Perspectives in PowerPivot

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Perspectives are subsets of objects from the model that track different sets of data. Perspectives are typically defined for a particular user group or business scenario and make it easier to navigate large data sets.

In a perspective, tables, columns, and measures (including KPIs) are defined as field objects. You can select the fields that will be included in each perspective. For example, a single model may contain product, sales, financial, employee, and geographic data. While a sales department requires product, sales, promotions, and geography data, they likely do not require employee and financial data. Similarly, a human resources department does not require data about sales promotions and geography.

When a user connects to a PowerPivot model (as a data source) on a server with defined perspectives, the user can select the perspective they want to use. For example, when connecting to a model n Excel by using PowerPivot Gallery, users in Human Resources can select the Human Resources perspective on the Select Tables and Views page of the Data Connection Wizard. Only fields (tables, columns, and measures) defined for the Human Resources perspective will be visible in the PivotTable Field List.

Tasks

To define perspectives, you will use the Perspectives dialog box. With the Perspectives dialog box, you can add, edit, delete, copy, and view perspectives. To view the perspectives dialog box, in the PowerPivot window, click the Advanced tab, and then click Perspectives.

To add a perspective

  • To add a new perspective, click New Perspective. You can then check and uncheck field objects to be included, and you must provide a name for the new perspective.

    If you create an empty perspective with all of the field object fields, then a user using this perspective will see an empty Field List. Perspectives should contain at least one table and column.

To edit a perspective

  • To modify a perspective, check and uncheck fields in the perspective’s column, which adds and removes field objects from the perspective.

To rename a perspective

  • When you hover over any cell of a perspective, the Rename button appears. To rename the perspective, click Rename, and then enter a new name or edit the existing name.

To delete a perspective

  • When you hover over any cell of a perspective, the Delete button appears. To delete the perspective, click the Delete button, and then click Yes in the confirmation window.

To copy a perspective

  • When you hover over any cell of a perspective, the Copy button appears. To create a copy of that perspective, click the Copy button. A copy of the selected perspective is added as a new perspective to the right of existing perspectives. The new perspective inherits the name of the copied perspective and a - Copy annotation is appended to the end of the name. For example, if a copy of the Sales perspective is created, the new perspective is called Sales – Copy.

See Also

Tasks

Create a Perspective (Tutorial)

Reference

Perspectives Dialog Box

Concepts

Take a Tour of the PowerPivot UI