How To Do Just About Everything
By dahawe
Set up your data correctly for best results
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Using Excel you can create a simple report that you can use in many different ways - to summarize data, make a chart, show grouping, filter data and sort data. Beginners often do these separately but it is actually easier using a report format called a pivot table.
Begin with your mouse placed on the data.
To begin with your data should be in rows, with no blank rows or columns. This is important - you'll see why later.
Begin with your mouse positioned anywhere on the data.
See the drop list in the example...
From the Data menu at the top of the screen, choose PIVOT TABLE and PIVOT CHART.
The blank report will appear on a new spreadsheet tab.
At this time, do not read the wizard steps, we are going to take the next three default options so just press the enter key three times.
(I know this seems odd, but this is the easy and fast way...)
You will end up with a blank report format on a new spreadsheet tab.
In this example we are summarizing the data by state, so we double-click the STATE item from the list.
You should see a field list floating toolbar, where each column heading has become an item on the list.
Pick a field that you want listed and double-click it.
The field will now be a row list on the report. (You can also drag the fields from the list to the drop zones, but this requires a little practice.)
Since we want to count the number of items by state, we drop the company name in the data section.
Finally, drag any field you want to add up or count into the area called DROP DATA ITEMS HERE.
Now your report has been created.
From here, check the other articles for more tips on what you can do to use this report.
Check out the related video for a live 30 second demo!
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