If you want to dive into your data and understand trends, outliers, and the details of what’s going on, you’ll want all of Power BI’s visualization and query options. But when it’s time to explain that to someone else or use it to make a decision together, how do you show them the numbers?
The most common way people share and explain data is in PowerPoint presentations with charts and graphs or screenshots from a Power BI report. The problem is, you can’t dig into the data to see what’s going on, and it doesn’t update as new data comes in unless you do it yourself.
TO SEE: Export Microsoft Power BI data to a Microsoft Excel file (TechRepublic)
Add Power BI reports to PowerPoint
The new Power BI storytelling plug-in for PowerPoint lets you add fully interactive, live Power BI reports to a slide.
If you have a Microsoft 365 license and are using the Office Insiders beta channel, the Power BI button should automatically appear on the Insert ribbon in PowerPoint. Click to get the Power BI placeholder, then paste the report URL.
When you’re in the Power BI report, choose Export > PowerPoint > Embed Live Data to get the URL and click the Open in PowerPoint button in that dialog box to create a new presentation with it. You can also use a filter or slicer first if you want a specific visualization from the report.
If you don’t see it and you have access to Power BI (even a free account that allows you to view reports), choose Get Add-ins from the Insert tab and search for Microsoft Power BI (Image A†
Dive in and share Power BI data through PowerPoint
When you’re giving a presentation, you can stop and dive into the Power BI data on your slide to answer questions using the same filters, slicers, and tools you have in Power BI on the web, as long as you’re online, if the plug-in is a WebView2 control.
If you send the slides to someone, they must have access to the Power BI report to see that slide. You can set that when using Share to get the report URL (Figure B† if they don’t have access, they will only see a notification asking for access.
If you don’t want them to get the live data, you can click the arrow in the top right corner of the plug-in and choose View as Saved Image. That makes it a static image, which is also useful if you have to give the presentation when you are not connected. But you can click again to uncheck Show as saved image to get the live data again (Figure C†
Set up Power BI reports and alerts via email
Slides aren’t the only place we need data to ask questions or explain what we plan to do. While you can link in Teams to Power BI, a feature coming soon to mobile Teams, many people still have conversations and share information via email, especially to send regular status reports. Fortunately, there are several ways to use Power BI with Outlook.
When you share Power BI reports and dashboards using the Share button on the service, you can: email a link† Keep in mind that people outside your organization can see but not edit reports. You can also subscribe to get snapshots of Power BI reports and dashboards by email if you have a Power BI Pro or Premium license. Click Subscribe in the toolbar (Figure D), and enter your (or someone else’s) email address and choose how often you want to send the email.
If you want to email a report when something changes rather than at regular intervals, Set up Power BI data alertsand choose Use Microsoft Power Automate to trigger additional actions.
To regularly send Power BI reports as attachments by email, you can: automate that with Power Automate† Create a flow and set how often you want to send the reports and what format (such as PDF) you want to send them in.
Open and create Power BI reports in the Office hub
With Power BI as a separate service with its own website, it is not like the other Office applications. The Office hub, which is both the office.com website and an app on your PC, now has Power BI reports on the list of documents you can create, in addition to Visio drawings and well-known Office documents (Digits E† You can also add the same Power BI app that you use in Teams to the list of apps that appear there, such as Outlook.
Currently, if you create a new report from the Create list, it will open in your browser, but Microsoft says that will change. If you start the change from the Power BI app in the Office hub app and create a new report, you stay there (Figure F†
Using Power BI in Outlook
If you’re using Outlook on the web or Windows and have the Power BI app installed in Teams, the Power BI app will also appear in the Outlook navigation along with Microsoft To Do, Yammer, and Bookings (Figure G† This is being rolled out as part of Microsoft 365 First Release for Outlook web and Office Insiders Beta Channel for Outlook on Windows, but it may take time for everyone to reach it, even if other people in your tenant already have it.
It allows you to explore reports and dashboards without having to switch to another application. Right-click to open that in a new window instead of switching views.
If someone emails you a link to a report or dashboard in the future, it will open in the Power BI app in Outlook instead of opening a new web page, but that won’t work in the current preview. Also, currently you can’t export or download files, insert data, or view content in full screen, so if you must, you can click the globe icon in the Power BI app to go to the web version.
But having Power BI in a second window or other tab isn’t integrated into the emails you write, even though it’s more convenient to get there than a separate website. When you get the Power BI app in Outlook, you can insert a report in an email as if you were attaching a file (figure H), with a similar selector that shows the reports and dashboards you’ve used recently. And it lets you search for the ones not in the list. That doesn’t embed the report in the email, though; what you get is an Adaptive Card, which Microsoft now also calls Preview Cards.
Further down the line, pasting into a Power BI report’s URL will also create a sample map that Microsoft calls “unfolding,” and it’s a bit like the smart paste options in Office documents. The idea is that instead of a URL that can go anywhere, the person you’re sending it to sees the name of the report and where it’s located in Power BI, so they know it’s official data relevant to the report. discussion, because the data isn’t going to help if people don’t trust it.
