Learn how to use Microsoft's free Excel visualization tool Power BI Desktop to easily create interactive dashboards in Excel spreadsheets ...

Getting viable data from an Excel workbook into Power BI for data visualization purposes takes some specific preparation. Here is what you need to do.

Excel can now automatically access any data published in Power BI from corporate sources you have access to: Your Power BI tables are available to you through the data types gallery.

To import this data, launch Power BI as you normally do, and close the information window. In the default window, click the Excel icon next to Get Data in the menu.

Excel isn't going away, but it's going to stop accumulating extra tools like barnacles. Instead Power BI Desktop will become the self-service analytics hub.

Data visualization applications such as Microsoft’s Power BI and Tableau can unlock the value of data. This article explores how Power BI works.