Excel is such a powerful tool and people use it for so many different reasons, but how can I use Pivot Tables in Excel?
Pivot Tables allow you to analyze data and show the data in a summarized fashion.
This tutorial Excel Pivot Tables mini-course on my YouTube channel will walk you thru each step of Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts to easily start to understand how the data from your data source us used to create a table or chart.
If you already have data setup in an Excel spreadsheet, you can easily setup a Pivot Table by clicking the Insert Ribbon and then selecting "PivotTable." Older versions of Pivot Table setup were on the Data tab, so depending on what version you have, your starting point may be a bit different, but the main steps remain the same.
As long as your cursor was somewhere within the data, Excel recognizes the table or range of data; if not, you'll need to enter the Table/Range in the "Create Pivot Table" window.
Excel allows you to select the location of the Pivot Table. You can create a New Worksheet or place the Pivot Table in the Existing Worksheet. Most people that I work with prefer to place the Pivot Table on a New Worksheet, but it's your preference.
Once you click OK, the New Worksheet is created and the Pivot Tables Wizard window opens. This window is separated into a few areas. The top section "Pivot Table Fields" allows you to select the fields (data points) you want to include in the Pivot Table.
The bottom selection allows you to drag those fields selected into the areas in which you'd like them to appear: Filters, Columns, Rows, or Values. You can always change the location by clicking and dragging the field name into one of the other areas in this section.
As you add fields to the 4 areas, you'll see the data appear in the Pivot Table on the worksheet.
Once fields are added, you'll see drop-down arrows next to them. Click the drop-down arrow to see the selections. If you've got Sales Revenue in your data, you may like that it "summed" up the data. However, if you have Sales Numbers, you may not want it to "sum" the data, but maybe show a Count.
Play with Pivot Tables and see how you can easily you can summarize and make your data start to have meaning.
If you prefer video, I'm made a YouTube #Shorts video on Pivot Tables:
If you're interested in an entire course on Excel Pivot Tables, Analyzing Data, Macros, and more, CLICK HERE for a 50% discount.
