How to Create Pivot Tables in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Tory walks through six steps to build a PivotTable in Excel, from preparing your data to dragging fields into Rows and Values. You can change how values calculate: sum, average, min, or max. Works the same on Mac and PC.
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Hey everybody. Tory here. Welcome back to the channel. Today we're going to talk about six ways to create Excel pivot tables, what they are and why they're an integral part of taking your business from here to here. Knowing how to organize data and how best to use pivot tables can be very, very confusing. But don't worry, we'll make it super easy so that you can know how to get the best out of using Excel. To better follow along, we highly Recommend downloading the 10 free excel templates pack right now by clicking the link down in the description. Whether Excel is new for you or you know Excel in and out, these templates will help you organize and present your data. Okay, so pivot tables, we know them, we love them. And if you don't know them, allow me to reintroduce you. A pivot table collects a large amount of data and helps you look for trends. The reason they're called pivot tables is because you can pivot the data super easily so you can look at it from a different angle or look for a different trend. Pivot tables are used for tons of different reasons, from comparing sales numbers of different products to filling in empty cells with default data. No matter the situation, pivot tables have your back. So how do you make one of these? Well, let's get right into our first step. Step one is to enter all data into a range of rows and columns. This is the foundation that you can build your pivot table on. How you organize these rows and columns should help you see the data that you're entering. For example, if I wanted to see how my blog posts were doing, I might enter all the titles in one row, the URLs in another, and the clicks in the left. Moving into step number two, Sort all your data by attribute. Excel is great not just for seeing your data, but for organizing and manipulating it. Click on the Data tab and hit the sort icon underneath. From here, you can sort any column you want in any order. For example, I could select my clicks category and then hit okay, you can order from highest to lowest or lowest to highest. Okay, so before we get into our third step, I can sense some of you being like, Tori, you are just doing a great bang up job explaining this right now, but I would love to dive even deeper into Excel. Well, lucky for you, we happen to be offering a free course that does just that. Our Excel for Marketers Academy course will go into great detail on how to use Excel to your advantage. You'll get a chance to explore how to work with Analyze and visualize data in a simple, slick new way. If interested, check the link down below.
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HubSpot grow better all right, back to the steps we're getting into. Step number three Highlight yourselves Now we can get into the pivot table by highlighting the cells you want to collect. Once highlighted, these cells can be manipulated to display your data. You can either hit Table and select Pivot Table after highlighting the cells you want to look at, or select Pivot Table and manually put in the cells you want to see. You'll then get to choose to either start the pivot table in a new worksheet or keep it all in the one that you're already looking at. You can also take a look at the recommended pivot table next to the pivot table icon for suggestions on preset organizations of rows and columns. Next up is step number four. Drag and Drop Time after you've created the pivot table from step number three, you have a blank pivot table. Now you need to drag and drop a field one of the values you gave when you created the spreadsheet into the row labels area. This helps the pivot table know how to organize the data. For example, if I wanted to look at my blog page views by title, I dragged the title field name down into the rows. That moves us into step number five, setting a values area. Now that you have your rows, you'll need values to set them by. So if I wanted to see all my blog posts by title, the rows are set by titles and I would just drag the view count into the value section. This will let the pivot table know what value to assign each of the rows from the original sheet. And finally, step number six Fine tune your calculations. Values are calculated automatically into pivot tables, but if you're interested in the average, minimum or maximum, you can view that easily. To change how these values are calculated on a Mac, click on the I next to a value, select what kind of calculation you want and hit ok. The pivot table should then update with a brand new value on a PC. Same idea, different steps. Click the small triangle and select Value field setting to make whatever adjustment you want. You can save at any time and use this data for all of your marketing needs. Hey, you made it. That's six steps to creating Pivot tables. When you have time play around with all that pivot tables have to offer, and you should be using this new info to spring your business to the next level again. Don't forget to click the links in the description to get your Excel templates and sign up for an Academy course. Until next time, I'm Tory Adios to filling out from comparing sales numbers. Light, you are not. You are not going to stop my shine. Light. Oh, perfect timing.
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