PivotTable Fundamentals - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 19

Before you start dropping fields into the various areas, ask yourself two questions: “What am I
measuring?” and “How do I want to see it?” The answers to these questions guide you in determin-
ing which fields go where.

Suppose you want to measure the dollar sales by market. You need to work with the Sales Amount
and Market fields.

The best way to view that data is for the markets to go down the left side of the report and the sales
amount to be calculated next to each market. You need to add the Market field to the Rows area, and
the Sales Amount field to the Values area. Follow these steps to do so:

1. In the field list, select the Market field (see Figure 2-4).

Now that you have regions in your PivotTable, it's time to add the dollar sales.

Figure 2-4: Select the Market field to add it to the field selector list.

Placing a check mark next to any field that is non-numeric (text or date) automatically
places that field into the Rows area of the PivotTable. Placing a check mark next to any
field that is numeric automatically places that field in the Values area of the PivotTable.

Tip

2. In the field list, select the Sales Amount field (see Figure 2-5).