Using Power BI Q&A Features

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At times the fastest way to fetch an answer from your data is to ask a question using natural language. The Power BI Q&A feature allows you to explore your data in your own words. The Q&A feature is one of the most interactive method. Often, one question leads to others as the visualizations reveal interesting paths to pursue.

Steps to use Q&A on a dashboard in the Power BI service

The Power BI service comprises of tiles pinned from one or more datasets so that you can ask questions about any of the data contained in any of those datasets. 

• Firstly, open a dashboard and place your cursor in the question box. In the upper-right corner, select New Q&A experience.
• Now, even before you start typing, Q&A displays a new screen with suggestions to help you form your question.
• Then, you can choose one of these questions as a starting point and continue to refine the question to find a specific answer.
• In this step, select from the list of questions, or begin typing your own question and select from the dropdown suggestions.
• Next, as you type a question, Q&A picks the best visualization to display your answer.
• Further, the visualization changes dynamically as you modify the question.
• Also, when you type a question, Power BI looks for the best answer using any dataset that has a tile on that dashboard.
• Lastly, when you are satisfied with the output, pin the visualization to a dashboard by selecting the pin icon in the top right corner. But in case the dashboard has been shared with you or is part of an app, then you would not be able to pin.

Steps to use Q&A in a report in Power BI service or Power BI Desktop

A report is based on a single dataset and may be completely blank or contain pages full of visualizations. Steps to use Q&A to explore your dataset and to add visualizations to the report and to dashboards. 

• Firstly, open a report in Editing view (Power BI service) or Report view (Power BI Desktop) and select Ask a question from the menu bar.
• In the second step, A Q&A question box displays on your report canvas. 
• Thirdly, place your cursor in the question box. As you type, Q&A displays suggestions to help you form your question.
• Then, as you type a question, Q&A picks the best visualization to display your answer; and the visualization changes dynamically as you modify the question.
• Now, when you have the visualization you like, select ENTER. For saving the visualization with the report, select File > Save.
• Lastly, interact with the new visualization. It doesn’t matter how you created the visualization — all the same interactivity, formatting, and features are available.