We, data junkies, love pivot tables.

We think pivot tables are solution for everything (except for may be global warming and that broken espresso machine down stairs). Today, we are going to learn 5 awesome pivot table tricks that will make you a star. Click on these links to jump to tips. Drill down pivot tables | Change Summary from Total | Slice & Dice Pivots | Difference from last month | Calculated Fields in Pivots (If you are not familiar with basic pivot tables, you should check out this excellent pivot tables tutorial)

1. Drill down on your Pivots with Double click

This is by far the simplest and most powerful pivot table trick I have learned. Whenever you want to see the values behind a pivot field just double click on it. Lets say, the sales of Lawrence in Middle region is $5,908 and you want to know which items contribute for this total, when you double click on the number $5,908 excel will show a list of all the records that add up to this number, neatly arranged in a new worksheet. Instant drill down. See this magical trick in action.

2. Summarize Pivot Data by Average or some other formula

By default excel summarizes pivot data by sum or count depending on data type. But often you may want to change this to say average, to answer questions like what is the average sales per product. To do this, just right click on pivot table values (not on row or column headings) and select summarize data by and select Average option.

(In excel 2003, you have to do this from field settings menu option)

3. Slice & Dice your Pivot Tables with Grace

Re-arranging pivot table layouts is as easy as shuffling a pack of cards. Just drag and drop the fields from row areas to column areas (vice-a-versa) and you have the pivot table rearranged. Here is a simple screencast explaining the secret

4. Show difference from last month (or year) without bending backwards
We all know that you can show monthly summaries using Pivots. But what if your boss wants you to also include difference from previous month as well? Now, dont rush back to source data and add new columns. Here is the right trick to make you a star.

Just use field settings to tell excel how you want the data to be summarized. Right click on any pivot table value, select value field settings Now go to Show value as tab and Change Normal to Difference from Select Previous from Base-item area. Leave Base field as-is.
Now, your pivot is updated to show difference from previous column.

Bonus: There are quite a few value field settings you can mess with. Go play and discover something fun.

5. Add new dimensions to your Pivot Reports with Calculated Fields

Let us say you have both sale and profit values in your source data. Now, your boss wants to know profit % in the pivot report (defined as Profit/Sales). You need not add any extra columns in your source data, instead you can define custom calculated fields with ease and use them in pivot reports.

To do this, Go to pivot table options ribbon, select formulas > calculated field Now define a new calculated field by giving it a name and some meaningful formula.

Make sure you adjust the cell formatting so that output of calculation can be displayed (for eg. change number to % format)
(In excel 2003, the formula option is available from Pivot menu in toolbar) See this tip in action:

What is your favorite pivot table trick?

Do you like pivot tables? What are your favorite tricks? What areas do you face difficulties? Tell me using comments.

Today we will learn about Pivot Table Report Filters. We all know that Pivot Tables help us analyze and report massive amount of data in little time. Excel has several useful pivot table features to help us make all sorts of reports and charts. Report Filters are one such thing.

How do Report Filters help you?

Let us say, you are an analyst at ACME Inc., that has 3 products Fastcar, Rapidzoo and Superglue. You have 4 salespersons Joseph, Lawrence, Maria & Matt. You operate in 3 regions West, North and Middle. Now, you are given the data for all sales from Jan 2007 to July 2009 and your boss asks you, I need a report on sales by product and salesperson in each region. This is where a Report filter would help you. You can put Salesperson in Row label area, Product in Column area, net sales in value field area and region in report filter area of the pivot table. Then, you get a report like this:

You can immediately switch the report filter to other regions (or a combination of them) to produce the region-wise reports.

Generating Multiple Reports from One Pivot Table:

Using Report Filters, we can quickly generate multiple pivot reports. For this, 1) Click anywhere inside pivot table, and go to Options ribbon. 2) From here, click on little down arrow next to options, choose Show Report Filter Pages. 3) Select the filter field for which you want multiple pages. 4) Done! Excel produces multiple worksheets, one each for a report filter setting. See this demo:

Few more tips on using Report Filters

Add Multiple Report Filters You can add more than one report filter to a pivot table. This is a very useful way to slice and dice your data when you have lots of columns (dimensions). For eg., you could add report filters on Month, Region & Product. Show Report Filters in rows or columns From Pivot Table Options, you can set how Excel should layout the report filters. This setting is available in Layout & Format Tab. Select More than one value for Report Filter By default, Excel allows you to specify only one value per filter. But you can over-ride this by using the Select multiple items check-box in report filter.

Download Report Filters Demo Workbook

I have made a demo workbook showing how you can generate multiple reports from same pivot table. Go ahead and download the workbook.

Click here to download Report Filter Demo Workbook.

How do you use Report Filters

I often use Report filters to generate reports for a specific time-window or product group for my small business. I generally do this while analyzing sales or something. For eg. I would make a pivot chart with sales data and add a trend-line to it. Then I would change the report filter to instantly understand the trend for a different product. I like the power report filters give me in situations like this. What about you? Have you used Report Filters before? In what situations do you find report filters help-ful.Please share your experience & tips using comments.

More Articles on Pivot Tables

If you would like learn more about Pivot Tables, go thru these articles:

Excel Pivot Tables Introduction & Video Excel Pivot Table Tricks How to Group Dates in Pivot Reports Show Top 10 Values in Dashboards using Pivot Tables Dynamic Dashboard using Pivot Tables & Slicers [Excel 2010] More articles on Pivot Tables