Microsoft Excel 2007 Pivot Table Beginners Guide

“Pivot Tables and You!” OR “I Hate Counting!”

PivotTables, an incredibly useful tool in Excel, eliminate the mind numbing act of counting data by hand. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost my place, double counted, messed up tally marks, and experienced any other number of frustrations that can occur when counting manually. The PivotTable scenarios that follow will save you not only innumerable hours of your time, but also the headache of manually counting large amounts of information.

While PivotTables can count, average, and sum in many complex ways, we will start with simple, practical usage guides that address the reasons why we actually use PivotTables on the job. To begin, we will outline PivotTable basics and discuss dealing with password protected worksheets. We will end with a Voluntary Life election PivotTable example that, while a bit more complex, can make what would be a painstaking task into mere child’s play!

Example 1 – Simple Pivot Tables and Dealing with a Locked Spreadsheet

Double click the following Excel example workbook. This workbook will only be used for Example 1. In this example, we will learn how to let the Pivot Table count dental enrollment for you. If you have already read the detailed example, a quick guide is located at the end of this section.

Pivot Tables - Example 1.xls

Many times agents will fill out our enrollment spreadsheet. Unfortunately, our spreadsheet is locked and password protected. In the below picture note that the “PivotTable” button in the upper left is grayed out, meaning we cannot insert a PivotTable. This is due to the password protection in the enrollment spreadsheet. Note that the “PivotTable” button is located in the “Insert” tab which is located in the upper most menu bar.

There is an easy way around the password protection, however. Click the “Insert New Sheet” button as shown in the picture below (This button, as well as all other tabs, is at the bottom of the screen). When we insert a new sheet, the new sheet will not have password protection. Since the new sheet is not protected, we will be able to run a PivotTable on any data that is located on the new sheet.

Click back to the “Initial Dental & Vision Only” tab and select cells O10 through O67. Right click anywhere in the selection and press “Copy.” If you have copied the selection correctly, cells O10 through O67 will have a blinking, dotted border as shown in the picture below.

Now click on the “Sheet 1” tab so we can copy our enrollment data into a sheet that has no password protection. You may paste the enrollment data anywhere in “Sheet 1” as long as there is at least one empty cell above the pasted selection. We will explain why the empty cell is needed later in this example. In the below picture we have chosen to paste the enrollment data in Cell A2 in “Sheet 1.” Right click where you want to paste, and select “Paste Special” as shown below. In the “Paste Special” pop-up box, click “Values” then click “OK.”

You may be wondering why we clicked “Paste Special” then selected “Values.” Excel can have formulas hidden in cells that simply display text or numbers. When we try to paste cells that have formulas, we will often get a result that we didn’t expect or didn’t want. When we “Paste Special” then “Values” we are ensuring that we are only pasting what we see (and not any formulas we may not see!).

After you have done the pasted the values, we will need to write a column heading directly above the enrollment data we pasted in “Sheet 1.” In the picture to the right, we wrote “Dental Enrollment” in Cell A1. We do this because the PivotTable needs to know what we are sorting. It does not matter what the column heading is named – it simply needs to be there.

After you have written a column heading, select the heading and drag down to the last piece of enrollment data you have. In this example, the data is in Cell A1 to A55. Once you have selected the data, click the “PivotTable” button on the “Insert” menu located at the top of the screen as shown below. Be sure to click on the area of the button with the picture – not the area of the button with the drop down arrow! A “Create PivotTable” pop-up box will display. Simply make sure “New Worksheet” is selected, then click “OK”!

Once you have clicked “OK,” you will see a blank chart in the new worksheet (in this example, it is named “Sheet 2” since “Sheet 1” is already taken). To the right of the screen you will also see the “PivotTable Field List” as shown below. Here you will see “Dental Enrollment,” the column header we wrote before! At the bottom of the PivotTable Field List, boxes for “Report Filter,” “Column Labels,” “Row Labels,” and “Values” are shown – we will explain what to do with all this shortly. If you hover your cursor anywhere over “Dental Enrollment” at the top of the PivotTable Field List, it will be encased in an orange bar, indicating that your cursor is in the correct position to drag the field title.

When it is orange, left click and hold, then drag “Dental Enrollment” down to “Row Labels,” and release the left mouse button once your cursor is inside the white box below “Row Labels.” Once you have done that, hover over “Dental Enrollment” at the top of the PivotTable Field List so it is orange again. Left click and hold, then drag it down to “Values.” Release the left mouse button once your cursor is inside the white box below “Values.” If you have done it correctly, your screen will look like the below picture.

Now you should see that the blank chart is now all filled in! We can see that there are 24 Employee Only, 10 Employee Spouse, 1 Employee Child(ren), and 3 Employee Family Be sure the words in A3 say “Count of…”, though. If they do not, simply double click in the cell, then choose the “Count” option in the pop-up box (Unless, of course, you want something else, like an average or a sum!).

Granted, it isn’t very difficult to count the enrollment of 38 people, but only imagine if it was a 100 person group! Not only does it take very little time, but you also know the computer has counted right!

Example 1: Quick Guide

1. If password protected, copy the data you want to count, and paste it on a new sheet. 2. Write a column heading, such as “Dental Enrollment,” directly above the pasted data. 3. Select the heading and all the data below. 4. Click “PivotTable” in the “Insert” menu. 5. Drag down your column heading to “Row Labels,” then drag it down to “Values.” 6. Congratulations! You’ve counted without counting!

Example 2 – Pivot Tables and Dealing with Excess Information

Double click the following Excel example workbook. This workbook will only be used for Example 2. In this example, we will learn how to let the Pivot Table count dental enrollment for you when you have unnecessary data. If you have already read the detailed example, a quick guide is located at the end of this section.


Agents often will write dental information for not only the member, but also each of their enrolled dependents. While this is technically how the directions in our enrollment spreadsheet instruct agents to complete the spreadsheet, it makes using a PivotTable a bit more complex. Since the PivotTable will count all the values in a column, the enrollment would be counted for each enrolled member and dependent. For a family of four, the “DF” value would be counted 4 separate times!

First, open up the Example 2 Excel file, and make sure you are in the “Initial Dental & Vision Only” tab. In this example, you see that Dental Election is filled out for members and dependents. Before we decide how to deal with the excess information, select all the data from Cell A10 to Cell O65 and copy it. Create a new sheet, and Paste Special – Values (Remember: Keep at least one row above the pasted data empty). For the purpose of the following instructions, let’s paste our data in Cell A2 of the new sheet.

Now that our data is in a worksheet without password protection, we can delete some unnecessary information. We know from the previous example that if we have the enrollment information for the employees only, we can count the proper enrollment. All we want, then, are the rows that have employee (not dependent!) information. The MemberIDs are a perfect tool to differentiate EE’s from dependents since all EE’s will have a “00” value in the column that corresponds to MemberID.

First, delete columns B through N. To do this click on the “B” then, while holding the “Shift” key, click on “N.” This will select all columns starting with B and ending with N. Now you can right click anywhere in the selection and press “Delete.” Once you have done this, write “Member Status” in Cell A1 and “Dental Election” in Cell B1.

Select all the data in columns A and B, including the column headings, then click the “Data” tab on the topmost menu. Click the “Filter” button, then the “Sort A to Z” button as shown below to sort your data alphabetically.

We can see now that the “00”s (i.e. the members) are all at the top of the list. Scroll down and delete the entries that are not “00” in addition to the dental elections in row B. In this example, the unnecessary entries are in row 40 through row 57.

Since we have isolated all the employees, we can now run a PivotTable the same way we did in Example 1. As a quick reminder, select all of the dental elections and the column heading, “Dental Election,” in row B. Click the “PivotTable” button in the “Insert” tab, then drag down “Dental Election” to the “Row Labels” and “Values” section of the “PivotTable Field List.” You should see that you have the same enrollment count that you got in Example 1! Congratulations -- you’ve conquered excess data!


1. If password protected, copy data you want to count as well as the MemberID data, and paste it on a new sheet.

2. Delete the information that is not needed for sorting or counting. 3. Write column headings, such as “Dental Enrollment” and “Member Status,” in the cells directly

above the enrollment and MemberID data. 4. Select the heading and all the data below. 5. Sort the data to group the information you need for the PivotTable by clicking the “Filter” and

“Sort A to Z” buttons on the “Data” tab. 6. Delete the excess information not needed for counting, then select the remaining enrollment

data (and column heading). 7. Click “PivotTable” in the “Insert” menu. 8. Drag down your column heading to “Row Labels,” then drag it down to “Values.” 9. Congratulations! You’ve counted without counting!

Example 3 – Advanced Pivot Tables and Making Life Easier

Double click the following Excel example workbook. This workbook will only be used for Example 3. In this example, we will learn how use pivot tables to count multiple sets of information at one time. If you have already read the detailed example, a quick guide is located at the end of this section.


Spreadsheets with Voluntary Life elections can seem very daunting, especially when it includes dependent Voluntary Life. The mere thought of counting all those elections and separating them by Employee, Spouse, and Child is enough to make your head spin! In this example, we will show how using the “Column Labels” section of the “PivotTable Field List” can turn daunting task into a walk in the park.

First open the Example 3 spreadsheet above. You’ll see in columns A and B, data that shows election amounts and whether each election is for the employee, spouse, or child. We can easily count the total election dollar amounts or count the elections for each family member using PivotTables!

You may be thinking, “Can’t we just sort the data as we did in Example 1, then create separate PivotTables for the employee, spouse, and child?” The answer is, “Yes, we can!” However, if we just add one more step to our PivotTable process, we can have to PivotTable do all that work for us!

First select all of the data including the column headings. In this example, the data located in Cell A1 through Cell B101 (Remember: Select all data from both columns!). Next, click the “PivotTable” button on the “Input” tab. Like the below picture, your “PivotTable Field List” will have two headings – “Family Status” and “Vol Life Election.”

“Two headings?! What in the world do I do with this?” Well, the most important piece of information to us is the voluntary life election amounts. This is the information that we will want to count or sum. Since this is the most important, we will handle the “Vol Life Election” like we did with “Dental Election[s]” from the previous two examples. Simply drag the “Vol Life Election” heading down to the “Row Labels” and “Values” section. If you have followed the steps, your PivotTable will look like the below picture. We see that the PivotTable is filled in, but with just one more step, we can make this table much more useful.

We already have the sums of all the elections, but we really want it broken out by family member – this is where the “Column Labels” portion of the “PivotTable Field List” comes in to play. When using PivotTables with multiple fields (in this example “Family Status” and “Vol Life Election”), we put the criteria we want to reported separated by in the “Column Labels” section of the “PivotTable Field List” located on the right of the screen. Since we want our report separated by family member, drag “Family Status” down into the “Column Labels” section of the “PivotTable Field List” as shown below.

Your PivotTable should now look like the below picture. While, admittedly, it does look a bit busy, we have a lot of good data already categorized for us. For example, we see that for election amounts of $15,000; $25,000; and $30,000; none of the employee’s or their children have elected those specific amounts – only spouses have elected for those volume amounts. Take a moment to study the below picture and your own PivotTable to see what information we now have at our fingertips.

While sums are very useful, often we simply want a count of the election volumes. Double click on “Sum of Vol Life Election” in the upper left hand corner of your PivotTable (In this example, it is located in Cell A3), and you will see the “Value Field Settings” pop-up box as shown below. Left click “Count,” then click “OK.”

Now that the PivotTable shows counts rather than sums, we can easily tell the specific number of EEs, spouses, and children that have elected voluntary life – not only that, but we also know the specific number of people who have elected for each individual volume amount! Take a moment to study the below picture and your own PivotTable to see what information we now have at our fingertips.

Hopefully, you now see how PivotTables can not only save you time, but also ensure accuracy. If by the end of this guide, you feel like PivotTables are taking you a lot of time, just keep using them! The more comfortable you become with PivotTables, the easier they can make your life! If that wasn’t enough, PivotTables can do any number of complex calculations that we haven’t even mentioned here, so keep at it and soon you too can count without counting!


1. Select all of your voluntary life data (both columns!) 2. Click the “PivotTable” button in the “Insert” tab. 3. In the “PivotTable Field List,” drag down “Vol Life Election” to the “Row Labels” and “Column

Labels” sections. 4. In the “PivotTable Field List,” drag down “Family Status” to the “Column Labels” section. (This is

the criteria we want to separate our PivotTable by. 5. Change “Sum of Vol Life Election” to whatever mathematical operation you want (Sum, Count,

Average, etc) 6. Congratulations! You’ve counted (or averaged, or summed) without counting!

See next page for a list of all Quick Guides and Examples

“Quick Guide” Quick Guide



1. If password protected, copy the data you want to count, and paste it on a new sheet. 2. Write a column heading, such as “Dental Enrollment,” directly above the pasted data. 3. Select the heading and all the data below. 4. Click “PivotTable” in the “Insert” menu. 5. Drag down your column heading to “Row Labels,” then drag it down to “Values.” 6. Congratulations! You’ve counted without counting!



1. If password protected, copy data you want to count as well as the MemberID data, and paste it on a new sheet. 2. Delete the information that is not needed for sorting or counting. 3. Write column headings, such as “Dental Enrollment” and “Member Status,” in the cells directly above the enrollment

and MemberID data. 4. Select the heading and all the data below. 5. Sort the data to group the information you need for the PivotTable by clicking the “Filter” and “Sort A to Z” buttons

on the “Data” tab. 6. Delete the excess information not needed for counting, and then select the remaining enrollment data (and column

heading). 7. Click “PivotTable” in the “Insert” menu. 8. Drag down your column heading to “Row Labels,” then drag it down to “Values.” 9. Congratulations! You’ve counted without counting!



1. Select all of your voluntary life data (both columns!) 2. Click the “PivotTable” button in the “Insert” tab. 3. In the “PivotTable Field List,” drag down “Vol Life Election” to the “Row Labels” and “Column Labels” sections. 4. In the “PivotTable Field List,” drag down “Family Status” to the “Column Labels” section. (This is the criteria we want

to separate our PivotTable by) 5. Change “Sum of Vol Life Election” to whatever mathematical operation you want (Sum, Count, Average, etc). 6. Congratulations! You’ve counted (or averaged, or summed) without counting!

Documents

Microsoft Excel 2007 Pivot Table Beginners Guide