Power BI Practice: Sharing Excel Files from OneDrive with Power BI for Seamless Collaboration

Scenario:

You have a Microsoft Excel workbook that is saved to Microsoft SharePoint Online. The workbook contains several Power View sheets. You need to recreate the Power View sheets as reports in the Power Bl service.

Solution: Copy the workbook to Microsoft OneDrive for Business. From Excel, click Publish to Power Bl, and then click Upload. Does this meet the goal?

No, this solution does not meet the goal. The solution doesn't meet the goal because simply copying the workbook to OneDrive for Business and uploading it does not automatically recreate the Power View sheets as reports in the Power BI service. Here are the key issues:

[1] Lack of Publishing Step: The solution misses the crucial step of publishing the workbook to Power BI. This step is necessary to convert the Power View sheets into Power BI reports.

[2] Incorrect Method: Uploading the workbook directly to OneDrive for Business without using the "Publish to Power BI" option will not trigger the conversion process needed to recreate the Power View sheets as Power BI reports.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Save the Workbook to OneDrive for Business

1. Open your Excel workbook.

2. Click on File > Save As.

3. Choose OneDrive for Business as the location and save your workbook.

Step 2: Open the Workbook in Excel

1. Open the saved workbook from OneDrive for Business in Excel.

Step 3: Publish to Power BI

1. In Excel, go to File > Publish > Publish to Power BI.

2. Click on Upload.

Step 4: Select Destination

1. Choose the workspace in Power BI where you want to publish the workbook.

2. Click Upload.

Step 5: Verify in Power BI Service

1. Open Power BI service (https://app.powerbi.com).

2. Navigate to the workspace where you published the workbook.

3. You should see the Power View sheets recreated as reports in Power BI.

Note:

You can use the free version of OneDrive that comes with your Outlook.com account. It provides 5 GB of free cloud storage. However, for publishing Power BI reports, it's recommended to use OneDrive for Business, which is part of a Microsoft 365 subscription. This ensures better integration and more storage capacity.