Paul Turley's SQL Server BI Blog

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.
Understanding visual design principles and the fashion of visualization
Understanding chart types and design approaches
Getting to know the anatomy of a chart
Creating a multi-series chart
Using multiple chart areas
Learning useful properties and settings

Every few months a feature is added to Power BI that gets my attention and really seems to make  difference.  Quick Measures is one such feature that has my attention.  As a long-time SQL Server Analysis Services practitioner, I subscribe to the belief that anything that you want to calculate should be created as a measure.  The counter argument is that, just like in Excel, every numeric column can be assigned an aggregate function in the “Summarize By” property which makes the column behave like a simple measure.  I fought this at first and then learned to embrace the default behavior because that’s what most self-service BI users will expect.  These “implicit measures” work just fine in Power BI report visuals.  The catch is that client tools like Excel can only use real measures instead of numeric columns, to perform calculations.  In serious SSAS and Power BI solutions I still create measures for any numeric values that should be aggregated.  Here’s a peek at the new Quick measures dialog:

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.
Pagination, and page headers and footers
Report headers and footers
Text formatting and textbox properties
Embedded formatting and HTML text styling
Master/detail reports
Working with subreports
Creating a document map

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.
Introducing SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio
Sample reports projects and exercises
Using the graphical Query Designer
Understanding query groups and table joins
Understanding report data flow
Understanding report groups
Grasping expression basics
Utilizing group sorting and visibility

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press book: Professional SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services and Mobile Reports.  Each of the posts is a condensed version of the material covered in a corresponding chapter from the book.  The goal for this posts is to provide useful and meaningful information you can use.  For more comprehensive details, I refer readers to the rather lengthy book itself.  Note that large portions are copied directly from the book manuscript that may refer to figures and screen capture images that have been removed for brevity.
Pagination, and page headers and footers
Report headers and footers
Text formatting and textbox properties
Embedded formatting and HTML text styling
Master/detail reports
Working with subreports
Creating a document map

At great effort and considerable coordination, storm trackers gathered in key positions in fields throughout three midwestern states to pay…

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press…

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press…

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press…

This post is part of the series: “Professional SSRS 2016 Book Preview Posts” which are excerpts for my Wrox Press…

A big THANK YOU for all those who attended the Business Analytics Day in Chicago this week.  It was a…