Excel 2013 For Dummies
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In Excel 2013, perhaps the most important filter buttons in a pivot table are the ones added to the field(s) designated as the pivot table FILTERS. By selecting a particular option on the drop-down lists attached to one of these filter buttons, only the summary data for that subset you select displays in the pivot table.

For example, in the sample pivot table that uses the Gender field from the Employee Data list as the Report Filter field, you can display the sum of just the men’s or women’s salaries by department and location in the body of the pivot table doing either of the following:

  • Click the Gender field’s filter button and then click M on the drop-down list before you click OK to see only the totals of the men’s salaries by department.

  • Click the Gender field’s filter button and then click F on the drop-down list before you click OK to see only the totals of the women’s salaries by department.

When you later want to redisplay the summary of the salaries for all the employees, you then re-select the (All) option on the Gender field’s drop-down filter list before you click OK.

When you filter the Gender Report Filter field in this manner, Excel then displays M or F in the Gender Report Filter field instead of the default (All). The program also replaces the standard drop-down button with a cone-shaped filter icon, indicating that the field is filtered and showing only some of the values in the data source.

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About the book author:

Greg Harvey, PhD, is President of Mind Over Media, an online media company. He has written all editions of Excel For Dummies, Excel All-in-One For Dummies, and Excel Workbook For Dummies. Greg is an experienced educator with a wide variety of interests.

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