I often want to filter the "date" field in my pivot table to show sales in a
specific period e.g. last month only or the last three months. However, in
excel 2003 I am struggling to find how to do this other than having to select
every single relevant date from the drop down filter list, which can be time
consuming. (Previously I could do this in Excel 1997, by right clicking on
the field, and choosing "Group").
Does anyone know of a way I could do this in excel 2003?
Thanks.

Hi

The Group option still exists in PT's.
Right click on the field in the PT and you will see Group and Show
Detail. From this there is a sub-menu and Group is the 3rd item.

--
Regards

Roger Govier


"AJB" wrote in message
...
I often want to filter the "date" field in my pivot table to show sales
in a
specific period e.g. last month only or the last three months.
However, in
excel 2003 I am struggling to find how to do this other than having to
select
every single relevant date from the drop down filter list, which can
be time
consuming. (Previously I could do this in Excel 1997, by right
clicking on
the field, and choosing "Group").
Does anyone know of a way I could do this in excel 2003?
Thanks.

Thanks for your response Roger.

I'm aware that the "Group" option exists, however when I attempt to use it
on my "Date" field in the PT, I get a "Cannot group that selection" message.
I don't know why this is. I presumed it was something to do with the way
Excel 2003 treats PTs since I have only incurred this problem since I
upgraded. Perhaps there is some other explanation.
Do you have any further suggestions? Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Regards,
AJB.

Maybe your data has changed recently. If the field in the source data
contains text or blank cells, you'll see that error message. There's
information here on fixing the problem:

http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot07.html

AJB wrote:
Thanks for your response Roger.

I'm aware that the "Group" option exists, however when I attempt to use it
on my "Date" field in the PT, I get a "Cannot group that selection" message.
I don't know why this is. I presumed it was something to do with the way
Excel 2003 treats PTs since I have only incurred this problem since I
upgraded. Perhaps there is some other explanation.
Do you have any further suggestions? Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Regards,
AJB.




--
Debra Dalgleish
Contextures
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

Many thanks Debra, I think that could be the reason for the message - blank
cells.

Perhaps you could help me with another question about grouping dates in PTs?
I'll use an example to explain it:
I have dates going back 12 months in my "Date" field. I use the Grouping
method as previously discussed to see data from months 6, 7, & 8 only.
However, the PT still shows the data from dates before and after the
specified period. Is there a way of hiding this data, so that it is not
included in the grand totals?

Thanks again, AJB.

When you group the dates, you can enter a Starting at date, and an
Ending at date. Then, in the Date field dropdown, you can uncheck the
"<" and "" dates if they appear.

Or include all the dates, and uncheck all except the months you want to see.

AJB wrote:
Many thanks Debra, I think that could be the reason for the message - blank
cells.

Perhaps you could help me with another question about grouping dates in PTs?
I'll use an example to explain it:
I have dates going back 12 months in my "Date" field. I use the Grouping
method as previously discussed to see data from months 6, 7, & 8 only.
However, the PT still shows the data from dates before and after the
specified period. Is there a way of hiding this data, so that it is not
included in the grand totals?

Thanks again, AJB.




--
Debra Dalgleish
Contextures
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html