Tip of the week # 624
5 October 2020


Create PivotTables - no know-how necessary (Excel 2013 onwards) *

If you have large amounts of information in Excel you probably (read: hopefully) use the powerful table management features to help you quickly retrieve and manipulate data. Perhaps you also use PivotTable reports to interactively summarize you data? Or maybe you've heard of PivotTables but never looked into them as yet? Or perhaps you don't know what you don't know? Well you don't have to ... As long as you use version 2013 or later and your data has column headings, Microsoft will suggest a set of PivotTable reports it feels are most applicable.

Here's how:

  1. Click anywhere in your data.
  2. On the Insert tab click on Recommended PivotTables (the second button from the left).
  3. Use your downward arrow to flick through the various recommendations.
  4. Click OK.

Your report has been inserted in a new sheet; your "raw data" is still intact and could be used as a basis for other summary reports.

Related tips

  1. Quickly format and enable filtering of your data - tip_429.php
  2. See the data behind a specific figure in a PivotTable report - tip_399.php
  3. Filter data in a PivotTable and PivotChart using Slicers - tip_474.php
  4. Exclude data from your PivotTable report using Slicers - tip_588.php

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* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.