Microsoft has announced its October Update for Power BI Desktop. As usual, the monthly release is packed with new improvements for various services in Power BI Desktop. Chief among them is a Bookmarking feature, which has been much-requested amongst users.
With Bookmarking, users can save favored states as part of their report. Bookmarks are important because they allow users to pick up work where they left it. The features work well for analysis and organizing presentations in a report.
It is worth noting Bookmarking is currently available in preview. It is not the only notable new addition for Power BI Desktop.
Microsoft has also added the ability to use quick measures for report that are using live connection mode against SQL Server Analysis Services models. Again, this is available in preview. Quick measures for SSAS live connections also works with custom tables.
Last month, Microsoft debuted Power BI Desktop in the Windows Store. The Windows 10 app brings the visual analytics platform to desktop, allowing authoring features and interactive visualization reports.
Microsoft has provided the following changelog for the October Update:
Reporting
- Bookmarking (preview)
- Selection pane and visual display controls
- Bookmark links for shapes and images (preview)
- Spotlight
- Scatter & bubble markers
- Increase the number of data points shown in scatter charts
Analytics
- Quick measures for SSAS live connections
- Sales from new customers quick measure
- Cell-level formatting for multidimensional AS models
Data connectivity
- Vertica connector (beta)
- SAP BW connector: support for additional member properties
Other
- Power BI Desktop in the Windows Store
- Improved access to help content
Power BI Premium
Earlier in the summer, Microsoft rolled out a premium version of Power BI. Power BI Premium gets a new Report Server feature. This gives companies the tools to store data safely behind a security firewall. Power BI Embedded and Power BI Service are converged in the Premium offering, improving the way content is embedded into apps.
Pricing for embedding with Power BI Premium starts at $625.
