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12 PivotTable Formatting Tips

You are here: Home / Excel PivotTables / 12 PivotTable Formatting Tips
PivotTable Formatting
July 6, 2023 by Mynda Treacy

One of the downsides of PivotTables is they have a very distinctive look. Some might even say they’re ugly.

In this tutorial I’m going to cover my PivotTable formatting tricks that will transform their look and feel.

Pivot Table Before and after formatting

Table of Contents

  • Custom Sort Order
  • Column Labels
  • Inserting Blank Rows
  • Subtotal Position
  • Custom Styles
  • Conditional Formatting
  • Expand/Collapse Buttons
  • Repeating Item Labels
  • Report Layouts
  • Hiding (blank)s
  • Preserving Formatting
  • Default PivotTable Layout

 

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Custom Sort Order

By default, row and column labels are sorted alphabetically. We can use the built in sort options to sort based on a numeric field in ascending or descending order:

Pivot Table custom sort order

Or you can sort based on a custom list via the ‘More Options…’ button:

Pivot Table sort on custom list

However, often it’s quicker to sort by manually dragging the labels into place, or typing the label in the position you want it:

Manual sort in pivot table

Column Labels

By default, the column/row labels for the value fields are prefixed with ‘Sum of’, ‘Average of’ etc., which is often unnecessary, not to mention the helpful ‘Row Labels’ header, as you can see below:

Custom column labels for Pivot Table

You can’t simply type ‘Actual’ in place of ‘Sum of Actual’ because this field name is already taken, however you can add a space in front or after ‘Actual’ to differentiate it. I like to add a space at the front so that I can right-align the column label in keeping with the numbers in the column below:

Add leading space to column label in Pivot Table

While you’re there, you can replace the ‘Row Labels’ header with a space in the cell to override it. Or, if you don’t want the filter drop down or the header, you can turn them both off by deselecting ‘Field Headers’ on the PivotTable Analyze tab:

Customize row header and field headers

Inserting Blank Rows

PivotTables can often look too busy and cramped. We can improve their readability by adding blank rows between each section:

add blank rows to Pivot Table

It immediately looks more like a Profit and Loss report, rather than a PivotTable:

Pivot Table formatting like profit and loss statement

Subtotal Position

By default, subtotals are placed at the top of each section, however this may not always be appropriate. You can easily change the position to the bottom of the group:

Change position of subtotals in Pivot Table

While I’m at it, I’ll also turn off the Grand Total row as it’s not required for this report:

turn off grand total row in pivot table

Custom Styles

It’s coming together but it still has that distinctive PivotTable formatting. We can remove that by creating a custom style that has no formatting.

Duplicate any style by right-clicking on the thumbnail in the style gallery:

Duplicate Pivot Table style

Then click ‘Clear’ for each of the elements in a bold font (the elements not in a bold font don’t have any formatting in that style):

clear bold formatting in Pivot Table style

Once you’ve created your custom style, don’t forget to apply it to your PivotTable by clicking on it in the Style Gallery.

Now that you have a blank canvas, you can select the elements in the PivotTable and apply the formatting you want.

Tip: ensure you select the elements by clicking the left side (see image below) to select them all together, this way the format will be applied to the element, not the cells and if your PivotTable changes shape the format will follow the element:

Select element in Pivot Table style

Conditional Formatting

Adding visual indicators with conditional formatting can help your audience quickly interpret your reports. We can apply conditional formats to PivotTable value areas and have them automatically update when the PivotTable is refreshed by selecting one of the ‘all cells showing’ options:

Conditional formatting rule for Pivot Table

Step by step tutorial on conditional formatting PivotTables here.

Expand/Collapse Buttons

Expand and Collapse buttons enable you to quickly hide and unhide rows in the PivotTable:

Expand and collapse buttons for Pivot Table rows

If you don’t need the Expand/Collapse buttons, you can turn them off on the PivotTable Analyze tab:

turn off expand collapse buttons

Repeating Item Labels

When working with PivotTables in a Tabular layout, you may want to repeat the row labels for the purpose of using them in lookup formulas, or just for aesthetics.

repeating row labels in Pivot Table

There are a few ways you can do this. You can turn it on for all item labels via the Design tab:

turn off repeating row labels in Design tab

Or individually by right clicking on the field you want repeated > Field Settings > Layout & Print tab > Repeat item labels:

turn off repeating row labels in field settings

Report Layouts

By default, PivotTables are created in compact form where row labels are nested, but we can also choose from an Outline layout or Tabular Layout:

choosing report layouts for a pivot table

It’s quick and easy to change the layout via the Design tab:

change report layout for a pivot table

Hiding (blank)s

When you have blank cells in your source data, those blanks get labelled ‘(blank)’ in PivotTable row and column labels:

blank showing in a pivot table

Ideally you should never have blanks in columns that you use in row or column labels, but in the real world that’s not always possible, so the next best thing is to hide the blanks by selecting one of them and pressing the space bar > ENTER.

Formatting blanks in a pivot table

This needs to be done for each field in the PivotTable that contains blanks, but once applied, any new blanks that are added will not display (blank).

Another way is to hide blanks in PivotTables with Conditional Formatting.

This technique can be done once for all (blank) records, and therefore may be quicker if you have many fields with blanks.

Preserving Formatting

Once you’ve spent a load of time formatting your PivotTable, you’ll want to make sure that formatting sticks.

You can do this in the PivotTable Options (right click) > Layout & Format tab > Preserve cell formatting on update:

preserve cell formatting for a pivot table

Default PivotTable Layout

Once you’ve got the formatting the way you like it, you can set a default PivotTable layout via the File tab > Options:

set pivot table default layout

You can set preferences for the subtotals, grand totals, report layout, blank rows and PivotTable Options. Unfortunately, you can’t set preferences for number formats or styles.


PivotTable Formatting
Mynda Treacy

Microsoft MVP logo

AUTHOR Mynda Treacy Co-Founder / Owner at My Online Training Hub

CIMA qualified Accountant with over 25 years experience in roles such as Global IT Financial Controller for investment banking firms Barclays Capital and NatWest Markets.

Mynda has been awarded Microsoft MVP status every year since 2014 for her expertise and contributions to educating people about Microsoft Excel.

Mynda teaches several courses here at MOTH including Excel Expert, Excel Dashboards, Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Floyd Henry

    September 8, 2023 at 1:31 am

    A wonderful tool to use to make formatting of even complex pivot tables easy.
    Thank you so much

    Floyd Henry,
    Director, Quality Assurance

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      September 8, 2023 at 8:57 am

      Our pleasure, Floyd!

      Reply
  2. Anthony

    August 17, 2023 at 2:05 am

    Hi, thanks very much for the article however I have a big problem with this.

    Even with “Preserve cell formatting on update” selected, every time the Pivot table is updated the formatting is lost. This includes changing the order of a field in Rows section or swapping a column or pressing “Refresh”. So all the hard work creating a custom layout is lost.

    This issue is also mentioned here as just one example: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/pivot-table-formatting-after-refresh/m-p/510256

    Any ideas?
    Many thanks,
    Anthony

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      August 17, 2023 at 10:28 am

      Hi Anthony,

      Formatting vs row/column order are different issues. It sounds like the source data is changing on refresh, affecting the sorting of the items and fields. Is that possible?

      Mynda

      Reply
      • souleymane

        September 8, 2023 at 9:00 am

        Hi Mynda how to get data of this example i whant to pratics

        Reply
        • Mynda Treacy

          September 8, 2023 at 9:41 am

          It’s available from the PivotTable Profit and Loss tutorial.

          Reply

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