OST-ITC8115 - Microsoft Excel - Pivot Tables

Course Description

Maximize your investment in Microsoft Excel by mastering its pivot table features. In this practical hands-on course, you will discover how to use different layout, subtotaling, and filtering options and discover a variety of advanced techniques for pivot tables, including Pivot Charts, Timelines, and Slicers. You will also master data analysis by learning how to quickly and easily summarize your data.

Course Outline

Lesson 01 - Pivot Table Concepts
- In your first lesson, you will develop a solid understanding of the requirements to use pivot tables. This lesson introduces the foundational elements needed to understand and get the most out of pivot tables.
Lesson 02 - Creating a Pivot Table
- Not all data is created equal. In this lesson, you will learn what's required to make sure your data is organized well enough to be used in a pivot table. You will discover a very common issue that occurs when the source data changes and you how to easily eliminate that issue.
Lesson 03 - Pivot Table Analyze and Design Tabs
- Working efficiently with pivot tables requires knowing where to find the proper pivot table feature without searching high and low for it. Most pivot table features reside on one of the two pivot table Ribbon tabs. This lesson introduces the different features that are grouped and what each one provides.
Lesson 04 - Pivot Table Formatting Inside and Out
- Learn to group ordinary pivot table fields, which will create new fields that you can use within the pivot table or as a Slicer. In addition, you'll learn how to expand and collapse fields to help in summarizing the pivot table data. Then learn how to locate data anomalies in large data sets and the proper use of report filters which can assist in any data investigation as well as a great tool for creating multiple reports from a single pivot table report.
Lesson 05 - Pivot Table Options and Field Settings
- Most users may not know that there are certain options and settings that provide little-known but extremely useful features. Most of these features are accessed through the pivot table Ribbon tabs, but some are not. In this lesson, you will learn how to use some of the more obscure settings in the Pivot Table Options and Field Settings dialog boxes.
Lesson 06 - Value Field Settings
- Similar to the Field Settings, the Values section of a pivot table report has unique settings and summarization options. For most people, simply summing or counting the data within the Values section is enough. But once you learn how to use these lesser-known settings, you will go from an average pivot table user to an expert.
Lesson 07 - Grouping Pivot Table Fields
- A pivot table is ideal for analyzing and summarizing data. By default, the table does an excellent job at summarizing the data within the various fields, but there is a way to summarize the data even further. This lesson will show you how to group ordinary pivot table fields, which will create new fields that you can use within the pivot table or as a Slicer. In addition, you will learn how to expand and collapse fields to help in summarizing the pivot table data.
Lesson 08 - Data-Integrity Checks and Report Filters
- A pivot table is a great way to locate data anomalies in large data sets that would otherwise be hard to find scanning through the source table. In addition, the proper use of report filters can assist in any data investigation, as well as providing a great tool to create multiple reports from a single pivot table report. You will learn all about these tools in this lesson.
Lesson 09 - Cloning a Pivot Table and the Wonderful World of Slicers
- Pivot tables are extremely useful and flexible for data analysis and reporting. It's easy to add, remove, or simply move fields to create different-looking reports from the same source data. This lesson focuses on creating different versions of reports and the different techniques needed to do so.
Lesson 10 - Calculated Fields and Items
- Pivot tables are great for analyzing and reporting information, but they're limited in their functionality when your source data is missing needed information. Or, perhaps the information isn't needed in the source data and is only needed for analysis for a short time. This lesson will demonstrate how to use Excel's Calculated Items and Fields feature to create items that are missing from the source data.
Lesson 11 - Working With Slicers and Pivot Charts
- Your pivot table isn't complete without a Slicer and pivot chart. In order to create an effective dashboard, you'll need a pivot table and a pivot chart controlled by multiple Slicers. This lesson focuses on creating and managing Slicers and Pivot Charts.
Lesson 12 - Timelines and Dashboard Development
- In the final lesson, you will learn about the many interactive tools and techniques available to make pivot tables and pivot charts fun to use. Similar to a Slicer, Excel offers a tool called Timelines. Timelines are available when a field available in your pivot table or chart is a date. Within a dashboard, using the Timeline feature can be useful and eye catching to the users.

Notes

This is an asynchronous online course offered through the third party vendor ed2go. This course may be taken on either a PC or Mac. The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online. There are twelve lessons in the course, and two lessons are released each week on Wednesdays and Fridays. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.