Power BI Report Design Tools Explained

Multiple Power BI design tools are available to create reports and semantic data models (datasets), and four of the report design tools are shown here. Each report design tool can create reports in only one format, and most tools have two versions: a version for creating reports destined for the Power BI cloud and a version for creating reports destined for Power BI Report Server on-premises. Two versions are required because the two destinations support different functionality, and building a report for one platform does not guarantee the report will work on the other platform. For example, a report created for the Power BI Premium service that uses the Smart Narrative features (powered by Azure Machine Learning) will not work on Power BI Report Server on-premises.

The report design tools include the following:

Power BI Desktop (top) is the primary tool for building Power BI reports. It is a free Windows desktop application that contains data modeling capabilities and a report design canvas. Authors create multipage reports (saved as .pbix files) using various visuals like bar charts, waterfall charts, timelines, and word clouds. The product includes several visual types, and authors can purchase third-party solutions or build their own visuals to extend the service. They can also write processes to filter and slice the data and guide users through the report. The tool provides links to other Microsoft-hosted services, like Azure Machine Learning and Power Apps, that authors can use to perform advanced and custom data processes.