1.  100% stacked area chart

Similar to the 100% stacked column chart a new type of chart has been added, instead of a stacked bar chart we now have a 100% area chart available. It has the exact same capabilities and stylings. If you’re not familiar with a 100% stacked chart, it displays the relative percentage of multiple data series in stacked areas. And these areas always stack to 100%. It’s ideal for illustrating the relative size of each series within the whole and how these proportions evolve over time.

2. Line chart improvements

There have been multiple improvements added to the line (chart):

• Adjust line color transparency
• Color and transparency of series
• New smooth types
• Alignment of stepped line interpolation
• Hide/Show lines
• Set a custom line pattern for all types of line charts. (Reference, Forecast, Leader, …)

3. Modern tooltips are now default

After being in preview since May 2021, it is now the default experience.

4. Matrix Layout improvements

Stealing from Excel’s pivot table, it is now possible to change the layout of the components within the matrix chart:

• Compact is the same as stepped layout toggle ON

• Outline is the same as stepped layout toggle OFF

• Tabular. Combination of the 2.

Additional options for these layouts are now also available:

• Outline and tabular layout have the option to repeat the row headers

• There is now also an option to insert blank rows between the highest row headers. The color and borders of these blank rows are also customizable.

5. Publish to folders (PREVIEW)

Folders were made available in the last update. Now it is also possible to directly publish reports/items to specific folders in your workspace.

6. Ask Copilot questions about the data in your model (PREVIEW)

Previously it was possible to ask questions about the data in your visuals. Now it is possible to go even deeper and also get answers regarding the underlying model.

7. Visual calculations update (PREVIEW)

Visual calculations are now also available for scatter plots and map visuals. Additionally, when editing visual calculations, a highlight is shown to show what you are editing.

8. Power BI Home available in Desktop

After being in preview since February, it has now been made generally available.

Modelling

1.  Manage relationships GUI

A new user interface is available to manage your relationships in your model.

2. Download large semantic models

We now have the possibility to download large semantic models.

Developers

1.  PBIR – Power BI enhanced report format (PREVIEW)

As mentioned in the previous blog post PBIR is now available in preview. When saving Power BI Projects (PBIP), they can now be saved with PBIR for the report and TMDL for the semantic model. With this enhancement it is now easier to track changes and conflicting versions for each visual, page, bookmark, etc.

It will also be easier to cop and paste visuals, pages, …. between reports or to programmatically make changes to the files.

Links to the Power BI blog posts:

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-april-2024-feature-summary/

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-may-2024-feature-summary/

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-june-2024-feature-summary/

Upcoming

1.  Line Charts improvements

• Tooltip and legend representation (Next in line)
• Conditional formatting support
• Markers improvements (Line chart, and scatter chart)
• Error bars improvements

2. Tooltip improvements

• Modernizing Tooltip: The modern tooltip is set to become the default, offering a fresh and intuitive user experience. (In progress)
• Tooltip Values Control: Gain full control over the content displayed in tooltips, including visibility and customization for series or categories.
• Tooltip Customization: Introduce various tooltip types—data, detail, action, and text. Customize each to highlight pertinent information and control the aesthetics, including background and display triggers (click or hover). Enhancements include increased data rows and improved line/area chart tooltips.
• Series Enhancements: Support interactive states for series within tooltips, respecting sorting capabilities in the visual.
• Tooltip Interactivity: Enable multiple tooltip views, with the detail tooltip now interactive. Expand the tooltip view to full screen for a more comfortable interaction experience.

3. Matrix Layout improvements

• Totals Enhancements: Full control over totals for specific groups or the entire visual, measure-driven totals, advanced totals style settings, dynamic total display, total’s title management, and more.
• Row/Column Header Enhancements: Measure-driven column headers, advanced column/row headers style settings, transparency and conditional formatting support, auto/fixed/dynamic size width/height, multi-column/row header grouping, support for Web URL, image URL, and SVG, ragged hierarchy support, ability to expand/collapse row and column headers by default, and more.
• Tabular Styles: Advanced grid and matrix style settings, new bars/columns, icons, sparklines style settings, new pre-set styles, advanced image and SVG image settings, advanced URL hyperlinks settings, legend support (when using icons), “Show blank as” control, and more.
• Values and Sub-values: Advanced value settings, introduction of sub-values, measure-driven sub-values, sub-value aggregations support, collapse and expand sub-values.

4. Dark Mode (planned Q3 2024)

5. Metric Sets (planned Q3 2024)

6. Visual calculations UI Updates

7.  New list and dropdown slicers

Interesting reads

1. A very useful video from Access Analytics that illustrates how to use DAX to create conditional columns that use icons to display variances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAN-CkkZRs4

2. Instead of using pie charts or donut charts, a waffle chart is a good way to display a distribution. This post shows an alternative way to create waffle charts using DAX and a table chart.