Business users receive some apps automatically but can go search for other apps created by colleagues or by the community. Often, the designer organizes report pages to address a central area of interest or answer a single question.Īn app is a way for designers to bundle and share related dashboards, reports, and datasets together. Power BI bases a report on a single dataset. The dashboard content comes from one or more reports and one or more datasets.įor more info, see Dashboards for the Power BI service business users.Ī report is one or more pages of interactive visuals, text, and graphics that together make up a single report. A dashboard collects your most important metrics, on one screen, to tell a story or answer a question. Datasets are managed by designers.Ī dashboard is a single screen with tiles of interactive visuals, text, and graphics. It could also be a company-owned database of customers or it might be a Salesforce file. For example, it might be an Excel file from the World Health Organization. Because they are highly interactive, you can slice, filter, highlight, change, and even drill into visualizations.įor more info, see Interact with Visuals in reports, dashboards, and apps.Ī dataset is a container of data. The visuals display the data from reports and datasets.
(Don't worry, we'll talk about the different ways that content is shared later in this article.)Ī visualization (or visual), is a type of chart built by Power BI designers. There are many different ways that a designer can share content with you: as individual pieces of content, content bundled together in an app, or by giving you permissions to a workspace where the content is stored.
Content exists in workspaces.Ī typical Power BI workflow involves all of the building blocks: A Power BI designer (yellow in diagram below) collects data from datasets, brings it into Power BI Desktop for analysis, creates reports full of visualizations that highlight interesting facts and insights, pins visualizations from reports to dashboards, and shares the reports, and dashboards with business users like you (black in diagram below). These are sometimes referred to as Power BI content. So we'll introduce you to the most common: visualizations, dashboards, reports, apps, and datasets. There are many objects and concepts that make up the Power BI service, too many to cover in a single article. This article applies only to the Power BI service.įor more information about the full suite of Power BI tools, see What is Power BI?. But, as long as you're a business user, you'll typically work with the Power BI service. It's important to know that there are other Power BI tools out there.
You'll undoubtedly hear the term "Power BI Desktop" or just "Desktop." It is the stand-alone tool used by designers who build and share dashboards and reports with you. This article isn't about Power BI Desktop Business users work with the Power BI service (), which is the website-based version of Power BI.
Business users receive Power BI content, like dashboards, reports, and apps, from creator colleagues. This article assumes that you've already read the Power BI overview and have identified yourself as a Power BI business user. Understanding these terms and concepts will make it easier for you to read through the other Power BI articles and to work in the Power BI service (). Use this article to familiarize yourself with some of the terms and concepts associated with the Power BI service.
APPLIES TO: Power BI service for business users Power BI service for designers & developers Power BI Desktop Requires Pro or Premium license