Pivot Tables: Getting Started

A Pivot Table is Excel's most powerful summarization tool — aggregate by dimension without formulas.

Steps

  1. Select the data range (with headers)
  2. Insert → PivotTable
  3. Drag fields into Rows / Columns / Values / Filters

Common Pitfalls

  • Source changes don't auto-refresh: right-click Refresh, or enable auto-refresh
  • Empty field names error: every column needs a header
  • Numbers count instead of sum: text defaults to Count — switch to Sum

Comparison

Need Pivot Formula
Multi-dim summary Drag Nested SUMIFS
Change dimension Re-drag Rewrite formula

Tools

Convert the summary to a Markdown table for docs? Use the online tool.