Become a savvy Microsoft Excel user. Pivot tables are a great feature in Excel that help you organize and analyze data, but not many Excel users know how to use pivot tables. Pivot Table Data Crunching offers a comprehensive review of all the functionalities of Pivot Tables from author Bill Jelen, otherwise known as Mr. Excel from www.mrexcel.com, and Michael Alexander, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer. The authors' practical scenarios and real-world advice demonstrate the benefits of Pivot Tables and how to avoid the common pitfalls of every day data crunching. Each solution presented in the book can be accomplished with resources available in the Excel interface, making Pivot Table Data Crunching a beneficial resource for all levels of Excel users.
All you Need to Know to Support Pivot Tables The hardest aspect of supporting Excel users is finding answers for what Pivot Table users need to know for their creations. Well, this is the best and most essential book you could possibly get. I knew it was the most ideal when the trainers in the area I work wanted to use this book, and amalgamate material, well no way. This, coupled together with GUERILLA DATA ANALYSIS and many other Bill Jelen "Master Class" works make for the ideal source material; I can always say, if I don't know it, I can find it in one of the Bill Jelen/Mr Excel books. For First time Pivot Table users who want to make the best of Office 2007 and its power, this book is the first and last stop. Your Work will be great, and your Web files will never be better.
Thorough, comprehensive, and well done Weighing in a just under a pound, this book is worth it's weight in gold (currently trading at around $800 an ounce). Those new to pivot tables and those wanting a comprehensive understanding of the power of PTs (and the logic behind them) would do well to buy this book. Laid out in 11 chapters (the 12th is devoted to writing VB code, which is really an ancillary topic) it takes you from scratch: from an introduction to the origin of PTs to creating charts from your PTs to customizing PTs with macros.
Each chapter has a case study (all downloadable with ease from the website; no CD with this book), which nicely gives you a hands-on application of what you've just read. I found them all very useful and easy to use.
Those who want a basic mastery of PTs can read just the first seven chapers (about 125 pages), which took me 30 hours (including downloading the necessary work files from the book's website). Finishing to chapter eleven takes another 12 hours. Chapter 12 is another matter in itself: it really requires some understanding of code writing to get through it and my only quibble with the book is this: it plunges into VB code and, if you have no background in code, you'll get lost immediately and never find your way. It took me 12 hours to get through the chapter (I have a background in SQL) and the downloadable files don't help much here as they're all driven by pre-written macros.
If you want to advance your way up the career ladder with more sophisticated use of Excel, this is the place to start.
Where's the DATA? I just got this book recently and started it today. It seems well written. As soon as I started, I asked "Doesn't this come with a CD?" Apparently not. Then the data to work with must be online. Right? I can't find it. How the heck am I supposed to learn this stuff without seeing the effects of my data entry, mouse clicks, errors, etc? Will Amazon take this back after I've started reading it? If there really are worksheets somewhere to work on, somebody please tell me, else I stick with 2 stars which seems kind of generous.
Pivot tables - to know them is to love them Accountants, sales managers, and everybody who uses Excel for data analysis: Listen up! Learn to use pivot tables, you just gotta!
You will be able to slice, dice, and mince your data in a few minutes instead of hours. Forget fiddling around with sorting, subtotaling, linking cells, and the general time-consuming stuff that goes into report generation.
This book is a good, step-by-step guide to pivot tables. You'll never go back to the old way.
Not as complete as I would have expected I am pretty well acquainted with Excel but the Pivot tables are probably THE MOST unexplained function in the prgm. The main problem is a thorough explanation as to the functioning of the 3 areas of the reports and what they actually report. Where to drop what and why without the insidious examples without being able to actually SEE the main worksheet to see where the data is coming from. I have tried 3 different books on Pivot Tables and each one gives some but not all, I usually have to refer to all 3 to finally get an answer. Still, even with all three, trial and error has become the norm.
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