Power view overview and learning

Important: 

• To deliver a more compelling experience for visual data exploration in a focused tool, we are shifting all investment to Power BI for this workload, and have concluded new feature development for Power View. Power BI Desktop is now the recommended tool for visual data exploration and reporting, and Excel continues to be the broad tool for deep analytics.

• The Power BI Service allows for simple publishing of dashboards for both Power BI reports and Excel workbooks, and also enables users to analyze Power BI data in Excel. Each of these tools is optimized for the different needs of business analysts, and together, the suite is deliberately designed to work together.

• Learn more about the roadmap for Power View in Excel. 

Power View is a data visualization technology that lets you create interactive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals that bring your data to life. Power View is available in Excel, in SharePoint, SQL Server, and Power BI.

There are a few system requirements for Power View, based on which version of Excel, SharePoint, or SQL Server you use. 

Power View is one of three data analysis tools available in Excel:

• Power Pivot

• Power Query

• Power View

Power View Resources

The following links and information can get you going with Power View. The sections are presented in the order you'd need if you were just starting out – the first section describes where to get Power View, the next points you to a quick Getting Started Guide, then come tutorials.

How do I get Power View?

Power View is available as an add-in for Excel. You may need to enable the add-in to use Power View in Excel. You can also use Power View in SharePoint.

Getting started with Power View

When Power View is enabled, you can create a new Power View report page by selecting the Power View button on the Insert ribbon tab. A report in Power View is a single sheet (which can contain multiple visualizations).

Once a Power View report is created, and it's selected as the active sheet in Excel, the Power View ribbon tab is available.

That's just the beginning, of course.

The links in the following sections provide lots of information about visualization types, data sources, and Power View reports. For a detailed introduction to Power View, check out the following guide:

• Power View: Explore, visualize, and present your data

Links in the following sections provide information about specific topics for Power View, including visualization types, tips, and how to work with Power View data sources.

Power View visualization types

The following pages provide detail about different visualizations available in Power View:

• Charts and other visualizations in Power View (a good overview of different types)

• Line charts in Power View

• Pie charts in Power View

• Maps in Power View

• Tiles in Power View

• Images in Power View

• Bubble and scatter charts in Power View

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) in Power View

The following link offers additional information about visualizations in Power View, including tips and tricks

• Add drill-down to a Power View chart or matrix

Working with Power View data

Power View lets you visualize data, so it's useful to learn how Power View can get its data, and how you can include the data you want to see. 

• Create a connection to a data model for Power View

Using Power View in SharePoint

You can use Power View in SharePoint Server. The following link can help get you going:

• Power View in SharePoint Server: Create, save, and print reports

Power View tutorials

Seeing Power View in action can be a boost to learning how to use it. Here are a few tutorials that can get you started:

• Power Pivot Help

• Tutorial: Create Amazing Power View Reports - Part 2

• Tutorial: Optimize your Data Model for Power View reporting

• Tutorial: Extend Data Model relationships using Excel 2013, Power Pivot, and DAX