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laserkiwi
Frequent Visitor

Can I connect a Workbook to a Power BI dataset?

Hi all,

 

Is it possible to have a Workbook that's connected to a Power BI dataset? I get an error message, but wasn't sure if I'm doing something wrong.

 

To test this, I created a new Workspace, and published a very basic .pbix with a single manually entered data table.

 

Capture.PNG

 

Then I used "Analyze in Excel" to download the .odc file, and made a pivot table with the data. This works fine and refreshed in Excel on my desktop.

 

However if I upload this as a Workbook to the same workspace, the data refresh does not work.

 

Capture.PNG

 

Is there any way to make this work, or is connecting a Workbook to a Power BI dataset completely unsupported in Power BI at this stage?

3 REPLIES 3
v-shex-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @laserkiwi,

 

Do you mean use excel to connect to power bi data model? If this is a case, you can refer to below link to more about this:

Connect to Power BI Desktop Model from Excel and SSMS

 

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

Community Support Team _ Xiaoxin
If this post helps, please consider accept as solution to help other members find it more quickly.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

 

Unfortunately not - all of my users only use the Power BI Service, and it's them I'm trying to find an easy solution for. I'm the only person in the company who uses Power BI Desktop.

 

I can connect an Excel workbook to a model on the Power BI Service using the "Analyze in Excel" functionality in the Power BI Service. That works fine, and I could distribute .xlsx files separately in the business, ensure all users have the required updates installed on their copies of Excel, etc.

 

However if I upload this Excel workbook to the same Workspace so it can be distributed as part of the App, it no longer works. This seems to be due to the data source.

 

 

Capture.PNG

 

Perhaps that's just a limitation of either Excel Online or Power BI and I have to deal with it. Or I'm not doing it right - I'm just looking for a definitive answer either way.

 

But it would be so much better if the respective workbooks could be distributed to users as part of the same App Workspace in Power BI, rather than just using workbooks as data sources.

@laserkiwi Did you ever get a response to this question? I am having the same issue.

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