How to Open Query Settings in Power BI

Working in Power BI's Power Query Editor is a lot like cooking in a kitchen - you need all your tools and ingredients in the right place. If your Query Settings pane suddenly vanishes, it feels like your main recipe book and half your utensils just disappeared. This guide will show you exactly how to find and open the Query Settings pane and explain why it's one of the most powerful tools for cleaning and shaping your data.

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First, What Are We Talking About? A Quick Intro to Power Query

Before finding the Query Settings, it’s helpful to understand where you are. When you click “Transform Data” in Power BI Desktop, you leave the main reporting canvas and enter a separate window called the Power Query Editor. This is your data workshop. It’s where you clean, shape, filter, and prepare your data before you start building visualizations.

Think of it this way:

• Power BI Desktop is where you build your final charts and dashboards (the finished meal).
• Power Query Editor is where you prepare all the raw ingredients - chopping vegetables, trimming fat, and mixing sauces.

The Query Settings pane is the command center of this data kitchen, keeping track of every step in your recipe.

The Two Parts of the Query Settings Pane

The Query Settings pane, usually found on the right side of the Power Query Editor, isn't just one thing. It's composed of two main sections that are critical for managing your data preparation steps: Properties and Applied Steps.

1. Properties

This is the simple part. It’s a single field where you can name (or rename) the selected query. Naming your queries descriptively is incredibly important for staying organized. Instead of keeping a default name like Table1, you can rename it to SalesData_2023 or WebsiteTraffic_GoogleAnalytics. Clear names make your data model easier to understand for you and anyone else who might work on your report later.

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2. Applied Steps

This is the magic of Power BI. The Applied Steps section records every single transformation you make to your data, in order. Every time you remove a column, filter a row, change a data type, or merge two tables, Power Query adds a new entry to this list.

Think of it as an interactive history of your data cleaning process. It’s like a recipe where you can see every single step you took:

• Started with raw data ("Source").
• Sorted rows by date ("Sorted Rows").
• Filtered out old records ("Filtered Rows").
• Removed unnecessary columns ("Removed Columns").
• Changed the 'Revenue' column from text to currency ("Changed Type").

This step-by-step history is what makes Power Query so forgiving and so powerful. You can go back, review, edit, or delete any step you've made without having to start over from scratch.

"Help! My Query Settings Pane is Gone!"

This is by far the most common reason people search for this topic. You’re working on transforming some data, you accidentally click an 'X' somewhere, and a whole section of your screen disappears. Don’t panic - it happens to everyone.

The Query Settings pane is a toggleable window. This means you can show or hide it with a single click. Usually, it disappears because you've clicked the small 'X' in the corner of the pane or you've accidentally disabled its view in the menu ribbon. The good news is that bringing it back is just as easy.

How to Open the Query Settings Pane: The Step-by-Step Fix

If your Query Settings pane has vanished, here’s how to get it back online in a few seconds. Follow these simple steps from inside the Power Query Editor.

1. Make Sure You're in the Power Query Editor: First, confirm you're in the right place. From the main Power BI Desktop window, go to the Home tab and click the Transform Data button. This will launch the Power Query Editor window.
2. Navigate to the "View" Tab: At the top of the Power Query Editor, you'll see a series of menu tabs: File, Home, Transform, Add Column, and View. Click on the View tab in the ribbon.
3. Click the "Query Settings" Button: In the "Layout" section of the View tab, you will see a button labeled Query Settings. Click it.

And that's it! The Query Settings pane will immediately reappear on the right side of your screen, complete with its Properties and Applied Steps sections. Clicking this button again will hide the pane. It's a simple on/off switch.

*Pro Tip: Next to the Query Settings button on the View tab, you'll also see a button for the "Formula Bar." It’s often helpful to have both of these turned on. The Formula Bar shows you the underlying M code for each of your Applied Steps, giving you deeper insight into what Power Query is doing behind the scenes.*

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Putting It to Work: Mastering the "Applied Steps" List

Simply knowing how to open the Query Settings pane is only half the battle. To truly level up your Power BI skills, you need to know how to interact with the Applied Steps list. It provides an incredible amount of control over your data transformations.

Here’s how you can use it to your advantage:

Inspect Your Transformation Timeline

You can click on any step in the list to see what your data looked like at that exact point in the process. This is fantastic for debugging. For instance, if your final table is missing data, you can click back through the steps one by one to find exactly where the data was accidentally filtered out.

Edit Previous Steps

Many steps can be modified after you’ve created them. Do you see a little gear icon (⚙️) next to a step name? Clicking that gear will reopen the dialog box for that specific action. For example, if you have a step named “Filtered Rows,” clicking the gear icon will let you change the filter criteria without having to delete the step and re-do it.

Delete Mistakes

Made a wrong move? Just click the red 'X' next to a step to delete it. But be careful: deleting a step will also remove all the steps that came after it if they depended on the one you removed. Power BI will warn you if this is the case. This is like a targeted "undo" button that lets you remove a single action from your history.

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Rename Steps for Clarity

Power Query gives generic names to your steps like "Added Custom," "Filtered Rows," and "Changed Type." This can get confusing quickly. You can (and should) rename them to something more descriptive. To do this, simply right-click a step and choose “Rename.”

Transforming Filtered Rows into Removed Rows with No Sales Data makes the entire process incredibly easy to understand when you come back to it weeks later.

-- Before Renaming --
- Source
- Promoted Headers
- Changed Type
- Filtered Rows

-- After Renaming --
- Source
- Promote First Row to Headers
- Set Data Types (Date & Number)
- Filtered Out Test Accounts

Why Does This Matter For You?

Data is never perfect. The process of getting valuable insights always starts with cleaning and preparing the data source. For marketing and sales professionals, this could mean:

• Removing rows from a Google Analytics export that are just internal company traffic.
• Converting text-based dates from a CRM export into a proper date format.
• Merging a spreadsheet of ad spend from Facebook with a sales report from your e-commerce platform.

The Query Settings pane, and specifically the Applied Steps list, is your playground for all these tasks. It lets you experiment with transformations, backtrack when you make a mistake, and build a reusable, transparent "recipe" that cleans your data perfectly every single time you refresh it.

Final Thoughts

The Query Settings pane is the narrative of your data transformation journey in Power BI. By knowing how to keep it visible and leverage the Applied Steps list, you gain complete control over your data prep process, turning messy datasets into clean, reliable sources for your reports. It’s what separates a frustrating experience from a powerful and efficient one.

Learning the ins and outs of an interface like Power BI definitely takes time, there are all sorts of menus and settings you have to master just to get answers. This is actually a big reason we built Graphed. We wanted to eliminate that friction. Instead of hunting through tabs to find an invisible workflow setting, you just connect your sources and describe the dashboard you want in plain English. Your live-updating reports and visualizations are created for you in seconds, not hours.