How to Disable the Functions of a PivotTable

With its functions disabled, your PivotTable stays exactly how you left it.

In some cases, you might want to counter outside manipulation of your PivotTable by disabling its functions. You could focus on a particular set of criteria and avoid the risk of anyone altering how the information is displayed. With PivotTables, you can create a variety of views based on how you need to examine parts of the same data. Once you have a certain PivotTable laid out to fit your circumstances, you can disable its functions and then, when you are ready, enable them later.

Things You'll Need

• Excel 2007 or later version

Instructions

1. Open Excel and then open the workbook that contains the PivotTable you would like to disable.

2. Right-click on any cell within the PivotTable and then click "PivotTable Options."

3. Click the "Display" tab and then uncheck the selections for "Show expand/collapse buttons," "Show contextual tooltips," " Display field captions and filter drop downs," "Classic PivotTable layout (enables dragging of fields in the grid)" and "Display item labels when no fields are in the values area."

4. Click "OK."

Tips & Warnings

• Unless you password protect/encrypt your workbook, someone can easily change the PivotTable options or even access the referenced data if it is located within the same workbook. You could hide the sheet for the PivotTable's referenced data and its workbook tab, and then password protect/encrypt the workbook, disallowing options to modify pages and cell ranges.

References

• Microsoft: Expand, collapse, or show details in a PivotTable or PivotChart