Memory hook: Choose the comparison before choosing the chart.
Must remember
Use bars for category comparison, lines for time trends, scatter plots for relationships and tables when exact values matter. Choose appropriate scales and sorting; avoid misleading truncated axes or excessive categories. Themes establish consistency, conditional formatting highlights defined conditions, and slicers expose useful filtering without overwhelming the page.
Visual, page and report filters have different scope. Edit interactions to control cross-filtering/highlighting; synchronized slicers can carry selections across pages. Drill down moves within a hierarchy; drillthrough navigates to a detail page with passed filter context. Tooltips add contextual information without replacing essential visible labels.
Bookmarks capture selected report state, including data/display options according to configuration. Use the Selection pane for grouping/layering and deliberate navigation buttons. A bookmark unexpectedly resetting slicers often captured data state. Test back navigation and hidden visuals with a consumer’s workflow.
Design mobile layouts, keyboard/tab order, readable contrast, meaningful titles and alt text. Do not encode meaning only by color. Personalization lets viewers adjust supported visual choices; export settings and item permissions govern data movement. A paginated report suits printable pixel-precise multipage tables/documents, while an interactive report suits exploration.
Automatic page refresh is intended for supported live-query scenarios and depends on capacity/settings; it does not replace Import semantic-model refresh. Copilot can suggest pages and narratives, but validate measures, filters and claimed explanations. Generated commentary can confidently describe a misleading model.
Choose under exam pressure
| Requirement | Choice and reason |
|---|---|
| Printable long operational statement | Paginated report. |
| Explore a customer’s detail from a summary | Drillthrough with appropriate filters. |
| Bookmark changes a slicer unexpectedly | Inspect its captured data state. |
Traps
- Drill down and drillthrough are different navigation patterns.
- Page refresh and imported-data refresh are not the same operation.
Active recall
1. Why use a line chart?
To reveal trends over an ordered time axis.
2. What does Edit interactions control?
How one visual filters/highlights other visuals.
3. What does a tooltip add?
Context for the hovered/selected data point.
4. Why test keyboard navigation?
To make the report usable without a mouse.
5. Why review a Copilot narrative?
It may misinterpret context or describe incorrect underlying calculations.