Excel Pivot Tables - Tools


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In the worksheet containing a PivotTable, the Ribbon will contain the PivotTable Tools, with ANALYZE and DESIGN Tabs. The ANALYZE tab has several commands that will enable you to explore the data in the PivotTable. The DESIGN tab commands will be useful to structure the PivotTable with various report options and style options.

You will learn the ANALYZE commands in this chapter. You will learn the DESIGN commands in the Chapter - Aesthetic Reports with PivotTables.

ANALYZE Commands

The commands on the Ribbon of ANALYZE tab include the following −

  • Expanding and Collapsing a Field.
  • Grouping and Ungrouping Field Values.
  • Active Field Settings.
  • PivotTable Options.
Commands

Expanding and Collapsing a Field

If you have nested fields in your PivotTable, you can expand and collapse a single item or you can expand and collapse all the items of the active field.

Consider the following PivotTable, wherein you have Salesperson field nested under Region field.

Expanding

Click the Minus symbol to the left of East. The item East of the field Region will collapse.

Collapsing

As you can observe, the other items - North, South and West of the field Region are not collapsed. If you want to collapse any of them, repeat the steps that you have done for East.

  • Click on the Plus symbol to the left of East. The item East of the field Region will expand.

If you want to collapse all the items of a field at once, do the following −

  • Click any of the items of the field – Region.
  • Click the ANALYZE tab on the Ribbon.
  • Click Collapse Field in the Active Field group.
Collapse all Items

All the items of the field Region will be collapsed.

Collapsed

If you want to expand all the items of a field at once, do the following −

  • Click on any of the items of the field – Region.
  • Click the ANALYZE tab on the Ribbon.
  • Click Expand Field in the Active Field group.
Expand all Items

All the items of the field Region will be expanded.

Grouping and Ungrouping Field Values

You can group and ungroup field values to define your own clustering. For example, you might want to know the data combining East and North regions.

  • Select the East and North items of the Region field in the PivotTable, along with the nested Salesperson field items.

  • Click the ANALYZE tab on the Ribbon.

  • Click Group Selection in the group – Group.

Grouping

The items – East and North will be grouped under the name Group1. In addition, a new South is created under which South is nested and a new West is created under which West is nested.

Group1

You can also observe that a new field – Region2 is added in the PivotTable Fields list, which appears in the ROWS area.

  • Select the South and West items of the Region2 field in the PivotTable, along with the nested Region and Salesperson field items.

  • Click the ANALYZE tab on the Ribbon.

  • Click Group Selection in the group – Group.

Group Selection

The items – South and West of the field Region will be grouped under the name Group2.

Group2

To ungroup a group, do the following −

  • Click on the Group Name.
  • Click the ANALYZE tab.
  • Click Ungroup in the group – Group.
Ungroup

Grouping by a Date Field

Consider the following PivotTable, wherein you have the employee data summarized by Count of EmployeeID, hiredate wise and title wise.

Title Wise

Suppose you want to group this data by the HireDate field that is a Date field into years and quarters.

  • Click on a Date item in the PivotTable.
  • Click the ANALYZE tab on the Ribbon.
  • Click Group Field in the group – Group.
Quarters

The Grouping dialog box appears.

  • Set the dates for – Starting at and Ending at.

  • Select Quarters and Years in the box under By. To select / deselect multiple items, keep the Ctrl-key pressed.

  • Click OK.

Grouping Dialog Box

The HireDate field values will be grouped into Quarters, nested in Years.

Grouped into Quarters

If you want to ungroup this grouping, you can do as shown earlier, by clicking Ungroup in the group – Group on the Ribbon.

Active Value Field Settings

You can set a field options by clicking on a value of that field. Consider the example of sales data that we used earlier in this chapter.

Active Value

Suppose you want to set the options for the Region field.

  • Click on East. On the Ribbon, in the Active Field group, in the Active Field box, Region will be displayed.

  • Click on Field Settings. The Field Settings dialog box appears.

Field Settings

You can set your preferences for the field – Region.

PivotTable Options

You can set the PivotTable Options according to your preferences.

  • Click on the PivotTable.
  • Click the ANALYZE tab.
  • Click Options in the PivotTable group.
Analyze

The PivotTable Options dialog box appears. You can set your preferences in the dialog box.

Options Dialog Box
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