Excel 2013 PivotTables Making Information Usable

Here’s a list of law firms, their locations and revenue

But so what?

Just looking at the list isn’t much good

How about making it easier to see information in a way that makes sense to you?

For instance listing firms by state and city

Or maybe you’d like to make some calculations

For instance showing the total revenue by state

Or by city

Or both - either with company names

or without them.

In order to do that, the information must be organized in a certain way

The “field names” (types of information) must be in the top row. In this example they’re Company, City, State and Revenue in Millions

The “records” (the information itself) must be in the following rows

And there can be no blank rows or columns in the “range” (group of contiguous cells.)

Let’s create a PivotTable together. Please turn on Excel and open Sample PivotTable.xlxs, which should be on the desktop.

Click on any data cell,

Then on the Insert tab and the PivotTable button

Because you began by clicking on a data cell, Excel automatically assumes that you want to select that range.

It also assumes that you’d like the PivotTable to appear in a new worksheet.

Since that’s the case, please click on OK

Here’s the new worksheet. Let’s look at it piece by piece.

First of all, the new worksheet is automatically called Sheet1

While the data remains on the original worksheet

This area on Sheet1 is where the new PivotTable will appear.

In order to create it, you’ll choose from the field list

Which was automatically created from the original worksheet

You’ll drag and drop field names into the following areas

If you drag the Company field into the FILTERS area the field name will appear in cell A1

and a selection arrow will appear in B1

If you click on the selection arrow you can filter to see one or more records in that field.

If you drag the field from Report Filter into the COLUMNS area the names will appear in columns

Excel columns stretch up and down like the columns in the Parthenon

If you drag a field into the ROWS area the names will appear in rows

Excel rows stretch from side to side like row boats

If you drag a field into the VALUES area Excel will calculate its value. This example shows that there are 34 companies in the spreadsheet

Excel will calculate a field’s value based on its contents. If the field consists of text, as Company does, Excel will automatically count the records.

If the field consists of values, Excel will automatically sum (add) them.

To demonstrate, please look in the PivotTable Field list and click on the check-mark prior to the word “Company”

All the fields have been removed from the PivotTable.

Drag “Revenue in Millions” into the VALUES area and you’ll see that there is a total of million dollars in the spreadsheet.

Why do they call them “PivotTables”?

To demonstrate, please drag “City” into the COLUMNS area, “State” into ROWS and leave “Revenue in Millions” in VALUES.

Now reverse the positions of City and State

Oddly enough, PivotTables don’t automatically update if the records change. Let’s make a simple example.

Click in the check box prior to “State” to remove that field from the PivotTable

We see that the total Atlanta revenue is million dollars

Click on the DATA_FEED worksheet tab.

Cell D2 contains $677.50

Please change it to $

Please click on the Sheet1 tab

And you’ll see that the Atlanta total still shows 677.5

To update it, please click on the Analyze tab, the Refresh Button and “Refresh All”

And the total will update

Extra credit (if there’s time)

Double-click in cell B10, which shows that the total New York revenue is million dollars

A new worksheet appears with the details of all New York companies

This is called “drilling down”

Please click on the Sheet1 tab again

To show that you can customize the field names in the PivotTable Click in A3 and type “City,” Click in B3 and type “Total Revenue in Millions”

Click on the triangle next to Total Revenue...

Then click on Value Field Settings

Click on Number Format, Currency and OK

When you click on “OK” again you’ll see the millions formatted as currency

Click on the triangle next to Total Revenue again

Then click on Value Field Settings again

When you click on “Summarize By” and scroll you’ll see that you can count, average, show the maximum value and more.

Click on “Cancel”

Click on the triangle next to Total Revenue again

Then click on Value Field Settings again

When you click on the “Show values as” tab and scroll you’ll see that you can show each value in various ways including as a % of the total

Click on “Cancel”

Click on the Design tab and the check box prior to “Banded Rows”

What’s new in Excel version 2010?

Recommended PivotTables

Recommended charts

“Slicers” (custom filters you can use by clicking on field names)

Here’s an example of a chart with slicers showing all fields.

And here it is when only the states of CA, NY and TX are selected

Here’s another slicer showing all of the fields

And here it is when only the states of CA, NY and TX are selected

Notice that only the cities, companies and revenue in those states are listed.

Questions? Comments?