This is part two of my introduction to pivot tables. You can have a look at part one here. A new feature in Excel 2007 is called the table. While it is not essential to convert your list to a table, doing so means that you can then work more efficiently with your data when you do convert it to a pivot table.

The advantages of converting your list to a table are as follows:

  1. Your list is instantly formatted (and you can easily change the formatting – as you will see in the video below)
  2. If and when you add further rows/columns to your list, all you have to do is refresh your pivot table and the new data is automatically incorporated. (If you don’t use a table, it means you have to re-select all the data again – which can be very tedious if you have large lists)
  3. If you add a formula to your table, the calculations are automatically copied down – the work is done for you. (handy huh?)

OK, so have a look at the video and see how its done. I’m using a large list which I created using the fake name generator and let’s have a look…I’m going to show you how to convert to a table and then take the first step on creating a pivot table from it. (And if you are wondering how I quickly generated the random salary values – here’s the tutorial)

[flowplayer src=’https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/the-excel-expert/Pivot_table_02.mp4′]

Here is the file to practise on: Pivot Table 02 – PREPARE USING A TABLE