Excel - Create a simple PivotTable in Excel

A PivotTable report is an interactive table that you can use to quickly summarize large amounts of data. You can rotate its rows and columns to see different summaries of the source data, filter the data by displaying different pages, or display the details for areas of interest.

You can create a PivotTable report from a Microsoft Excel list.  The source data must be organized in rows and columns.  Your source data must have similar facts in the same column. 

• First steps in creating a simple PivotTable
• Next steps in creating a simple PivotTable
• Analysing the completed simple PivotTable
• More simple PivotTables analysed

The spreadsheet used in this example is Stock.xls

In this example, we used a spreadsheet showing different types of stock found in a computer store.  All the costs for the different types were added up.  Note that the store had very little stock of value for glossaries.   They had a great deal of money tied up in digital cameras.

In this example, we used a spreadsheet showing the amount of money spent on goods advertised in different editions of SA Computer Magazine.   The PivotTable also added up all the amounts spent based on information in the magazine, found in the Grand Total.

This work may be freely copied for non-commercial use only. Copyright © Pam Miller