Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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Have you ever had one of those days: you've set up a fabulous spreadsheet with all of the data that has been supplied through various sources. You're so proud of yourself... until your boss comes in and says, "Yeah, but I want to know how much Fender sold in the Western region last year."

The problem is that your information is laid out like so:

Figure 605

Now, if you know Pivot Tables, instead of screaming "Aargh!" you can calmly reply, "Would you like that by quarter, or by product?"

If you've tried Pivot Tables before, you may have found them a bit intimidating. This relates back to the problem with charts, which involves identifying what a data series is, what a category is, and what goes where and why.

By the way, the same cautionary tale applies: for best results, make sure that there are no empty columns or rows in the table; and don't select the AutoSum subtotals because they throw the Pivot Table wizard for a loop.

Identify the Data

But I get ahead of myself. If you look at this figure, there is only one set of actual data. In this simple spreadsheet, Sales is the only real set of data, which makes our task easier.

Generally, taking a hard look at the columns or rows in your spreadsheet to determine what is being measured and by what parameters (such as by whom, when or what), is quite helpful to creating the Pivot Table.

But I think the really scary thing about the process is the Pivot Table "Wizard" itself. Let's take a look. Put your cursor somewhere inside the data, and click Data > PivotTable and PivotChart Report.

Up pops the wacky wizard!

Figure 606

Now you could spend a bunch of time reading the various prompts and going through the various steps, and perhaps even driving yourself crazy with the options panel that is accessible in step 3.

Figure 607

I say skip this step; this stuff is hard enough without figuring out options up front. Save it, for if and when you have occasion to fine-tune a pivot table. For now, just click Finish.

Shazzam.

Your new Pivot Table is ready to populated in a new worksheet.

Figure 608

Notice that you have a Pivot Table toolbar, which allows you to revisit some of the "options" or continue to ignore them.

More important, there is a Field List, and an empty grid or area into which to drop the fields. So what does that mean in English?

First, let me make a few main points:

Be reassured. You can't really mess anything up. Whatever you drop into the grid can be reversed by Undo, or by dragging it back out, or dragging it to another location. In addition, everything you do in the Pivot Table is a reference to the underlying data. It changes nothing in the original spreadsheet.

Let's return to the original question: how much Fender sold in the Western region last year.

Since Fender is a salesperson, lets drop that field (or category, or "who item") into the first column, which immediately breaks down or sorts the salespeople into rows.

Since we've identified the data (what; the Sales), we drop that into the middle area named, logically enough, Drop Data Items Here.

Figure 609

What we get is a really cool realignment and sorting of the information in the spreadsheet. But we're not quite done.

We have another category or parameter we want to identify: "in the West." So that's a Region, and our first inclination might be drop that next to our first category (Quarter) and further refine our data by salesperson.

Figure 610

Oops, while we can see Fender's Western totals they're broken up by quarter and kind of unwieldy. We actually have a number of choices, but if you remember there was another area at the top of the grid called Drop Page Fields Here.

Page is just a more complicated term for sorting by a parameter, as in breaking a set of data apart into separate pages. So let's just grab that Region field, and drag it out of Columns and into Pages – it's in the upper left hand corner.

Now, by clicking its drop down arrow, we can select any one of the Regions and immediately isolate its data, i.e. sort the data for the Western region.

Figure 611

Then we can also use the Salesperson dropdown arrow to isolate Fender and discover his totals (by quarter!) for the West, or any other region.

Figure 612

Notice in the previous figure that you can use the drop down arrow at the bottom of the Field List to add any item or category to a row, column or page manually, in case you don't like dragging and dropping.

Before you call in your boss to accept the congratulations, you can experiment with realigning the same categories along the other axes (as rows instead of columns). Just drag them around or use the Field List. In addition, you can select a row (of duplicate data) and right-click to Hide it, if that makes it look even better.

Figure 613

Admittedly, this was a simple spreadsheet. Some things to keep in mind:

If you have a worksheet with more than one set of data (or list), the intuitive wizard may not select the right data, and you may need to manually select only that portion of the spreadsheet that you want included in the Pivot Table.
Remember that Less is More. You don't need to drag all of the categories into the grid. If you do, you will probably create a mess. Phrase your question of the data, and use that to populate the grip with just what you want. Use the Page area to further refine and subdivide the categories. Keep the data in the middle.
And, if the data in the underlying spreadsheet changes, you can refresh the referenced data in the Pivot Table by clicking the "!" button on the Pivot Table wizard.
Think of a Pivot Table as a visual Query (from Access). You are visually asking a question of the data. That is why the exclamation point icon refreshes the data, just as in Access it reruns the Query to get the latest results.

Those are the basics of creating a painless pivot table. Remember, don't panic, and keep your eye on the essential categories and data you want to plot. Drag and drop to your heart's content, and remember to Undo, or start over, if you get into too much trouble.

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