Creating Pivot Tables from a table format in Excel – how can I do this in my spreadsheets? Watch the video to learn more
This week’s hint and tip is on creating pivot tables from a table format in Excel. It looks at pivot tables and how they can be used in spreadsheets. Pivot tables are covered on our Advanced Excel training course and are popular, so we decided to do a hint and tip on them. We are going to go through it now below.
What is an Excel Table?
An Excel table is often created and used in spreadsheets to format data in a certain way. Making your data into this table format allows for easy sorting and filtering. You can also then use it to go on to create pivot tables.
What is a Pivot Table?
As described in a previous post, a pivot table is a tool within Excel that allows you to easily arrange and summarise complex data. As a result, the data is then easier to view and manipulate. Pivot tables are powerful tools when using large spreadsheets and can save a lot of time when trying to summarise it.
Creating an Excel Table to then create a Pivot Table
First ensure that your data has been formatted as a table. Select one cell in your data and go to Insert Tab and select the Table option. Here it will select your data range and you can click Ok.
Once you have done this extra tabs will appear at the top of the page. One of these is called Design and on it there is an option for ‘Summarize with a pivot table’. Clicking this will allow you to create your pivot table, moving location if you want, then click Ok. This will result in the ‘pivot table template’ being formed. Next you can choose which fields you want in it depending on how you want to summarise your data.
The video below shows you how to create a pivot table from a table format in Excel. It goes through how it can be beneficial to create the table format first before creating a pivot table .
Take a look below at the video to find out more and then try it out on your own computer!
We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip on the creating a pivot table from a table format in Excel. Why not take a look at our previous one on the dictate feature found in PowerPoint?