its limits, creating and copying hundreds of thousands of formulas, VLOOKUPS, and XLOOKUPS everywhere, throwing in some Macros where required.  But there is now a new way to build robust refreshable reports without any of that.

Chapter 10 of this book is an “Intermission for Excel fans”. This goes a little into the history of Power Pivot and Power Query and shows you how to apply the things you have learned in the book to Excel. One of the main reasons I’m such a fan of Power BI is that it doesn’t force you to choose Power BI or Excel, it’s about using both with a shared set of techniques.

I hope the book gives you a kick-start on your learning journey.

• Foreword
• Power Pivot and Power Query – the Parents of Power BI
• Why I Wrote this Book
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Power BI
  • Getting Set Up
  • Using this Book and Downloading Sample Files
  • Download the Exercises and view the List of URLs
  • The PBI.Guide website
• Chapter 2 – First Look – an Introduction to Power BI Desktop
  • Interacting with a Power BI Report
  • Introducing Power Query
  • Importing and Cleaning Data using Power Query
  • Summary of Your Introduction to Power Query
• Chapter 3 – Publishing Your Report
  • Signing in to PowerBI.com for the First Time
  • The PowerBI.com Experience (aka “the Service”)
  • Creating a Workspace
  • Power BI Licence Options: A Brief Overview
• Chapter 4 – Files Stored in SharePoint/OneDrive for Business
  • Step 1: Finding the Connection Path
  • Step 2: Using the Power BI Desktop Web Connection
  • Step 3: Pulling the Data into Power BI
  • Step 4: Build a Simple Visual
  • Step 5: Publish to Your New Workspace
  • Step 6: Set up a Scheduled Refresh
• Chapter 5 – Creating a Power BI Model
  • Using a Template File with a Pre-built Calendar Table
  • Creating Relationships Between Tables
  • Managing Sort Order
  • Adding Additional “Lookup/Dimension” Tables
  • Adjusting Power BI Visuals
  • Filtering via Slicers and the Filter Panel
  • Exploring More Visuals
• Chapter 6 – Getting Your Data into the “Right Shape”
  • Power Query’s Two Best Features in One Chapter!
  • Comparing Data from Two Fact Tables
• Chapter 7 – DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions)
  • Writing Your First DAX Measure
  • Storing Measures in their Own Dedicated Table
  • Year to Date Measure
  • Prior Year Comparison and the CALCULATE Function
  • Removing Filters
  • Formatting Your DAX
  • Ratios and Percentages Using DIVIDE
  • Virtual Calculated Columns using the X Functions
  • Dealing with Multiple Date Fields in Your Fact Table
  • Organising Measures into Folders
  • DAX – Next Steps in Your Learning
  • Power BI for the Excel Analyst
• Chapter 8 – The Calendar Table
  • Turning Off Auto Date/Time for New Files
  • Power Query Advanced Editor
  • Copying Queries Between files
  • Changing the Display Order of Fields
  • Marking as Date Table
• Chapter 9 – Creating a Template File
  • Setting Your Default Theme Fonts and Colours
  • Adding a Measures Table
  • Using Your Template
  • Editing/Updating Templates
• Chapter 10 – Intermission for Excel Fans
  • A Little History of Power BI
  • A Demonstration of Excel’s “Power” Features
  • Create an Interactive Pivot Chart
• Chapter 11 – Enrich Your Power BI Report
  • Conditional Formatting
  • Tooltips
  • Drill-through Page
  • Report Design Tips
  • Making Analysis Easier
  • Natural Language Queries and AI-Driven Insights
• Chapter 12 – Sharing Your Reports via Apps
  • Publish Your Report to the Workspace
  • Create an App from Your Workspace
  • Sharing the App
  • Updating a Report and an App
  • Scheduling a Refresh where a Gateway is Required
• Chapter 13 – Additional Important Features
  • Row-Level Security
  • Dataflows
  • Connecting to a Dataset via Power BI Desktop
• Chapter 14 – Where Do We Go from Here?
  • Some Topics We Didn’t Cover…
  • Next Steps in Your Power BI Journey