Pivot Table Data Crunching [Paperback]

Bill Jelen (Author), Michael Alexander (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789734354 | ISBN-13: 978-0789734358 | Publication Date: July 1, 2005 | Edition: 1

Become a savvy Microsoft Excel user. Pivot tables are a great feature in Excel that help you organize and analyze data, but not many Excel users know how to use pivot tables. Pivot Table Data Crunching offers a comprehensive review of all the functionalities of Pivot Tables from author Bill Jelen, otherwise known as Mr. Excel from www.mrexcel.com, and Michael Alexander, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer. The authors' practical scenarios and real-world advice demonstrate the benefits of Pivot Tables and how to avoid the common pitfalls of every day data crunching. Each solution presented in the book can be accomplished with resources available in the Excel interface, making Pivot Table Data Crunching a beneficial resource for all levels of Excel users.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Excel users may already be aware of the power of pivot tables, which allow summarization of 50,000 rows of data with one click of the mouse – but many user's guides don't begin to touch upon its powerful features. PIVOT TABLE DATA CRUNCHING provides a tutorial which promises users and prior Excel fans the ability to get up to speed quickly, using real-world examples such as how to highlight productivity channels and produce meaningful reports. An excellent business guide.

--California Bookwatch, 10/1/06

About the Author

Bill Jelen is the principal behind the leading Excel website, MrExcel.com. As an Excel consultant, he has written Excel VBA solutions for hundreds of clients around the English-speaking world. His website hosts more than 12 million page views annually. Prior to founding MrExcel.com, Bill spent 12 years "in the trenches," working as a financial analyst for the finance, marketing, accounting, and operations departments of a $500 million public company. His duties included turning large amounts of mainframe data into meaningful reports. Working initially with Lotus 1-2-3 and then Excel, Bill honed techniques to take massive amounts of data and produce meaningful reports in record time. Bill is the author of seven books on Microsoft Excel.

Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) with more than 13 years' experience consulting and developing office solutions. Michael started his career in consulting and development at the White House Communications Agency in Washington D.C., later parleying his experience with VBA and VB into a successful career in the private sector, developing middleware and reporting solutions for a wide variety of industries. He currently lives in Plano, Texas, where he heads an analytical services group for a $700 million company. In his spare time he runs a free tutorial site, http://www.datapigtechnologies.com, where he shares basic Access and Excel tips with intermediate users.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Que; 1 edition (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789734354
• ISBN-13: 978-0789734358
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Systems Analysis
  • #50 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Alexander Technique

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for both all the newbie and expert alike., December 27, 2005

By 

Darryl Collins "darklydrawl" (Melbourne - Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pivot Table Data Crunching (Paperback)

On the Excel Developer Mailing list that I subscribe to there are many talented and generous people whom freely share their Excel knowledge and experience with others less skilled. Numerous of them are MVP's.

Now when folks like Bob Umlas and Jon Peltier (whom are MVP Excel experts in their own rights) say a book is worth looking at, well, I definitely am keen to check it out.

Bill "Mr. Excel" Jelen and Michael Alexander's book on getting the best out of Pivot tables was recommended to me by Jon Peltier (http://peltiertech.com/ ) and what a great piece of advice it turned out to be.

Pivot table are one of Excel's most powerful features, and yet many users never harness the potential and power of this wonderful tool. I use pivot tables a lot and thought I had a good understanding of them, but this book has taken my productivity to a whole new level. Reading this book and understanding the concepts within has definitely been a "wow" experience for me.

The style of writing is excellent and extensive screenshots and notes make it easy to follow the necessary processes to quickly and painless achieve the desired outcome.

This book covers everything from the history of the Pivot table and data basics, right through to complex tasks involving calculated pivot fields, pivot charts and extracting data from external data sources such as an SQL database or OLAP cube.

Importantly the authors also explain in great detail the potential for risk and data errors and how to minimise the chances of errors being generated. A worthwhile process for anyone using excel.

Actually I loved the way the book was interesting and useful for all skill levels. Even if you had never created a pivot table before this book is very accessable and easy to follow. And for people like myself who are advanced Excel users, there is still an amazing amount of clever techniques to maximise the power of pivot tables.

As a professional excel developer this book has definitely added value to work and (more importantly) to the end products I produce for my clients. A "wow! That is great!" client is a happy client.

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So you think you know Pivot Tables? Learn from the Master!, November 30, 2005

By 

Bob Umlas (Palisades, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pivot Table Data Crunching (Paperback)

I am an Excel MVP and pretty much know Excel inside out, yet I learned so many cool things from this wonderful book! I was often confused knowing the difference between calculated fields and calculated items, but this book really cleared that up for me. I can't think of any piece of using pivot tables which was either left out or glossed over. The book will make you a pivot table master! Highly recommended, whether you're a beginner or an Excel guru!

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really for advanced users, March 4, 2006

By 

BlazerHorn (Alabama) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pivot Table Data Crunching (Paperback)

I was encouraged by other reviewer's comments that this book was useful to beginners AND experts, but I disagree. I consider myself a fairly advanced user/macro developer, and was hoping this book would help me take my Pivot Table skills to another level. The book is laid out well - and DOES cover its topics thoroughly - but it is really more of a book for intermediate excel users who may have little to no experience with Pivots.