User FAQs

If you have a question, please send it to us.

1) What is Power Query ?
In Excel this was renamed to Get and Transform in Excel 2016.
Power Query is the name of the underlying data transformation engine and that engine is shared across multiple Microsoft products
This is all about getting the data.
Creating data sources, making connections, shaping and tranforming the data.

2) What is the Power Query Editor ?
This is the data preparation editor that both Excel and the Power Query Desktop use

3) What is the Power Query Desktop ?
This is the main standalone application used to build Power BI reports.
Connect to data sources
Clean and prepare the data using the Power Query Editor
Build a model and create calculations using DAX
Design reports and dashboards
Publish them to a Power BI Service

4) What is DAX ?
Data Analysis Expressions
This is Microsoft's formula language for creating queries in Power Pivot and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)

5) What is Power Pivot ?
This is all about analysing the data.
This is an extension to the pivot table functionality.
Additional features include - import from multiple sources, advanced calculations, larger data sets, can use the DAX formula language.

6) What is Power View ?
This is all about presenting the data
Creating dynamic/interactive visualisations including charts, dashboards, maps
This is available through Power BI desktop and fully integrates with both Power Query and Power Pivot.

7) What is a Data Model ?
data models can be saved inside workbooks

8) What is a Linked Table ?
A linked table is an Excel table that is connected to an external data source - most commonly Power Query, Power Pivot, or an external database.
It behaves like a normal Excel table, but its contents are refreshed automatically from the source rather than being typed manually.

9) When would you use the Goal Seek data analysis feature ?
This can be used to calculate an unknown value in a given formula.

10) When would you use the Scenario Manager data analysis feature ?
Lets you construct various different scenarios with your data and allows you to perform 'what if' analysis.

11) What is an Data Table ?
Not to be confused with a regular table.
This is a type of What If data analysis that creates a table based on the impact of one (or two) variables in a formula.
They provide a way to calculate multiple variations and display and compare the results in a table layout.
There is even a calculation option called "Automatic except for data tables".

12) When is the Quick Analysis Smart Tag displayed ?
It is displayed everytime you select two or more adjacent cells.
This smart tag provides quick access to 5 features:
Formatting, Charts, Totals, Tables, Sparklines