Installing Power BI Publisher for Excel

Excel-based data analysis and reporting artifacts such as pivot tables, charts, and cell range formula expressions with custom formatting remain pervasive in organizations. Although a significant portion of this content and its supporting processes can be migrated to Power BI, and despite the many additional features and benefits this migration could provide, Power BI is not intended as a replacement for all Excel reporting or SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reporting. Organizations and particularly departments which use Excel extensively, such as Finance and Accounting, may prefer to leverage these existing assets and quickly derive value from Power BI by both deploying Excel content to Power BI and analyzing Power BI-hosted data from within Excel.

The Microsoft Power BI Publisher for Excel supplements Excel's native Power BI publishing features of uploading Excel workbooks to the Power BI Service or exporting Excel workbook data to Power BI datasets, as individual Excel objects can be "pinned" to Power BI dashboards and managed from the local Excel file.

Figure 21: The Power BI Publisher Tab in Excel 2016

Additionally, the Power BI Publisher's data source providers support Excel-to-Power BI connection strings reflecting the local user's rights to the given Power BI hosted source.

Figure 22: Connecting to Power BI sources via Power BI Publisher

How to do it...

Installation of Power BI Publisher for Excel

1. Download the Power BI Publisher (http://bit.ly/2nCsWC0).
2. Choose the version appropriate for the version of Microsoft Office installed: 32-bit or 64-bit.

Figure 23: Power BI Publisher for Excel Install Package

3. Install the publisher.
4. Accept the license agreement and choose the file directory.

Figure 24: Successful installation of Power BI Publisher for Excel

The drivers required to connect to Power BI hosted sources from Excel, such as the Excel OLE DB driver for Analysis Services, are automatically updated with each release. Additionally, once Power BI Publisher is installed, it's not necessary to use the Analyze in Excel option from the Power BI Service, which downloads an ODC file referencing the given model. The necessary connection to Power BI is created when the data source is selected via the Publisher dialog.

5. Access the Power BI Publisher from Excel. Upon opening Excel following successful installation, you should get a message box advising of Power BI Publisher for Excel. It can be deactivated and the Power BI tab in the Excel ribbon should be visible. If it is not visible, you can check out the COM Add-ins dialog in Excel.
   • Click on File and then Options in Excel to bring up the Excel Options menu
   • Select Add-Ins and use the drop-down menu at the bottom to choose COM Add-ins
   • Click on Go… to launch the following COM Add-ins window

Figure 25: Excel COM-Add-ins

6. Use the Profile icon to sign into the Power BI Service. Sign in will be automatic with future instances of Excel.

Figure 26: The Profile command from Power BI Publisher for Excel

There's more...

The following is a list of 11 blogs that contain many articles and examples on Power BI's tools and features:

Blogger(s)	Blog	URL
Michael Carlo	Power BI Tips and Tricks	http://powerbi.tips
Chris Webb	Crossjoin	https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk
Rob Collie Avi Singh	PowerPivotPro	https://powerpivotpro.com
Alberto Ferrari Marco Russo	SQL BI	http://www.sqlbi.com
Kasper De Jonge	Kasper On BI	https://www.kasperonbi.com
Matt Allington	ExceleratorBI	http://exceleratorbi.com.au/exceleratorblog
Ruth Martinez	Curbal	https://curbal.com/blog
Dustin Ryan	SQL Dusty	https://sqldusty.com
Reza Rad	RADACAD	http://radacad.com/blog
Imke Feldman	The BIccountant	http://www.thebiccountant.com
Brett Powell	Insight Quest	https://insightsquest.com
Gilbert Quevauvilliers	Fourmoo	https://www.fourmoo.com/blog

With the exception of Kasper On BI, all of these blogs are from non-Microsoft employees and thus do not necessarily reflect the views of MS or recommended practices with its products. Additionally, several of these blogs are not exclusive to Power BI; they may also include coverage of other MSBI, Azure, SQL Server, and Office 365 tools and services.