pivot tables

H

herbzee

Can't understand why it's so difficult to create a pivot table report.
I've followed all the tutorials I could find on google-including
Microsofts', none of them work for me.

Isn't there a simple way? It's so easy with MS Works.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

What version of Excel are you using? What problem are you having when
creating a pivot table?
 
H

herbzee

Debra, using ver. 2003
I get as far as dragging my desired headings and they come up "count
of", (heading name)etc.etc. in a format I can't recognize and not in the
right places for fields. Plus when I use the wizard, after making one
drag and drop, it disappears.
Could U kindly walk me thru step by step? This octogenarian is playing
with kid stuff.
Cheers-Herb.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

Using the sample file that you can download here:

http://www.contextures.com/xlsampledata01.html

Select cell A1 on Sheet1
Choose Data>PivotTable and PivotChart Report
In Step 1 of the Wizard, leave the default settings, and click Next
In Step 2, leave the default range: $A$1:$G$44, and click Next
In Step 3, click Layout
Drag the Region field to the Row area
Drag the Item field to the Column area
Drag the Units field to the Data area, where it will become Sum of Units
(if there are blank cells in the Units column, it will become
Count of Units)
Click OK, then click Finish
That will create a pivot table with regions listed in column A, items
listed in row 4, total units for each region and item, and grand totals.

Does that work when you try it?
 
K

Kevin Labore

Once you get the hang of pivot tables you will ask yourself why didnt you
use them before now as they are great tools for doing all kind of reports.
They are quick to generate and great for changing around views quickly.
You will get the hang of after you do a few.

A couple things to remember:
1) Data has to be in the right format to work correctly.
2) You can format data after you get the pivot table create (ie.
Currency, %, Decimal places etc)
3) Make sure you value field are for what you want(ie. count, sum,
average, etc)
4) Pivot tables have some quirks where they may not always behave as you
might expect them too

One book that might assist you "Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts" Wiley
Publishing Inc. ( the books is easy to follow and gives lots of example and
scenarios which a beginer with PivotTables will find useful)

Second Book if you are going to be doing a lot of work with Pivot tables
that I have on my shelf. "PivotTable:Data Crunching" by Bill "Mr.Excel"
Jelen and Co Author from QUE publishing

HTH
Kevin
 
H

herbzee

Yes, that worked; but whe I use my own spreadsheet, it tells me I have
too many columns.

I'm trying to get a report of 6 columns out of about 20, with info about
a period between 1/1/06 and 12/31/06. This column is called "sale date".
I can reduce the amount of data being queried by doing a filter of
those dates, but the pivot table doesn'nt allow me to filter before hand.
Can I do it after creating the table?

I hope this is clear enuf. without my having to send an attachment of
what I'm trying to do.
Cheers-Herb.
 
D

Debra Dalgleish

There are only 256 columns in the workbook, so a year's worth of days
won't fit. You could add the date field to the Row area first, instead
of the Column area, and filter it, or group the dates. After you've
reduced the number of dates, you could move the field to the Column area.
 
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