If you're interested in learning how to use Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010, there's a special price today on the ebook version of Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning, by Mark Russo and Alberto Ferrari. Here's the tweet that announced the special price:

#Ebook Deal of the Day: Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010 - $14.99 (Save 46%) Code DDPVT http://oreil.ly/ajyUmF

The link in that tweet takes you to the O'Reilly page, where it shows the full price. Just click the "Add to Cart" button for the Ebook version, and enter the special code (DDPVT).

Paperback Version

I looked at this book on Amazon yesterday, and was going to buy the paperback version, but maybe I'll go for the ebook instead.

If you prefer paperbacks, here's the link to the Amazon page for Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010. It's priced at $23.09, which is pretty good, and you'd need to add another item to get to the $25 free shipping minimum.

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In some workbooks, you might want to allow users to make changes to a pivot table, but you need to protect formulas or data in other areas of the worksheet.

If you protect the worksheet and enable pivot table use, users will be able to modify the pivot table, but won’t have access to other locked parts of the worksheet.

Prepare the Worksheet

The first step is to unlock cells where changes can be made. Then, turn on the worksheet protection.

1. Select any cells in which users are allowed to make changes. In this example, users can make changes to cell E2.
2. On the Ribbon, click the Home tab.
3. In the Cells group, click Format. If the Lock Cell command is enabled, click Lock Cell to unlock the selected cell.

Protect the Worksheet

Next, protect the worksheet:

1. On the Ribbon, click the Review tab, and in the Changes section, click Protect Sheet.
2. If desired, enter a password.
3. Add a check mark to Use PivotTable reports, and check any other items you want enabled on the protected worksheet.
4. Click OK and confirm the password, if you entered one.

Test the Worksheet

Because the worksheet is protected, and Use PivotTable Reports was selected, users will be able to make changes to the pivot table. For example, they will be able to move fields, add fields, and use the drop-down lists.

However, some pivot table features won’t be available while the worksheet is protected, including:

• Refresh
• Group and Ungroup
• Report Layout
• Calculated Field

Other pivot tables, based on the same Excel Table as the pivot tables on a protected sheet, will have some features disabled, such as Refresh.

Tip: To refresh a pivot table on a protected sheet, temporarily unprotect the worksheet, refresh the pivot table, and then protect the sheet.

Watch the Video

In this short video, you can see the step by step instructions for preparing and protecting the worksheet.

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For more information on Pivot Tables, please visit Pivot Table Topics index on the Contextures Website.

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If your pivot table spans two or more printed pages, the page, row and column headings might only print on the first page. You can set an option for the pivot table to make the page, row, and column headings appear on every sheet when you print the pivot table. This will make it easier for readers to understand the report, without flipping back to the first page to see the headings.

Before you turn on this option, clear any entries for row and column titles on the worksheet. If either of these boxes contains an entry, the Set print titles option won’t be applied.

1. On the Excel Worksheet menu, choose File | Page Setup.
2. On the Sheet tab, under Print titles, clear the Rows to repeat at top and Columns to repeat at left boxes.
3. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

Next, you’ll turn on the Print Titles option. Note that only one pivot table per worksheet can have the Set print titles option selected.    

1. Right-click a cell in the pivot table, and choose Table Options.
2. Add a checkmark to Set print titles.
3. Click OK to close the PivotTable Options dialog box.

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Table Topics on my Contextures web site.

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To remove a pivot table from an Excel workbook, you can delete the worksheet that the pivot table is one.

Occasionally, you might want to remove a pivot table, but you can’t just delete the worksheet because it contains other data. To remove a pivot table, and leave the other items on the sheet untouched, you can clear the cells.

Clear the pivot table cells

1. Select a cell in the pivot table

2. On the menu bar, click Edit|Clear|All.

3. On the PivotTable toolbar, click PivotTable|Select|Entire Table

This will remove the pivot table, and all its formatting, from the worksheet.

Note: After deleting the pivot table, you might temporarily see drop down arrows where the pivot fields were located, but these should disappear when you activate another cell.

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Table Topics on my Contextures web site.

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In Excel 2002, and later versions, when you type an equal sign, then click on a cell in a pivot table, you may see a GETPIVOTDATA formula, instead of a cell reference. In this short video, learn how to turn this feature off.

For written instructions, please see Turn Off GetPivotData Formulas for Excel Pivot Tables.

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Table Topics on my Contextures web site.

Usually, when you add a field to the Values area in a pivot table, it automatically uses the Sum function. Sometimes though, a field automatically uses the Count function. You might not understand why different functions are used for two fields that contain similar data.

• If there are blank cells, or non-numeric data in the field, the Count function is used as a default.
• For fields that contain all numeric data, the Sum function is the default.

You can’t set a default summary function in a pivot table. However, after the field has been added to the Values area, you can change its summary function:

1. Right-click a cell in the field that you want to change, and choose Field Settings.
2. In the Summarize by list, select one of the functions.
3. Click OK to close the PivotTable Field dialog box.

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Table Topics on my Contextures web site.

When you create a pivot table in Excel 2007, a PivotTable Style is automatically applied. You always select a different PivotTable Style, so you'd like to change the default PivotTable Style, to save time when you create new pivot tables.

Follow these steps to change the default PivotTable Style:

1. Select a cell in the pivot table.
2. On the Ribbon, under the PivotTable Tools tab, click the Design tab.
3. In the PivotTable Style gallery, right-click on the style that you want to set as the default.
4. In the context menu, click on Set As Default.

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For more information on pivot tables, see the Pivot Table Topics on my Contextures web site.