The Essential Pivot Table Guide

Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com

The Essential Pivot Table Guide©

The Essential

Pivot Table Guide©

By John Franco

www.Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com

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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© The Essential Pivot Table Guide© by John Franco © 2009 by Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Share/Email/Print this eBook for FREE Pass it along given that you make no changes to its content or digital format. If you want to sell this book or use it for commercial purposes, please Contact me Notice of Liability The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information i nformation contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.co Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com, m, nor its dealers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly i ndirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products products described herein. Trademark Notice Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of i nfringement of the trademark. Cover image© Kurhan - Fotolia.com


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TOC TOC

4

INTRODUCTION

5

PRINCIPLE #1: MAKE A CLEAR DISTINCTION OF THE “SOURCE TABLE” F IELDS 7

PRINCIPLE #2 MAKE A CLEAR DISTINCTION OF THE PIVOT TABLE REPORT ELEMENTS

9

PRINCIPLE #3 DROP THE FIELDS TO THE CORRECT FIELD AREA

13

PRINCIPLE #4 THE ORDER OF THE CATEGORY FIELDS COUNTS

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PRINCIPLE #5 YOU CAN SUMMARIZE SUMMARIZE THE NUMERIC FIELDS IN SEVERAL WAYS 19 PRINCIPLE #6 THERE ARE MAINLY 5 TYPE OF REPORTS

20

PRINCIPLE #7 YOU WILL ALWAYS ENCOUNTER SOME PROBLEMS

25

PIVOT TABLE RESOURCES

29

ABOUT JOHN


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Introduction A Pivot Table T able allows you to quickly slice and dice information from any large table you can imagine. For example: you can crunch the "Source Table" shown below in several ways…

Sales by Group Total sales for each product group. See the table below...

Product Sales Total sales for each product, organized by group Q1 & Q2 & Q3 & Q4 compares the sales between quarters. See the table below...


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Multiple Subtotals calculates additional summaries: the average, largest, and smallest sales for each group Average Sales provides the average sales amount for each product Top 3 Products Identifying the three best-selling products within each group All Quarters Sales for each product and group by quarter And more ways… It appears complex at first but don’t worry, if you can drag the mouse, you can create a basic b asic Pivot Table Report. Open your mind.... and let’s grasp the 7 Timeless Ti meless Principles of working with Pivot Tables. This is my promise... You will use PTs intuitively for the rest of your life!


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Principle #1: Make a Clear Distinction of the “

Source Table” Fields

Every "Source Table" has two types of fields: category field and numeric field, let's see a clear example: ex ample:

Now, let's explore some details...

Category field In the above "Source Table", you have three Category fields: Group, Product and Quarter. Imagine categories as the units of data you want information about. For example, you can slice the Sales by Group, by Product and by Quarter. A category field usually contains texts that are repeated across the lines. For example, the "Quarter field" contains: Q 1, Q 2, Q 1, Q 1, Q 4, etc. See the table above…

Numeric field In the above "Source Table", you have one Numeric field: Sales.


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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© Imagine a numeric field as the source of inf information ormation for categories; for example: you can know the total, the average, or the max Sales of any category: Group, Product or Quarter. There are other types of numeric fields fiel ds like: Profit, Losses, Salaries, etc. Take into account that this type of field is necessarily a number. See the table above…


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Principle Principl e #2 Make a Clear Distinction of the Pivot Table Report Elements Use the sample file provided with my e-book, (the-essential-pivottable guide_example.xls) to make it by yourself and get a better understanding. First, launch the Pivot Table wizard; do it this way… Excel 2007 users must do the following: 1. Place inside the table range (data region) and then 2. Go to Insert>Tables>Table>Ok or press CTRL + T. The table is created 3. Go to Design>Tools>Summarize Design>Tools>Summarize with Pivot Table 4. Choose the destination of your PT in the Create Pivot Table wizard: new or existing worksheet and 5. Press Ok Excel 2003 users must do the following: 1. Place inside the table range (data region) and then 2. Go to Data>Pivot Table and PivotChart Report 3. Choose Next in the wizard step 1 of 3 4. Choose Next or change the range for the data source in the wizard step 2 of 3 5. Choose the destination of your PT: new or existing worksheet, and 6. Press Finish in the wizard step 3 of 3 Once you have done the above steps, you will have two main components: The Drop Data panel The Pivot Table Field List dialog


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The drop data panel This is an area of the t he worksheet which is especially created by Excel to receive the Fields from the Pivot Table Field List dialog. See below…


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The Pivot Table Field List dialog… This is an area of the t he worksheet which is created by Excel, specifically to show the Fields from the “ the “Source Source Table” Table” It It is called the Pivot Table Field List dialog. See below…

It is important to note that the Excel area (as highlighted in the graphics above) is reflected from the "Source Table". In other words… words…those fields you see there are the fields of the "Source Table". These fields can be dragged and dropped to the four main data areas… Row labels (row area for Excel 2003) Column labels (column area for Excel 2003) Values (data area for Excel 2003) Report Filter (page area for Excel 2003)


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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© To create a Pivot Table report just drag and drop the fields appropriately to the drop data area (see Principle #3).


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Principle Principl e #3 Drop the Fields to the Correct Field Area You already know the building-block concepts to build a Pivot Table report: 1) you have made the distinctions distinctions of the "Source Table" fields and 2) you are familiar with the elements of the Pivot Table command.

Now you will learn how to configure a PT report. A Pivot Table report is built in front of you as you drop the fields to the data area APPROPRIATELY. Drag the fields from the Pivot Table Field List dialog to the Drop Fields area. Excel 2007 users can drag and drop the fields to the “User “User area” area” shown below.


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Excel 2003 users can add fields fiel ds to the appropriate areas by using the “Add “Add to” to” button button in the “User area” shown area” shown below.


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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© Or you can drag and drop the fields from the Pivot Table Field List dialog directly to the Drop Fields area. See below…

Now; each time you drop a field, fiel d, you will have the report taking shape in front of you. Finally you have it…


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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© Important reminder: Drop the Numeric fields to the Data area only. Can you drop a Category field to the Data D ata area? The answer is YES. You can put a non-numeric field (category field) on the Data area, but you can only count texts, not average or sum them. You can try it… A Sum will result in 0 A Max and Min will result in 0 An Average will result in #DIV/0! The graphic below has the Field called “Group” on the Data area…


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Principle Principl e #4 The Order of the Categor Category y Fields Counts Place the fields in the order that you need them to be summarized in the report. For example:

Product and Quarter (in the row area)

Quarter and Product (in the row area)


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Quarter and Group (in the column area)

Group and Quarter (in the column area)


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Principle #5 You can Summarize the Numeric Fields in Several Ways By default, Numeric Fields are summarized with the SUM function. But you can use various computation options… SUM COUNT MAX, MIN AVERAGED And other numerical computations Excel 2007 users, click on the field arrow in the Values Area and choose Value Field settings, then set the parameters as you want, or right click over the cells that contain the data and choose Value Field settings from the menu… Excel 2003 users right click over the cells that contain the data and choose Field settings from the menu…

You can also set the number format. See the image above


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Principle Principl e #6 There are Main Mainly ly 5 Type of Rep Repor orts ts Report #1 Single row


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Report #2 Multiple row


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Report #3 Columns


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Report #4 Page Filters


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Report #5 Combination of all the above types


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Principle #7 You will Always Encounter some Problems Don’t panic if you don’t find the Fields If you don't see the PivotTable Field List, make sure that you click the PivotTable. If you still don't see the PivotTable Field List, do the following: Excel 2007 users: on the Options tab, in the Show/Hide Show/Hide group, click Field List Excel 2003 users: in the Pivot Table toolbar, choose choose Hide Field List. If you don't see the fields in the Field List that you want to use, refresh the PivotTable report to display any new fields, calculated cal culated fields, measures, calculated measures, or dimensions that you have added since the last operation.

Different Entries Result in a Different Category If a given Product name (in the Product field) contains spaces or wrong spelling, the Pivot Table will show it as a different item, for example: Boston Crab and Boston Crabs are different entries, they will be summarized accordingly. accordingly. If you want Excel to summarize these entries as one, you must uniform the data in the "Source table".


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Don’t frustrate too quickly when you cannot set the order of the fields in the Drop Fields Area Don’t lose sight of the four areas of the Drop Data D ata panel. Be aware of this when you have already dropped and dragged fields. See the graphic below…


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Too many columns to the right If you drop a category field to the column drop drop area, you will have as many columns as groups of data to the right. For example: if you drop the Product field to the column area you would have as many columns as Products. Unfortunately, you cannot specify in advance the set of Products you you want to show. I recommend that you apply a filter to the desired field after dropping it. Click the arrow that is shown for each field in the drop panel and pick the items you want to show.


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The Essential Pivot Table Guide© Well… You are ready; this is all you need to know to get a good strong start on Pivot Tables. What’s next? Go and explore your chunk of data. You will truly become a Pivot Table master when you make sense of your own data. DON’T BE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES , if the produced report

is not the one you want, just drag and drop another field, move a field from one data area to the other, change the order, etc. Enjoy your data!

I am John Franco - of Ecuador South America. I invite invi te you to visit me at my blog www.Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com where we can become better acquainted. I will show you many amazing truths of Excel.

John Franco Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com


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Pivot Table Resources Excel 2007 Pivot Table video tutorial Excel 2003 Pivot Table video vi deo tutorial http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htm http://www.lacher.com/toc http://www. lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htmht /tutpiv.htmhttp://www.lac tp://www.lacher.com/t her.com/t oc/tutpiv.htm http://www.ozgrid.com/Exce http://www.o zgrid.com/Excel/excel-pivot-tables.htm l/excel-pivot-tables.htm http://office.microsoft.com/en-us http://office.m icrosoft.com/en-us/training/ /training/ default.aspx


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About John John Franco is native of Ecuador, he is a Civil Engineer and a Bachelor in Applied Linguistics with focus on creating systems for work, his long term objective in life is helping others to gain momentum in the application of ideas. For over seven years, he worked as a Civil Engineer for Norberto Odebrecht Construction Company (the 44th largest construction construction contracting firm from around the world according to Engineering News Record 2008) 2008). During that time, He had an Excel Maven Boss; Nilton Teti, one of those old-time-Excel-geniuses who makes precious models, uses just the keyboard and hates BI corpora corporate te packages. His almost almost “religious fervor” for Excel, and his amazing knowledge, was the source of his great interest in Spreadsheets. During all these years he really experienced the professional professional benefits of using Excel to accomplish accomplish his duties; he says to you that being skilled in Excel gives you a tremendous advantage at the office and in your career! Having always been very entrepreneurial in his nature, he quit his job at Norberto Odebrecht in order to devote his full passion and knowledge of advanced Excel methods to others around the world who can benefit from it. His first entrepreneurial initiative is the site www.Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com;; a blog dedicated to www.Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com Mid/Advanced Excel users so they can polish their skills to reach higher productivity and clarity. Email him at: john@exce at: john@excel-spreadsheet-autho l-spreadsheet-authors.com rs.com www.Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com

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The Essential Pivot Table Guide

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