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Reporting & Data Visualization Summit 2022

EnterpriseDNA Reporting & Data Visualization Summit 2022

Later this month Enterprise DNA organises the Reporting & Data Visualization Summit 2022. Over 5 days, 25+ training sessions for everyone working with Power BI. And in this case it is really for EVERYONE, because you can join this event for FREE.

Register HERE for FREE now!

We are honoured to sponsor this event and conduct one of the training sessions. Join us on Tuesday, May 24th for our session “9½ Tips for awesome visualizations in Power BI“.

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9½ Tips for awesome visualizations in Power BI

After two long years of attending all events virtually this month we finally could meet each other again. When we heard about the possibility to be part of the Dutch Power BI User Group event there was no doubt. We joined as a sponsor and enjoyed every minute of meeting all these Power BI users. Our colleague Michel had the honour to talk about his passion: effective data visualization in Power BI. Really excited to share his story with the audience, but also with anyone else who tries to get most out of their Power BI visualizations.

In case you could not join the event, here you can watch the video of our presentation. ½

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PowerGantt Chart for Power BI

The Gantt chart is an excellent tool to visualize your program and project schedules and task dependencies. The horizontal bars show for each task/activity the period between the start and end date (or time). Icons can be used to represent milestones: important moments within your project timeline.

The PowerGantt Chart allows you to review both tasks/activities and milestones right in your Power BI reports. The PowerGantt Chart supports unlimited number of task/activities, hierarchy levels and number of milestones.

Key features of the PowerGantt Chart are:

  • Insight into your program and project schedules: high level overview at first and dive into details using the collapse/expand buttons. Zoom into specific periods using the dynamic zoom slider
  • Highly customisable: Add or remove columns, change colors of bars based on your own criteria, and change the date granularity
  • No need to learn a new interface. Configuration is the same as a standard Power BI Bar Chart. And of course, theme colors and settings are supported

Don’t hesitate and try the PowerGannt Chart now on your own project/program data by downloading it from the AppSource.

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Strip Plot for Power BI

In the Microsoft Power BI Blog post of March 2022 we got the opportunity to share some exciting updates in our Strip for Power BI. Here you have our contribution to the Power BI Blog.

Most charts will force you to summarize or categorize data before it is displayed. This can hide important details and may be misleading. The Strip Plot shows all your data observations in one go without hiding important details. It shows each data point on a single continuous scale.

You gave us excellent feedback which allows us to further improve this visual. Based on your feedback we just released version 2 with several exciting enhancements.

You could already add numeric values, but now you can also use dates on the x-axis. The x-axis has also been enhanced with the optional Zoom-Slider.

Each visual in Power BI has three different panes: Fields, Format & Analytics. The Analytics pane allows you to add reference lines to your visual (like: fixed value, median, average, max, etc.) In version 2 you can use this functionality with the Strip Plot.

All functionality of the Strip Plot is available through the standard Power BI interface: NO need to learn any new interface.

Don’t hesitate and try the Strip Plot now on your own data by downloading it from the AppSource.

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Merged Bar Chart for Power BI

In the Microsoft Power BI Blog post of February 2022 we got the opportunity to share some exciting updates in our Merged Bar Chart for Power BI. Microsoft has included this visual in the exclusive Editors Pick list. Here you have our contribution to the Power BI Blog.

On the surface the Merged Bar Chart has a lot of similarities with small multiples. The key difference is the way these charts allow you to compare values. The Merged Bar Chart focusses on comparing multiple measures (like EBITDA & Marketcap in the example below) within one specific categorical variable (here Industries of S&P 500 stocks).

Based on your excellent feedback we have added several exciting features to this visual:

  • Conditional formatting: bars within a measure can change color (the example above shows the EBITDA/FTE in red when it concerns a negative revenue growth)
  • Data Labels: besides the bar you can show the data label. You can even change the location of the labels.
  • Partial highlighting: when your selection results in a partial match (in the example above this is the selection of Washington State) the partial highlight will display this with the highlighted color.

Do you want to compare multiple independent measures? Go Merged Bar Chart.

Try the Merged Bar Chart now by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate this visual within Power BI Desktop.

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Updated Shielded HTML Viewer

In the Microsoft Power BI Blog post of December 2021 we got the opportunity to share some exciting updates in our Shielded HTML Viewer. Here you have our contribution to the Power BI Blog.

All HTML rendered through the Shielded HTML Viewer is sanitised to keep your data safe. But sometimes our sanitation process is too strict. Based on valuable feedback from our users we concluded the use of images became a victim of this strict sanitation process. So, we added support for images to the Shielded HTML Viewer! But without the need for risky external links.

As of version 2.0 the Shielded HTML Viewer (in the image above used in the tooltip of a dumbbell chart) supports inline SVG and Data URL images. This way you can include any inline images in your Power BI reports and dashboards. Version 2.0 also includes support for the NAV-tag: now you can include HTML navigation menus to your reports. More information on the NAV-tag can be found here.

Furthermore, all functionality is available through the standard Power BI interface, so no need to learn a new interface.

Don’t hesitate and try the Shielded HTML Viewer now on your own data by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate the Shielded HTML Viewer within Power BI Desktop.

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Lollipop Bar Chart

Standard bar charts are ideal for showing a single measure per category. You can easily compare each of the categories with the rest. However, if you have larger number of categories (>10) in a bar chart it is possible the chart itself becomes “heavy”. The coloured bars will fill large part of the chart surface. To avoid this clutter one can use the Lollipop Bar Chart for Power BI as an alternative.

The Lollipop Bar Chart shows a marker (mostly a dot) per category. A subtle line connects the marker to the measure-axis origin. The marker combined with the line make it a Lollipop Bar Chart.

The Lollipop Bar Chart also contains an additional chart: the dot plot. Just hide the line connecting the marker to the axis.

The latest version of this chart contains several exciting enhancements:

  • Conditional Formatting (both the marker and the line)
  • Partial Highlighting
  • Data Labels
  • Marker shapes

Don’t hesitate and try the Lollipop Bar Chart now on your own data by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate this visual within Power BI Desktop.

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Win a FREE license of the Editor’s Pick September 2021

Win a FREE license of Microsoft’s Power BI Editor’s Pick this month: Lipstick Bar Chart.

The Lipstick Bar Chart for Power BI shows the primary measure per category on the foreground. The chart places the secondary measure behind the primary for a precise comparison of both values. Placing both values on top of each other creates a compact and clean overview. The following image is an example of this:

Download this visual now from the Microsoft AppSource.

How to win a Free license of Power BI’s Editor Pick?

Write your review about this visual on the AppSource and win a FREE license* of this visual. To qualify for a FREE license you send a copy of your review to info@novasilva.com. Before the end of October 2021 we will inform the winner of the FREE license.

*The FREE license will be one Creator for 12 months.

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Control Chart XmR for Power BI

Every month Microsoft publishes a summary of all the new features in Power BI within their Power BI Blog. In the July 2021 post we got the opportunity to introduce our Control Chart XmR for Power BI to the Power BI community. Here you have our contribution to the Power BI Blog.

Years ago, Stacey Barr introduced us to the magic of Control Charts. Magic it is, because it allows everyone to split their temporal data in two: random noise and real signals. And we all are looking for real signals, and don’t want to be distracted by random noise.

Stacey applies Control Charts based on the so-called Wheeler rules (as specified by Dr. Donald J. Wheeler). This is why our first release of the Control Chart XmR supports this set of rules.  Obviously, the Wheeler rules are not the only set of rules. A couple of months ago we were contacted by a large manufacturing organization. They use Control Charts to continuously improve their processes, and this helped them in obtaining the highest CMMI maturity level.

Control Chart XmR support for Nelson Rules

They required support for the Nelson rules. Now the Control Chart XmR supports both the Wheeler and Nelson rule sets: the user selects the most appropriate rule set.

Don’t hesitate and try the Control Chart XmR now on your own data by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate this visual within Power BI Desktop.

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Dumbbell Bar Chart for Power BI

Every month Microsoft publishes a summary of all the new features in Power BI within their Power BI Blog. In the June 2021 post we got the opportunity to introduce our Dumbbell Bar Chart for Power BI to the Power BI community. Here you have our contribution to the Power BI Blog.

Data visualisations play a fundamental role in answering an important data question:”How does result A compare to result B?”. Typical examples of these questions are:

  • How does the sales of this month compare to the sales of last month?
  • What is the difference between the number of documents processed this year compared to 2020?
  • How does the number of planned-visitors compare to the number of unplanned-visitors at our locations?

Key in answering these kind of questions is clearly visualising the difference between the two results. This is the strength of the Dumbbell Bar Chart: showing both values and the difference between them.

The top chart shows the two values (Last Year and Current Year. This allows the user to identify the growing (ie. Adventure Works) versus the shrinking (ie Fabrikam) brands. Optionally the user can include the variance chart (second chart) to increase the emphasis on the difference between the two values.

Don’t hesitate and try the Dumbbell Bar Chart now on your own data by downloading it from the AppSource. All features are available for free to evaluate this visual within Power BI Desktop.