Introduction to PivotTables

Microsoft Excel: Introduction to PivotTables

Instruction on how to produce and use PivotTables for call evaluation analysis

ICBC

June 27, 2013

Authored by: Laurel, Dino


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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................2

Creating and Pivoting PivotTables ..............................................................................................................................3

Summarizing PivotTable Data.....................................................................................................................................6

Sorting and Filtering PivotTable Data ...................................................................................................................... 12

Formatting PivotTables ........................................................................................................................................... 14

Applying Conditional Formats to PivotTables ......................................................................................................... 16

Creating Pivot Charts ............................................................................................................................................... 19

Summary .................................................................................................................................................................. 21


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Introduction

Microsoft Excel can make the process of analyzing all the statistics that the Support & Analytics team is

collecting. Using tools native to Microsoft Excel can automate a number of the manual processes that the team

has been laboring with. Particularly, tools such as PivotTables will help our team increase the time for other

projects, and minimize the time required for call analysis.

This is a step-by-step beginner’s guide on how to create PivotTables, and how to use PivotTables in your

analysis. First thing that you want to do is open the EXAMPLE file and follow along.

Link: Example worksheet

Example.xlsx


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Creating and Pivoting PivotTables

In order to create PivotTables, you will need to follow the instructions step by step. First, open the worksheet titled Example and you will see the following:

Now, click on the Insert tab.


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Click on the Table button.

A pop-up window Create Table will appear. You will need to click on Cell A1 and drag the cursor to Cell J13 and

release the mouse.

Check the box ‘My table has headers’ and then click on the OK button. You have created your first table.


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Now, click on the Insert tab, and then click on the PivotTable button.

A pop-up window Create PivotTable will appear. Excel will automatically select the table that you created.

Table/Range field shows ‘Table 1’ and the other options are New Worksheet or Existing Worksheet. For this

purpose, select New Worksheet, and then click on the OK button.

You have just created your first PivotTable worksheet:


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Summarizing PivotTable Data

This part of the tutorial describes how you can derive information from the data that you will collect from the

calls. From the beginning of this tutorial, you have seen that the data in the Example worksheet gives you data

about individual rows.

What PivotTables accomplish is summarize rows of data into tables or charts that can be easily manipulated to

your needs.

In this section, you will go over the tools and options PivotTables provides users.

There are two main tabs under ‘PivotTable Tools’: Options & Design

Under Options you see the following:

Under Design you see the following:

These tabs help you take control of how you manipulate your data and can also help create esthetically pleasing

tables to present information. For the purposes of this tutorial, you will focus on summarizing data more so than

design.

The power of PivotTables comes from the central command or PivotTable Field List. All you have to do is click

and select options and boxes, and like magic, Microsoft Excel automatically summarizes your data.


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PivotTable Field List

The PivotTable Field List allows you play with your data really quickly. As you can see in

the ‘Choose fields to add to report:’ box, the column headers from Table 1 are visible and

ready to use.

Down below are the boxes Report Filter, Column Labels, Row Labels, and Values.

Report Filter gives you the opportunity to filter specific data. For example, if you clicked

and dragged the ‘Supervisor’ field from above into the Report Filter box, the worksheet

will automatically populate with cells that give you the option to filter data. You should

see the following:

If you click on the down arrow next to Supervisor (All), this pop-up will appear:


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If you click on ‘Select Multiple Items’ you will be able to filter specific information. For example if you only

wanted to see data from Kanye West, then the PivotTable will only show data from Kanye West. Let’s assume

that you only want to receive data from Kanye West.

In the PivotTable Field List, drag the ‘Rep’ field into the Row Labels box. The worksheet should look like this:

In the worksheet you can only see the reps that Kanye West supervises. Now, what if you want to see how well

the reps performed. Click and drag the ‘Score’ field from above into the Values box. Your field should look like

this:


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When you drag a ‘field’ into the values box, and if it’s a ‘field’ that only contains numeric, the default setting is

SUM. As you can see it shows “Sum of Score”. To change that to a value that you can use, you will change SUM

into AVERAGE, and change the number into a percentage. What you have to do is click on hover the cursor over

the down arrow next to “Sum of Score” and click once.

Then select Value Field Settings.

Within Value Field Settings, you will have a number of options to play with. You can change the name of the

column, you can change the formula that will recalculate the numbers to what you need, and then you can

finally update the format how the numbers will be presented.


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So what you are going to do is change the name of the column to ‘QCM Average’, select ‘Average’ under the

Summarize value field by box, and also click on the Number Format button. When you click on the ‘Number

Format’ button you will see a number of options on the left sidebar. Scroll the cursor to ‘Percentage’ and click,

and then click on the OK button below.


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Click the OK button in the Value Field Settings box. Then you should see the following information in the

worksheet:

From the information in the PivotTable you can see that Tyler the Creator has the highest QCM Average, and as

for Kanye West, his group averages about 83%.


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Sorting and Filtering PivotTable Data

Now that you have formatted how the numbers will be presented, bring Sean Carter’s data back into the

PivotTable. Once again, you are going to click on the filter button located next to Kanye West, and then click on

the box next to Sean Carter, and then click on the OK button.

Your PivotTable should now look like this:

The next thing that you are going to do is sort the data in an order from largest to smallest. To do that you are

going to use filters once more. First, click on any cell in the PivotTable. Then, to access the filter, all you have to

do is scroll back to the PivotTable ribbon, click on Options (if it’s not already selected) and then click on ‘Sort’.


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When you click ‘Sort’, a pop-up window titled Sort by Value will give you an option to choose largest to smallest.

Click on the radial button, and then click on the OK button.

Your results should now look this:

The PivotTable should show Iggy Azalea on top with 92.75% and Kendrick Lamar at the bottom with 80%. For

future reference, the options to sort can become a little more complex. For the purposes of this tutorial, you will

focus on straightforward tasks.


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Formatting PivotTables

You can change how the PivotTable looks—particularly the colour of the PivotTable. Change the PivotTable from

basic blue, to purple with darker accents. To change the colour, click on any cell located in the PivotTable and

then scroll over to Design.

You have the option to change the PivotTable Style. All you have to do is click the down arrow with the line over

top next to all the PivotTable Style options to see all the selections that you have. You should see the following:


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Select the dark purple option under the ‘Dark’ header. Your PivotTable should now look like this:


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Applying Conditional Formats to PivotTables

Suppose you wanted to change how the numbers were presented so that you could quickly identify who was

doing well, and who wasn’t. One way of achieving this is by conditionally formatting the numbers. For example if

you wanted to highlight the numbers that were the best, you can make those numbers green, and make those

numbers that were the worst in red.

You can do this really quickly.

Hover and then click on the top percentage (B4) in QCM Average column and drag the cursor over to the cell

with the bottom percentage. Then click on Home in the Menu Bar. It should now look like this:

Now, click on the Conditional Formatting button.


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When you click on Conditional Formatting, you will see the following options:

Scroll over to ‘Color Scales’ and select the first option located immediately to the right next to ‘Color Scales’.

The PivotTable should look like this (Please note: I had to change the font colour from gray to black for better

visibility):


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It should be even clearer that Iggy Azalea is performing the best, while Kendrick Lamar requires assistance. The

beauty of Conditional Formatting is that it automatically formats the colour based upon changes to the record.

For example if Iggy Azalea’s average declined, the colour would change as well. It would begin to look redder.

Conditional formatting helps analysts quickly identify figures. It’s a tool that will help break up monotony of

plain white cells.


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Creating Pivot Charts

Pivot Charts are other tools at your disposal for displaying data. There are numerous options to select from. The

chart you eventually select should be easily interpreted by anyone. Always remember:

Simpler the better

So you are going to use a simple column chart to show how easy it is to apply a chart after you have built your PivotTable. First, click on any cell in the PivotTable, and then click on Options in the Menu Bar.

Then click on the PivotChart button:

When you click on PivotChart, the ‘Insert Chart’ pop-up window will appear showing numerous options. To

display the PivotTable, I recommend using the column chart. Despite the number of charts to select from, other

charts may make it difficult for you to analyze your data.


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As soon you select ‘Column’ in the left sidebar, and the first column icon on the top-left, click on the OK button.

Once you do, the following column chart will appear. As you can see, it easier to grasp that Iggy Azalea is the top

rep in QCM average, and that Kendrick Lamar has some catching up to do.

If you are curious about the other charts, retrace the steps, and try the other charts. See what works for you the

best.


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Summary So, you have gone through creating a PivotTable by converting a table of data into a table Excel can read and

manipulate, and showed you how you can click and drag fields into the Field List so that you can play with your

data. You have also gone through how to select styles; update number formats, and closed off with creating

charts.

Now that you have better idea about how PivotTables operate, it is now time to practice what you have learned

with your own data, and discover how easy and accurate PivotTables can be.

Thank you for participating.

Documents

Introduction to PivotTables