Data is at the core of your workflows, and Excel is one of the most common tools for analyzing data and making decisions. Getting data in Excel is often the first step you take to do an analysis or to build a model, and it is critical for accurate results and sound decision-making.
Excel has powerful features to get and transform your data, from workbook links to Power Query and external connections. We are simplifying enterprise data discovery and analysis in Excel, and today we are excited to announce the general availability of Organization data types from Power BI, bringing additional flexibility and ease of use to get information in your spreadsheets.
Excel data types expand what Excel can handle in the grid, no longer constrained to strings and numbers. This allows you to bring in rich information such as linked data from external sources. Drill into details by viewing fields in the data type card, or use fields with the Excel features you know and love such as formulas, tables, conditional formatting, charts, or data validation, to name a few.
Data types now use information from your company or organization, leveraging Power BI as an ideal source of authoritative data. This brings the best-in-class data ecosystem of Power BI including centralized and controlled access, row-level security, and Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labels to the flexible and familiar environment of Excel.
The first step to using Organization data types is determining what information from Power BI you want, then simply enabling them for Excel:
What organization information makes for good data types? Lookup-style tables that are commonly used in your organization such as product masters, customer lists, facilities, supplier lists, or asset tables are good examples of what you can now share through Excel data types.
Now that you have data ready to use in Excel, all you need to do is convert to a data type:
For example, if you wanted to work with Power BI data on products, you’d enter a list of product names, select them, and then convert using your organization’s product data type.
You can view the data type card by selecting the suitcase icon in the cell:
Or you can add fields to the grid:
If your data is sensitive, you can use Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels in Power BI. These labels will be applied to your Excel workbooks when you convert or refresh your organization data types. *Requires MIP labels in Power BI (Enable sensitivity labels in Power BI) and Office (Subscription and licensing requirements for sensitivity labels in Office).
You can easily refresh your data types to get the latest information from Power BI. Right-click a cell and select Data Types > Refresh, or go to the Data tab > Refresh All.
Data types from Power BI are available to Excel subscribers in organizations with Office 365 or Microsoft 365 and the Power BI Pro service plan with English added as an editing language (more languages coming soon). The feature is currently available on the Current Channel in Excel for Windows and coming soon to Excel for Mac and Excel for the web.
Start using Excel data types with data from your organization today. For more information, see: Use Organization data types from Power BI - Office Support.
We hope you love this new way to get data from your organization into Excel with ease, and we’d love to hear what you think about it. Send us your comments through File - Feedback in Excel. We’re excited to hear from you!
You can also join our Excel Community to keep up with all things Excel: aka.ms/excelcommunity
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