Power BI Course
Power BI Components
Power BI is not a single tool — it is a family of components that each handle a specific part of the analytics workflow, and understanding what each one does, how it looks, and when to use it is the foundation everything else in this course builds on.
The Three Core Components
Microsoft designed Power BI as three separate products. They are built to work together but each one has a completely different purpose. A professional analyst uses all three at different stages of the same project.
The .pbix File — What It Actually Contains
When you save your work in Power BI Desktop, it creates a .pbix file. This single file packages everything together. Understanding what is inside it helps you appreciate how the whole system works.
Power BI Desktop — Full Interface Walkthrough
This is what Power BI Desktop looks like when you open it with a report loaded. Every area has a specific role and you will use all of them throughout this course.
The Four Views Inside Power BI Desktop
Each icon on the left bar opens a completely different workspace. You will use all four of them at different stages of building a report.
Power Query Editor — Full Layout
Power Query Editor opens in a separate window when you click Transform Data in the ribbon. It is not a view — it is its own environment entirely dedicated to cleaning and shaping data. Every step you take here is fully reversible and never touches your original source file.
The formula bar at the top of the data preview shows the M language code behind the currently selected step. You do not need to write M manually at this stage — Power Query generates it automatically as you use the ribbon buttons. You will learn M language properly in Lesson 30.
Power BI Service — The Cloud Workspace
Once you publish a report from Desktop, it appears in the Power BI Service. This is a completely browser-based platform your team accesses without installing anything. Here is what it looks like.
Notice that publishing one .pbix file automatically creates two separate items in the Service — a Report and a Dataset. The Dataset is the data model. The Report is the visual layer built on top of it. Other colleagues can build their own reports from the same Dataset without ever touching your original report file.
Licensing — Free vs Pro vs Premium
Power BI has three licence tiers. You need to know the difference because it directly affects what you can and cannot do when sharing reports with a team.
For this entire course a Free account is sufficient. Everything you learn in Desktop works exactly the same regardless of licence. You only need Pro when you are ready to share reports with colleagues in a real work environment.
The Full Data Flow — Source to Consumer
Here is the complete journey data takes through the Power BI ecosystem — from a raw file all the way to the person reading the report on their phone.
RAW DATA SOURCE
(Excel / SQL Database / SharePoint / Web API / CSV)
│
▼
POWER QUERY EDITOR [inside Desktop]
• Connect to the source
• Remove errors, nulls, and duplicates
• Rename columns and set correct data types
• Merge or append multiple tables
• Every action is saved as an M language step
│
▼
DATA MODEL [Desktop — Model View]
• Define relationships between tables
• Set cardinality (One-to-Many, etc.)
• Write DAX measures and calculated columns
│
▼
REPORT CANVAS [Desktop — Report View]
• Build charts, cards, tables, and slicers
• Design multiple pages with interactions
• Configure drill-through and tooltips
│
▼ [File → Publish to Power BI Service]
POWER BI SERVICE [app.powerbi.com]
• Report and Dataset appear in Workspace
• Configure scheduled refresh (hourly / daily)
• Manage team permissions and row-level security
• Pin visuals to a Dashboard for executives
│
├──▶ BROWSER (team views report on desktop)
│
└──▶ POWER BI MOBILE (manager views on phone)Teacher's Note: The single most important thing to take from this lesson is that Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service are not the same product — they are two separate tools that hand work off to each other. You build in Desktop. You share through Service. Confusing the two is one of the most common mistakes beginners make when they first start working in a team environment, and it leads to a lot of frustration when things do not appear where they expect them.
Practice
Practice 1 of 3
The single file that Power BI Desktop creates when you save your work — containing data, model, DAX, and visuals — has the extension .___ .
Practice 2 of 3
The panel inside Power Query Editor that records every transformation you apply, in sequence, is called ___ Steps.
Practice 3 of 3
To share a report with colleagues through Power BI Service, you need at minimum a Power BI ___ licence.
Lesson Quiz
Quiz 1 of 3
When you publish a .pbix file to Power BI Service, what two items does the Service automatically create?
Quiz 2 of 3
Which view inside Power BI Desktop would you use to check that a calculated column produced the correct values row by row?
Quiz 3 of 3
A colleague has a Free Power BI licence and wants to view a report you shared from a Premium capacity workspace. Is this possible?
Next up — Lesson 4 walks you through installing Power BI Desktop on your machine step by step so you are set up and ready to follow every practical lesson from here.