New Power BI Service Authoring Experience - Paginated Reports

In this tutorial, Manuel Quintana from Pragmatic Works introduces the new paginated report authoring experience in Power BI Service. This upgraded interface brings improved functionality and ease of use for creating paginated reports directly within the service.

Step 1: Overview of the New Experience

The new paginated report authoring experience has made it easier to design, preview, and publish reports directly from Power BI Service. Some of the key improvements include:

• Improved UI for building reports
• Ability to preview data in real time
• Support for headers, footers, and parameters

Step 2: Accessing Paginated Reports in Power BI Service

To start building a paginated report:

• Navigate to a dataset in Power BI Service.
• Click on Explore this data and select Create a paginated report.
• You’ll be taken to the new editor interface, where you can start building your report.

Step 3: Building the Report

In the new interface, you can drag and drop fields from your dataset to create a table or matrix. Adjust columns, headers, and rows as needed. Here's how you can get started:

• Select fields like Product Name, Sales, or other relevant metrics to display.
• Use the Build Section to reorder or rename columns, adjust formatting, and add aggregations.
• Resize and position elements on the page to ensure everything fits neatly within the boundaries.

Step 4: Customizing the Report

The new authoring experience also includes tools for adding custom headers and footers:

• Add images such as logos to the header using URLs or file uploads.
• Customize text with options like font size, bolding, and alignment.
• In the footer, you can include page numbers, execution time, or other metadata.

Step 5: Using Parameters

One of the most anticipated features is the ability to add parameters. This allows users to filter the report dynamically:

• Drag a field into the parameter section to create a dropdown that users can interact with.
• Use the parameter to filter data on the fly, providing a tailored view of the report based on user input.

Step 6: Saving and Publishing the Report

Once your paginated report is ready:

• Click Save and choose your workspace for storage.
• Once saved, the report can be accessed and shared like any other report within Power BI Service.

Step 7: Next Steps

While this new experience is great for quick operational reports, users seeking more advanced customization can still use Power BI Report Builder for desktop. The desktop tool offers deeper control over expressions, formatting, and more.

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to create and customize paginated reports directly from Power BI Service using the new authoring experience.

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power BI and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.