The Essential Pivot Table Guide

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The Essential Pivot Table Guide©

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The Essential Pivot Table

Guide©

By John Franco



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by John Franco

© 2009 by Excel-Spreadsheet-Authors.com

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TOC

TOC 4

INTRODUCTION 5

PRINCIPLE #1: MAKE A CLEAR DISTINCTION OF THE “SOURCE TABLE” FIELDS

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 17

PRINCIPLE #5 YOU CAN 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 30



Introduction

A Pivot Table 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...



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 Pivot Table Report.

Open your mind.... and let’s grasp the 7 Timeless Principles of

working with Pivot Tables.

This is my promise...

You will use PTs intuitively for the rest of your life!



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:

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.



Imagine a numeric field as the source of information 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 like: Profit, Losses, Salaries,

etc.

Take into account that this type of field is necessarily a number. See

the table above…



Principle #2 Make a Clear Distinction of the

Pivot Table Report Elements

Use the sample file provided with my e-book, (the-essential-pivot-

table 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 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



The drop data panel

This is an area of the worksheet which is especially created by Excel

to receive the Fields from the Pivot Table Field List dialog. See

below…



The Pivot Table Field List dialog…

This is an area of the worksheet which is created by Excel, specifically

to show the Fields from the “Source Table” 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…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)



To create a Pivot Table report just drag and drop the fields

appropriately to the drop data area (see Principle #3).



Principle #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 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 area”

shown below.



Excel 2003 users can add fields to the appropriate areas by using the

“Add to” button in the “User area” shown below.



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, you will have the report taking

shape in front of you.

Finally you have it…



Important reminder: Drop the Numeric fields to the Data area

only.

Can you drop a Category field to the Data 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…



Principle #4 The Order of the Category 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)



Quarter and Group (in the column area)

Group and Quarter (in the column area)



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



Principle #6 There are Mainly 5 Type of Reports

Report #1 Single row



Report #2 Multiple row



Report #3 Columns



Report #4 Page Filters



Report #5 Combination of all the above types



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 group,

click Field List

Excel 2003 users: in the Pivot Table toolbar, 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

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.

If you want Excel to summarize these entries as one, you must

uniform the data in the "Source table".



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 panel. Be aware of

this when you have already dropped and dragged fields. See the

graphic below…



Too many columns to the right

If you drop a category field to the column 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 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.



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 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





Pivot Table Resources

Excel 2007 Pivot Table video tutorial

Excel 2003 Pivot Table video tutorial

http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htm

http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htmhttp://www.lacher.com/t

oc/tutpiv.htm

http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/excel-pivot-tables.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/ default.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zHLnUCtfUk

http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/flashfiles/pivot1.html

http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htm

http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htmhttp:/www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htm

http://www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htmhttp:/www.lacher.com/toc/tutpiv.htm

http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/excel-pivot-tables.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx



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

contracting firm from around the world according to Engineering

News Record 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 corporate packages. His 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 benefits

of using Excel to 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

Mid/Advanced Excel users so they can polish their skills to reach

higher productivity and clarity.

Email him at: [email protected]

http://www.odebrecht.com/



http://enr.construction.com/people/toplists/topGlobalcont/topglobalCont_1-50.asp




mailto:[email protected]

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