Pivot Tables..I give up...
 

Why oh why is it that when I drag the field to the column area it is fine..I
then drag the second one to this area and it gets lost?

Sometimes it does not list all of the entries that field is supposed to
contain. Do I always have to double-click in the fields box to make it
appear.

For example:

Serial #: 777777
Serial #: 999999
Serial #: 77777

The field should show all the items, unless you've previously hidden some.

I don't understand your example. Can you give a bit more detail on what
you see in your pivot table, and what you expected to see?

Debutante wrote:
Why oh why is it that when I drag the field to the column area it is fine..I
then drag the second one to this area and it gets lost?

Sometimes it does not list all of the entries that field is supposed to
contain. Do I always have to double-click in the fields box to make it
appear.

For example:

Serial #: 777777
Serial #: 999999
Serial #: 77777


--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

Thanks..sorry my boss walked by and I just hit "send" really fast never
finished the original e-mail.

Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to the left column it
is supposed to put text in all of the cells underneath.

Sometimes there is no text underneath.

1. If you hide a field how do you unhide it?
2. If you drag a field to the column the cells underneath
should have text inputted. I have to double-click on the
field in the field window to make the text underneath
the cells appear.
3. Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to column I don't
see the field or the contents.
4. How do I make the sum appear when I do want it?
5. What is this "data" field that appears out of nowhere?

Thank you.

Hi

you say
"Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to the left column it
is supposed to put text in all of the cells underneath.
Sometimes there is no text underneath."
are you talking about when you have categories (in eg below the Cat & Dog
column and a sub-category, e.g. Size) ... the pivot table looks like this -

Cats......Small
..............Medium
..............Large
Dogs.....Small
..............Medium

this is the how it works.

your other questions:
1. If you hide a field how do you unhide it?
- just drag it from the field list onto the pivot table again
2. If you drag a field to the column the cells underneath should have text
inputted. I have to double-click on the field in the field window to make
the text underneath the cells appear.
- not really sure what you mean here ... the only thing i can think of
is do you have calculation set to manual (tools / options / calculations
tab) - this may have nothing to do with it but i can't say i've ever had to
double click on a pivot table to get text to appear.
3. Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to column I don't
see the field or the contents.
- how is this different from 2. above?
4. How do I make the sum appear when I do want it?
- columns & rows are used for headings (e.g. the cat & dog & sizes in
the example above) - if you want a SUM of something you need to drag a
numeric field to the data area ... by default numbers will always ADD,
however, if the field that you drag to the data area is text then you will
get a COUNT.
5. What is this "data" field that appears out of nowhere?
- not sure what you mean by "appears out of nowhere" a pivot table
has four areas - page (an overall filter field), rows & columns for
categories and the data area for summing / counting / averaging of
information.

I hope this helps

Regards
JulieD

is this what you mwan
"Debutante" wrote in message
...
Thanks..sorry my boss walked by and I just hit "send" really fast never
finished the original e-mail.

Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to the left column
it
is supposed to put text in all of the cells underneath.

Sometimes there is no text underneath.

1. If you hide a field how do you unhide it?
2. If you drag a field to the column the cells underneath
should have text inputted. I have to double-click on the
field in the field window to make the text underneath
the cells appear.
3. Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to column I don't
see the field or the contents.
4. How do I make the sum appear when I do want it?
5. What is this "data" field that appears out of nowhere?

Thank you.

Some of the information on Jon Peltier's site may help you understand
how pivot tables work:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

One of the links is to the tutorial on the Microsoft site:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/as...346321033.aspx

Debutante wrote:
Thanks..sorry my boss walked by and I just hit "send" really fast never
finished the original e-mail.

Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to the left column it
is supposed to put text in all of the cells underneath.

Sometimes there is no text underneath.

1. If you hide a field how do you unhide it?
2. If you drag a field to the column the cells underneath
should have text inputted. I have to double-click on the
field in the field window to make the text underneath
the cells appear.
3. Unless I am doing something wrong when I drag a field to column I don't
see the field or the contents.
4. How do I make the sum appear when I do want it?
5. What is this "data" field that appears out of nowhere?

Thank you.




--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html