In Part 1, we talked about the basics of creating a PivotTable. In this video, we're going to
take a look at three more features called Report Filters, Slicers, and PivotCharts.
Right now, this PivotTable is showing us the regional sales totals for all the salespeople
in our worksheet. However, I'd like to try removing certain people, so we can see how
their sales are impacting their regions.
We can do this by adding a Report Filter, which can be used to narrow down the data
in your PivotTable.
First drag the Salesperson field… to the Filters area. Then look to your PivotTable,
and click the filter that's been added to the upper right corner.
Next, check the option that says Select Multiple Items. Now we can check or uncheck the salespeople
above, depending on who we want to include.
I'm going to remove Michael Brennan…
Richard Dumlao… and Shannon Thompson.
When you're ready, click OK… and the filter will be applied.
In this case, that means the totals have changed, and two of the regions have also been filtered
out, based on the people that we unchecked.
If you like the way filters work, you might want to try adding a Slicer next. Slicers
make filtering even faster and easier by giving you access to the filters in their own separate
pane.
First make sure you're on the Analyze tab, then click the Insert Slicer command. A dialog
box will appear where you can check the filter you want. We'll use Salesperson like before.
Now we can just click the salespeople we want to see, without having to go to the filtering
menu.
You can even select multiple adjacent people by clicking and dragging your mouse.
To select more than one non-adjacent item, hold CTRL on your keyboard while you click.
As you can see, the PivotTable changes each time to reflect the data you've selected.
The last thing I'd like to show you is a neat feature called PivotCharts. PivotCharts are
basically the same as regular charts, except they show whatever is in your PivotTable.
To get started, click any cell in your PivotTable… then go to the Insert tab… and click the
PivotChart command.
A dialog box will appear where you can select the chart type you want… then go ahead and
click OK.
Now any changes you make to the PivotTable will show up in the PivotChart as well.
For example, let's see what happens when we move these fields around a bit, so we can
view each person's monthly sales data.
With a PivotTable, a PivotChart, and a Slicer, we can look at the data in so many different
ways—all without changing or deleting any of the original content. It's a great way
to find whatever information you're looking for, or you can just experiment to see if
you discover something new.