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Use this article to familiarize yourself with some of the terms and concepts associated with the Power BI service. Understanding these terms and concepts makes it easier for you to read through the other Power BI articles and to work in the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com).
The Power BI service enables users to perform a variety of tasks, which can be broadly categorized into two main activities: creating and sharing content and consuming and interacting with content.
Users who create and share content in Power BI service are often referred to as designers or creators. They play a key role in building and organizing content within the Power BI service, enabling others to consume and interact with data effectively.
Users who consume and interact with the content in Power BI service are often referred to as end users, consumers, or business users. They primarily focus on interacting with and deriving insights from the content created by designers, enabling data-driven decision-making and collaboration within their organization.
By understanding these capabilities, users can maximize their productivity and collaboration within the Power BI service.
The following table lists some of the key concepts and terms used in the Power BI service. Understanding these terms will help you navigate the Power BI service more effectively.
| Term | Definition | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Visualization | A type of chart built by Power BI designers to display data from reports and semantic models; visualizations are interactive and allow slicing, filtering, and drilling into data | Interact with visuals in reports, dashboards, and apps |
| Semantic model (formerly known as dataset) | A container of data used by designers to build reports, dashboards, and apps; can combine multiple data sources into a single model | How do designers assign permissions to semantic models? How semantic models are shared with colleagues |
| Dashboard | A single screen with tiles of interactive visuals, text, and graphics, often used to monitor metrics or tell a story. | Dashboards for the Power BI service business users |
| Report | One or more pages of interactive visuals, text, and graphics based on a single semantic model, often organized to address specific questions or areas of interest. | Reports in Power BI Reports versus dashboards |
| App | A collection of dashboards, reports, and semantic models bundled together for sharing with individuals, groups, or organizations. | End-user apps |
| Workspace | A collaborative area where designers store and manage collections of dashboards and reports. Business users are assigned roles to interact with the content. | Learn more about workspaces |
| License and subscription | Determines the level of access and features available to users in the Power BI service, such as free, Pro, or Premium licenses. | Organizational licenses and subscriptions for Fabric and Power BI Licenses and subscriptions for business users |
| Capacity | A dedicated set of resources used to enhance performance and scalability for Power BI content, often associated with Premium features. | Manage your Fabric capacity |
| Workbook | An Excel file uploaded to the Power BI service, which can be viewed or used as a data source for reports and dashboards. | Get data from Excel workbook files Publish to Power BI from Microsoft Excel |
| Dataflow | A collection of data transformation steps stored in the Power BI service, enabling reusable and centralized data preparation. | Creating a dataflow Introduction to dataflows and self-service data prep |
Training
Module
Explore what Power BI can do for you - Training
Learn how to use the Power BI service to review and interact with content that's been shared with you.
Certification
Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate - Certifications
Demonstrate methods and best practices that align with business and technical requirements for modeling, visualizing, and analyzing data with Microsoft Power BI.