How to format all subtotals in an Excel Pivot Table

Pivot tables are great timesavers... and if you know the tricks to getting around you can save even more time. Knowing how to quickly format your subtotals in a pivot table is something every pivot table user should have in their arsenal of knowledge.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Excel

1. 
    
   Check out the resources!

   This article assumes you've already created an Excel pivot table. If you need help with that, see the "Create an Excel Pivot Table" resource in the "Resources" section below.

2. 
    
   Right Click... Select... Enable Selection

   Right click on the subtotal. On the menu that pops up navigate to "Select". This should pop-up another menu. On this menu navigate to "Enable Selection" and click it.

3. 
    
   Again! Right Click... Select... Enable Selection

   Now here's the tricky thing. You have to repeat step 2 before Excel will allow you to format all of the subtotals. So Right click again, navigate to "Select" and then "Enable Selection". I don't know why you have to do this twice... you just do.

4. 
    
   Subtotals Highlighted

   Once you've repeated this twice, all of the subtotals in your Excel pivot table will be highlighted. This is especially handy if you have thousands of subtotals in your pivot table.

5. 
    

   Now you can proceed to format your subtotals however you like. Most people Bold their subtotals so let's do that. Click the B for Bold on your "Formatting" toolbar.

6. 
    
   Ta Da!

   Voila! Clicking the Bold button has Bolded all of the subtotals.

Tips & Warnings

• Check out my other Excel articles in the resources section for more great tips!

Resources

• Create an Excel Pivot Table
• Use simple Keystrokes to Get around in Excel
• Lookup data in Excel using vlookup

[WordWhizKid]

on 1/12/2009 This is really helpful, thank you! I'm still at the very basic level in excel, I need help lol;).