2023: New Features and Enhancements

In May 2023, Microsoft announced a series of updates and new features to its Power BI platform, aiming to improve user experience, accessibility, and performance. As a skilled blog writer, I will provide you with a comprehensive summary of these updates, covering all areas from reporting and modeling to embedded capabilities and accessibility improvements.

1. Enhanced Accessibility Options for Power BI Report Server

Microsoft has introduced new accessibility features for the Power BI Report Server (PBIRS), allowing report authors to create more inclusive and accessible reports for users with visual or physical impairments. These new features include:

1.1. Accessibility Options for Row Properties

Report authors can now tag rows for headers and data cells within a paginated report, enabling better navigation experiences for users relying on screen readers or keyboards.

1.2. Accessibility Options for Text Box Properties

Similar to row properties, report authors can tag heading elements to text boxes within a paginated report, providing a more accessible navigation experience for users with visual impairments.

1.3. Improved Matrix Accessibility

Power BI has introduced several enhancements to the matrix visual, including improved keyboard navigation, a two-toned focus outline, and support for screen reader announcements.

2. Reporting Updates

Power BI has introduced several new features and improvements to its reporting capabilities, including:

2.1. Conditional Formatting Based on String Fields

Users can now set conditional formatting rules based on string fields, allowing for more dynamic and powerful visualizations.

2.2. Formatting Image Width in Table and Matrix

Individual formatting options for image dimensions in table and matrix visuals have been added, enabling better layout and presentation of visuals containing images.

2.3. Customize Visible Pages in the Page Navigator Visual

Report authors can now control which pages are visible within the Page Navigator visual, providing greater flexibility in report design.

2.4. New Accessible Report Themes

Power BI has added new accessible report themes to promote the creation of accessible reports with good color contrast.

2.5. Visual Container Improvements

New features such as subtitles, dividers, and spacing options have been introduced for visual containers, allowing for more customization and a professional look.

2.6. Apply All Slicers Button and Clear All Slicers Button

The “Apply all slicers” button has been added to the Optimize ribbon, enabling users to apply multiple slicer selections in one click. The “Clear all slicers” button allows users to quickly clear all slicer selections in a single click.

3. Modeling Enhancements

In May 2023, Power BI introduced new DAX functions to improve its modeling capabilities:

3.1. LINEST and LINESTX Functions

These new statistical DAX functions perform linear regression to calculate a straight line that best fits the given data and return a table describing that line.

3.2. RANK and ROWNUMBER Functions

These new functions allow users to easily perform rankings within their data using the ORDERBY and PARTITIONBY functions.

4. Connected Excel Tables in Public Preview

Power BI now supports the exploration of live Power BI data in Excel Tables, allowing users to export refreshable data directly from Power BI to Excel.

5. Power BI Embedded with Microsoft Fabric

Power BI has announced that embedding Power BI is now possible with all the new Fabric capacities, opening up new opportunities for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).

6. Retirement of Data Support for Streaming Dataflows

Users are reminded of the upcoming retirement of data support for streaming dataflows in mid-June, and should migrate to Azure Stream Analytics No-code editor if they haven’t done so already.

7. Power BI Integration with PowerPoint

The integration of Power BI with PowerPoint has reached General Availability, enabling users to embed interactive Power BI data visualizations directly into PowerPoint presentations.

8. Manage Deployment Pipelines with Native “Change Review”

Power BI now offers a native “Change Review” feature in its Deployment pipeline, allowing users to view and compare changes before deploying them.

9. Create Power BI Reports in Jupyter Notebooks

Power BI has introduced a Python package that allows Jupyter Notebook users to create reports based on their data directly in the notebook.

10. Microsoft Recognized as Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant

For the 16th consecutive year, Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, further solidifying its position in the industry.

In summary, the Power BI updates for May 2023 have introduced a wide range of new features and enhancements aimed at improving the user experience, accessibility, and performance of the platform. By staying up-to-date with these updates, users can ensure that they are making the most of the ever-evolving Power BI platform to empower individuals, teams, and organizations with insightful and accessible data visualizations.