Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide

Build interactive dashboards and reports with Power BI Desktop, the Power BI service, and DAX

Go from raw data to published, interactive Power BI dashboards without wasting time on theory you will never use.

B Bradley Schacht D Devin Knight E Erin Ostrowsky M Mitchell Pearson

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide walks you through the full Power BI workflow: connecting to data sources, shaping and transforming data in Power Query, building a proper data model, writing DAX measures, and publishing polished reports to the Power BI service. Written by four Microsoft MVPs and practitioners, the book prioritises hands-on steps over abstract explanation, so you spend your time building real reports rather than reading about them.

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About this book

Power BI is Microsoft's dominant business intelligence platform, but its surface area is wide enough to overwhelm anyone starting out. You need to know which tools to use, in which order, and why the decisions you make early in a project — data source connections, table relationships, measure design — determine whether your report is a one-off spreadsheet substitute or a scalable, maintainable BI asset.

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide gives you a direct path through that complexity. Four authors who teach, consult, and build production Power BI solutions for a living distilled the workflow that actually matters into a single, practical book. Every chapter is built around doing rather than reading: you load data, shape it, model it, measure it, and publish it.

The book opens with Power BI Desktop — the authoring environment where most of your work happens. You learn to connect to a range of data sources, then move into Power Query to clean and transform data before it ever reaches your model. From there you build a proper star-schema data model, define relationships, and write DAX expressions that go beyond simple sums to calculated columns, time intelligence, and reusable measures.

On the visualisation side, you work through the core chart types and learn how slicers, cross-filtering, and drill-through turn a static chart into an interactive report. The final section covers the Power BI service: publishing reports, setting up workspaces, configuring scheduled refresh, and sharing content with colleagues without forcing them to install anything.

Connect to Excel, SQL Server, and cloud data sources using Power Query
Clean, reshape, and merge tables before loading data into your model
Build a star-schema model with correct relationships and cardinality
Write DAX measures including time intelligence functions
Design reports with slicers, drill-through, and conditional formatting
Publish to the Power BI service and configure scheduled data refresh
Share dashboards and reports with colleagues through workspaces and apps

Whether you are an analyst who has outgrown Excel, a developer asked to build your first BI solution, or a data professional switching from another tool, this book gets you productive with Power BI in the shortest realistic time.

🎯 What you'll learn

Connect Power BI Desktop to Excel files, SQL Server databases, and cloud data sources
Transform and clean raw data using Power Query's graphical editor without writing M by hand
Model data in a proper star schema with correctly configured relationships and cardinality
Write DAX measures that calculate running totals, period-over-period comparisons, and filtered aggregations
Build interactive reports using slicers, drill-through pages, and cross-filter behaviour
Publish finished reports to the Power BI service and configure automated data refresh
Organise and share content using workspaces and Power BI apps
Identify and fix common modelling and DAX mistakes that cause slow or incorrect reports

👤 Who is this book for?

Analysts who have outgrown Excel and need to build scalable, shareable reports without writing code
Developers new to Power BI who want a structured, end-to-end walkthrough of the full authoring workflow
Data professionals migrating from Tableau, SSRS, or another BI tool who need a fast, accurate orientation to Power BI's concepts
Business intelligence beginners who want to learn DAX fundamentals alongside report design rather than in isolation
IT professionals responsible for deploying and administering Power BI who need to understand what authors are actually building
Students or career-changers building a BI portfolio and wanting a credible, practitioner-authored starting point

01

Getting Started with Power BI Desktop

Install Power BI Desktop, tour the interface, and connect to your first data source. You leave this chapter with a basic report on screen and a clear mental map of where each tool fits.
02

Data Transformation with Power Query

Use the Power Query Editor to filter rows, rename columns, split fields, and merge tables. You build a repeatable, documented transformation pipeline that refreshes automatically when source data changes.
03

Building a Data Model

Design a star-schema model by creating relationships between fact and dimension tables, setting cardinality, and choosing the right cross-filter direction. You learn why model shape determines everything downstream.
04

Writing DAX Expressions

Write calculated columns and measures using core DAX functions including CALCULATE, FILTER, and RELATED. You understand the difference between row context and filter context before moving to more advanced patterns.
05

Time Intelligence with DAX

Apply built-in DAX time intelligence functions to produce year-to-date totals, month-over-month comparisons, and rolling averages. You also set up a proper date table that makes these calculations reliable.
06

Designing Reports and Visualisations

Choose appropriate chart types for your data, configure slicers and cross-filtering, and apply conditional formatting and drill-through pages to make reports genuinely interactive and self-service.
07

Publishing to the Power BI Service

Publish a completed report to app.powerbi.com, explore the service interface, and configure a gateway-backed scheduled refresh so your report stays current without manual intervention.
08

Sharing and Collaboration

Create workspaces, build Power BI apps, and share content with colleagues who have no authoring licence. You learn which sharing method is appropriate for which audience and access requirement.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need any prior experience with Power BI or DAX to use this book?

No prior Power BI or DAX experience is required. The book assumes you are comfortable working with tabular data — spreadsheets or simple databases — but it introduces every Power BI concept from scratch.

Which version of Power BI does this book cover?

The book was published in November 2022 and covers Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service as they stood at that date. Core concepts, DAX syntax, and the Power Query workflow remain accurate, though the service UI receives frequent minor updates.

Is this book suitable for someone who only needs to consume reports, not build them?

Not really. The book is aimed squarely at people who will author reports and build data models. If you only need to read and filter published dashboards, this level of depth is more than you need.

Are there practice files or datasets included with the book?

Packt titles of this type typically include downloadable exercise files via the publisher's website. Check the book's page on packtpub.com for the companion resource download link.

Does the book cover Power BI Premium or the admin portal?

The focus is on the authoring and sharing workflow available to standard Power BI Pro users. Premium-only features and deep administration topics are outside the scope of this quick-start guide.

Is this book enough to pass the PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam?

The book covers significant overlap with the PL-300 exam syllabus, particularly data modelling and DAX, but it is not structured as an exam guide. You will likely want to supplement it with Microsoft's official learning paths for full exam coverage.