Chapter 35: Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables
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FIGURE 35.2The pivot table, after making a few changes.
Grouping Pivot Table Items
One of the most useful features of a pivot table is the ability to combine items into groups. You can
group items that appear as Row Labels or Column Labels. Excel offers two ways to group items:l Manually: After creating the pivot table, select the items to be grouped and then choose
PivotTable Tools ➪ Options ➪ Group ➪ Group Selection. Or, you can right-click and
choose Group from the shortcut menu.l (^) Automatically: If the items are numeric (or dates), use the Grouping dialog box to specify
how you would like to group the items. Select any item in the Row Labels or Column
Labels and then choose PivotTable Tools ➪ Options ➪ Group ➪ Group Selection. Or,
you can right-click and choose Group from the shortcut menu. In either case, Excel dis-
plays its Grouping dialog box.
A manual grouping example
Figure 35.3 shows the pivot table example from the previous sections, with two groups created
from the Row Labels. To create the first group, I held the Ctrl key while I selected Arizona,
California, and Washington. Then I right-clicked and chose Group from the shortcut menu. Excel
created a second group automatically. Then I replaced the default group names (Group 1 and
Group 2) with more meaningful names (Western Region and Eastern Region).You can create any number of groups, and even create groups of groups.Excel provides a number of options for displaying a pivot table, and you may want to experiment
with these options when you use groups. These commands are on the PivotTable Tools ➪ Design
tab of the Ribbon. There are no rules for choosing a particular option. The key is to try a few and
see which makes your pivot table look the best. In addition, try various PivotTable Styles, with
options for banded rows or banded columns. Often, the style that you choose can greatly enhance
readability.