Visualizing Data with Microsoft Power View [Paperback]

Brian Larson (Author), Mark Davis (Author), Dan English (Author), Paul Purington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0071780823 | ISBN-13: 978-0071780827 | Edition: 1

Create and Distribute High-impact Microsoft Power View Reports

Explore data in insightful new ways and transform the way your enterprise uses BI with help from this expert guide. Visualizing Data with Microsoft Power View shows how to effectively analyze and communicate complex information through elegant interactive reports. Discover how to create and populate tables, connect to databases, build multi-view reports in real-time, and publish your results to end-users. BI Semantic Model development and administration are also covered in this comprehensive volume.

• Launch Power View and navigate its user interface
• Load BI from SQL databases and external sources
• Build basic and multi-level table visualizations
• Develop card-, chart-, and matrix-based reports
• Incorporate auto-sizing, filtering, tiling, and slicing
• Securely distribute reports via SharePoint and PowerPivot
• Add functionality with hierarchies, perspectives, and KPIs
• Design, deploy, and support custom BI Semantic Models

DVD includes:

• More than four hours of video demonstrations
• A complete package of sample data—a Power View-optimized BI Semantic Model, a SQL Server database, and additional underlying data sources
• Comprehensive instructions for creating a learning environment, including Windows Server, SharePoint Server 2010, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 with PowerPivot and Reporting Services SharePoint integration
• Six completed Power View Reports that include multiple views, visualizations, and performance dashboards
• BI Semantic Model with advanced extensions using DAX functions, including date and time, mathematical, logical, informational, and statistical functions

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Larson, MCITP, MCDBA, served as a member of the Reporting Services development team on a contract basis, and has contributed to the code base. He is the Vice President of Technology for Superior Consulting Services (SCS), a Microsoft Certified Partner. Brian has been invited to speak on Reporting Services at several conferences including SQL Server Magazine Connections, has been interviewed as a subject matter expert by Microsoft TechNet, .NET Rocks, and others, and has written articles for SQL Server Magazine.
Mark Davis, MCITP, is Business Intelligence Practice Manager with Superior Consulting Services in Minneapolis. He has created BI solutions for clients across a wide spectrum of industries, including health care, finance, manufacturing, insurance, and numerous others.
Dan English, MVP, MCITP, is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, a MCITP Business Intelligence Developer for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008, and an MCTS for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Configuring. Dan is a Principal BI consultant at Superior Consulting Services. He currently helps to lead the Minnesota Business Intelligence User Group and is an avid blogger (denglishbi.wordpress.com), Microsoft forums helper, and tweeter (@denglishbi).
Paul Purington, MCITP, is a partner and the Vice President of Consulting at Superior Consulting Services. As a BI consultant, Paul has experience with both large and small-scale business intelligence environments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (May 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071780823
• ISBN-13: 978-0071780827
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Data & Information Visualization
  • #73 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > SQL Server
  • #89 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Data Warehousing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - Using it to teach an advanced course on Microsoft Self-Service BI January 15, 2013

By Jeff Cate

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The team at Superior Consulting Services did a great job on this book. Microsoft did a great job on Power View. When you add the two together, this is a winner.

So much so that I have adopted it as one of the text books for the open enrollment training course I am teaching on Microsoft Self-Service BI, at SharePoint Solutions in Nashville.

One of the things that is different about this book than so many other technical books on the market is that the authors worked hard to make it suitable to teach a course from. It has "Learn by Doing" sections in each chapter that can be used as lab exercises. The sample data comes with the DVD and it is good, usable data and all of the Learn by Doing exercises work like they are supposed to. That, in itself, is a rare find in most technical books.

Microsoft offers a demo hyper-v VHD that you can download from their site that has SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition and SharePoint 2010 installed and configured. It times out after 60 days or so, but that is enough time to use the VM along with this book to learn all about Power View.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to give you a good understanding of Power View and beyond December 5, 2012

By Neophytos Christodoulides

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book presents the material in a very straight forward manner and makes it easy to understand. It goes beyond Power View by explaining the BISM and how to build one. The authors appear to be very knowledgeable coming right from the consulting world where real experience comes from. The videos are great and very well organized and presented.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent primer on the subject October 12, 2012

By Data on Wheels

Format:Paperback

This book was an excellent resource for putting together the pieces that make up Power View. For me the best part was the appendix which walks you through the process of creating your own environment. I am not big on building out my own VMs, and this was a great resource for building out my own VM. It put all the various parts into a single install script.

Nice work guys.