Beginning Power BI for Business Users

3Let's Take a Flyover!

The wait is over. You've invested two whole chapters of learning without actually getting your hands dirty. I'm sure you're tired of waiting. So, let's get going, huh?

In this chapter, we're going to take a flyover of both the Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop. We'll start first with the Service side so that you can see the end result, and then we'll wrap up with an introduction to the Desktop tool.

To begin with, let's get connected to the service.

GETTING CONNECTED

Open a browser and navigate to powerbi.com.

If this is your first time ever logging in to powerbi.com, you will likely be presented with a splash screen. Enter your organizational email address and click Submit.

Once you have entered a valid organizational email address, click Submit. Once you've successfully logged in, if your organization does not already have a Power BI subscription provided for you, then you'll need to either sign up for a trial or purchase the subscription right away.

PERSONAL VERSUS ORGANIZATIONAL EMAIL

If you've entered a personal email address (such as @yahoo.com, @gmail.com, or @hotmail.com), you will be prompted to enter a work email address. This is because Power BI must be connected to an organization that uses Microsoft's cloud-based directory service called Azure Active Directory (AAD). That directory service is used for many things, but particularly with Power BI, AAD helps in managing licenses and giving you the ability to share, in a secure and ...