Master Visually®: Excel® 2007

Chapter 24. Summarizing Data with PivotTables and PivotCharts

Understanding PivotTables

A PivotTable provides an easy way to summarize information stored in a range, a table, or an external data source. Using a PivotTable helps you present endless rows and columns of numbers in a variety of meaningful ways.

Suppose your worksheet contains sales information by day for various types of sales made by a cable service provider. The worksheet tracks the date of the sale, the amount, the type of service, whether the sale was made by Customer Service or direct marketing, the branch that made the sale, and the type of customer — new or existing — who made the purchase. Just viewing the worksheet in its native form would not help you analyze any of the information. ...