Excel PivotTable Basics (PivotTables Part 1) (Video) (Course Id 2638)

In this presentation author and Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA, introduces you to the power and flexibility of PivotTables—Excel’s most effective tool for summarizing and analyzing large datasets. David walks you through the process of creating PivotTables from data ranges and Excel tables, and explains how to format your source data for best results. You’ll learn how to build and customize PivotTables, add or remove fields, rename headers, apply number formatting, and even switch to a tabular layout. He covers dynamic features like slicers and the Analyze Data tool (for Microsoft 365 users), while also addressing techniques for refreshing, auditing, and filtering PivotTables. Whether you're working with one summary or generating multiple PivotTables, you'll come away with practical strategies for extracting meaning from your data quickly and confidently.

David is the author of “Microsoft Excel 365 for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and has written or co-authored six other books. He demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Excel for Microsoft 365. David draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2021, 2019 or 2016 during the presentation and in his detailed handouts. The handouts include an Excel workbook with most of the examples he uses during his demonstrations.

Excel for Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that receives periodic feature updates. Conversely, perpetually licensed versions have year numbers in their names and do not receive any feature updates.

Course Learning Objectives

• Identify the location of the Field List command within Excel's ribbon menu interface.
• Recall the requirement that enables the Show Report Filter Pages command.
• Demonstrate how moving fields to the Columns area affects the structure of a PivotTable.