When you create a pivot table in Excel 2007, a default PivotTable style is automatically applied to a pivot table. For example, in the screen shot below, the pivot table uses the Pivot Style Light 16. Remove the Pivot Table Style In some workbooks, you might prefer to have a pivot table with no fill [...]

Even though a pivot table is automatically formatted when you create it, you can add your own formatting later. For example, in the pivot table shown below, I’ve added colour to the subtotal rows, and made column B narrow. However, some of that pivot table formatting might be lost if you refresh the pivot table [...]

In Excel 2003, you could drag fields from the PivotTable Field List onto the pivot table layout on the worksheet. In Excel 2007, you can only move the fields to the areas in the PivotTable Field List. In the screen shot below, if you try to drag the Promo field onto the pivot table, the [...]

Occasionally, you might need to change a column heading in the pivot table’s source data. For example, you could change a column heading from Qty to Quantity, to make it easier to understand. However, when you refresh the pivot table after making the changes, the renamed field will disappear from the pivot table layout. In [...]

Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010 is a data analysis add-in for Excel 2010, and is part of the Office 2010 Beta. You can test PowerPivot in the hands-on Virtual Lab, or in the Office 2010 Beta, if you’ve downloaded that. That’s where I tested PowerPivot last weekend, and described the experience in my Contextures blog [...]