This is the second of two posts I have prepared that introduce two new features to be found in Excel 2010. The first post was on the new feature Sparklines. This post concerns the Pivot Table Slicer function.
What the slicer does is to provide a very easy to use and highly volatile and dynamic filtering system for Pivot Tables. The screenshots below show what happens when you use the slicer.
To start the slicer, create a Pivot Table and click on that table to open up the Pivot Table menu. Then select Options then the Slicer menu and Insert Slicer.
When the slicer is open you are then free to choose which data you want to slice: essentially every heading in your Pivot Table. So far I have limited myself to two or three variables: for three headings this gives us variable 1 AND variable two AND variable three filtering capability.
In the example you can see below I have prepared a Pivot Table of a 2,500 company database and have asked Excel 2010 to slice the industry the companies are in. Initially, I filtered nothing and all data are shown. Then I filtered all industry names beginning only with the letters A and B and you can see the results.
The more variables you filter, the fewer the results will appear: all to do with probabilities when you think about it!
The slicer will be a fantastic application for anyone looking for serious drill down capabilities that reveal deep seated relationships hidden within data sets.
Here are the screenshots:
If you want to see the full versions of these graphics, just write to me at info@excelmaster.co.uk saying you want these slicer graphics and they will be yours!
Duncan Williamson
Excel with Excel Master 