Power BI includes another useful feature that can significantly improve the Q&A experience. This feature is called synonyms. With synonyms, the report author can add additional names for tables, columns, and measures that Q&A will then recognize as referring to those data model entities.

For example, continuing with our example from Chapter 3, Connecting and Shaping Data, Pam knows that the three cities that the company operates in are internally referred to as branches. If we double-click on a blank area of the canvas and type hours by branch, Q&A recognizes the word branch but only in the context of people's names, that is, Rocco Branch, Ellen Branch, and Gabriela Branch. To fix this, switch to the Model view. In the People table, click on Location. In the Properties pane, note that the second field from the top after the Name field is Synonyms. Click your mouse in the Synonyms field and add branch. Now, switch back to Report view, click on a blank area of the canvas, and type hours by branch into the Q&A field. This time, Q&A correctly identifies the word branch as meaning People > Location and displays a Map visualization.