Have you ever wondered about applying different Spreadsheet Formats to reports which may be send to different people and so the styling may be different for each recipient? The Boss may get a Formal report where the Art department may get a Funky version of the same data?
No, Neither had I until recently when somebody asked me for just that:
Boss Style
Black & White Style
Funky Style
Blue Style
Of course using Conditional Formats you can highlight cells based on criteria, so why not extend that to the Whole Report Styling?
This tutorial will detail just that.
Lets get started
Download the Sample File (Excel 2013 & 2016 + only): Download Sample File
Firstly Identify your Report Area
In this case it is B8:E28
Note: The area above includes the header row, Row 8, but you can actually apply different CF’s to hat independently of the data area if you require
Make a list of Style Names
I have used four namely: Boss, Blue, Black & White and Funky.
Add an Id next to each from 1 to x in this case 4 as there are 4 entries
Convert the Table to a Table by selecting the area E2:F6
Goto Insert, Table
Add a Style Link cell
In a spare cell H2: add a formula like: =SUBTOTAL(4,Style[Id])
This will extract the Maximum value from the Table when the non-selected rows are hidden.
I have also Named the cell Style_Link
Add a Slicer
Select any cell in the Style Table and goto the Insert, Slicer menu
An Insert Slicers dialog pops up, Select Style
You will now have a Slicer linked to the Styles table
You can format the slicer as appropriate, Resize and Rename it if required
Apply Conditional Formats to the Report
Now select the report area and apply four Conditional Formats which will be styles according to the Useage
You normally only apply 3 styles as the default is already a style
Select B8:E28
Goto the Conditional Format, New Rule, Use a Formula menu
Apply the formula and format to suit your needs
Boss
This is my Default style when Style_Link = 1
Hence I don’t need to apply a specific style
Blue
This is my Conditional Format style when Style_Link = 2
Note: the formula used is =AND(B8<>””, Style_Link=2)
So the Conditional Format will only apply this to cells in the area with a value in them and when the Style_Link cell = 2
Black & White
This is my Conditional Format style when Style_Link = 3
Note: the formula used is =AND(B8<>””, Style_Link=3)
So the Conditional Format will only apply this to cells in the area with a value in them and when the Style_Link cell = 2
Funky
This is my Conditional Format style when Style_Link = 4
Note: the formula used is =AND(B8<>””, Style_Link=4, ISODD(Row))
So the Conditional Format will only apply this to cells in the area with a value in them and when the Style_Link cell = 4 and the Row Number is Odd
Obviously we need to apply a second Conditional Format for when the even numbered Rows
It will use the Conditional Format formula: =AND(B8<>””, Style_Link=4, ISEVEN(Row))
You should end up with four Conditional Formats listed as:
Closing Notes
Although in this post I have used a Slicer to supply the user a list of Styles for choice, you could simply use a single cell with a Data Validation Drop Down or a Combo Box to control the style selection process.
The client for which this technique was applied had a dashboard and wanted to have the control appear similar to other slicers on the dashboard hence maintaining the look and feel of the dashboard.
Conclusion
You now have a tool which allows you to dynamically change the styling of your worksheet reports.
You can add extra formatting by using the Style_Link cell to say change the Decimal Places of the numbers in Column E of the report
eg: Assuming my Sales Data is in Column AA, which it is.
In E9: =TEXT(AA9,CHOOSE(Style_Link,”$A 0,000.00″,”A$ 0,000″,”AU\D 0,000″,”F$ 0,000″)))
Copy down
This will apply 2 decimals to Column E when the Boss Style (1) is chosen and zero decimals for everybody else
It will also apply different currency leaders for the different styles
Style 1: Boss $A
Style 2: Black & White A$
Style 3: Boss AUD
Style 4: Funky $F
As mentioned in one of the notes above, you can apply Conditional Formatting independently to the Headers, Footers or Summary areas of the Report, your imagination is the limit.
I’m sure you can think of other modifications to the layout that can be implemented using these techniques
Other Style Links
You may be interested in these other links to worksheet styling functionality:
http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/getting-fancy-with-your-excel-slicers/
21 Responses to “Distinct count in Excel pivot tables”
The distinct count option works well but I have found that if I have a date field and want to group by year, month, etc. that option seems to be disabled. I need to do both, distinct count and group by year/month.
Example data; sales orders with item quantities with dates.
Challenge; sum the item quantities, count the distinct orders and group by month. How do I do this?
Perhaps that's not possible due to the grouping?
@Al... When you use data model based pivots, you cannot group values manually anymore. Why not use Excel 2016's default date grouping option? In this case we have just a few dates, so Excel is not grouping them, but if you have an year's worth of data, when you make the pivot with date in the row label area, Excel automatically groups them. If you have fewer dates or want to use your own grouping, just create a table with all dates, add columns with month, week, year etc. Then connect this table (these types of tables are usually called as calendar tables) to your data on date field as a relationship. Now you can create reports by month, quarter etc easily.
Is this the only way to do it in 2013? I find it rather cumbersome to have to create another data table listing dates with the another column for MONTH() and YEAR() to be able to summarise data for senior level...
I know people find adding calendar tables cumbersome, but it is a best practice and let's you add more layers of analysis quite easily. For example, adding analysis by weekday vs. weekend or by financial quarter or YTD calculations (you would need either Power Pivot DAX or some very carefully setup pivot table value field settings)
I had absolutely no idea this was possible. Very useful, nice work!
Doesn't work for 2010 version though (or at least not my works version)
Hi ,
The post has the following in it :
These instructions work only in Excel 2016, Office 365 and Excel 2013.
when i have 2 different Pivot tables, one without the enabled “Add this data to data model” option, and the other one with it enabled.. is there anyway i can link slicers between them?
if the answer is NO,, what to do ?
Quick note, the “Add this data to data model” option is not available for the Mac version.
perhaps outside scope of this article but I have found when I attempt to create a pivot table from an external data source (connection to a sql view) the "Add this data to data model" becomes greyed out. Anybody experienced and found a solution so I can start getting distinct count in my pivot tables?
Is there a way to still add a calculated field when using distinct count?
I found I can't change the date source after tick the " add this data to the data model", can you help to adv how to change the date source in such case?
Is there a way to update the source once you have added to the data model? I receive a new spreadsheet weekly and would like to update the connection so my tables pull from the new source.
Hi Crhis, I like how you have hulk (superhero) as your avatar. Do you know that there is a superhero in Excel too? It's Power Query. You can use it to solve your problem in a simple click. Here an intro if you need some guidance.
Powerful Introduction to Power Query
A big Thank you. It worked.
Hi, have survey data that I need to analyze but the challenge is that my key fields are showing horizontally. I tried to transpose the fields using Power Query, but unfortunately the new fields are returning same values on a pivot table despite using distinct values
How I can a do a pivot table with discount conts in some columns and then generate shor report filter pages. pls it drives crazy
Hi. Why grand total pivot of distinct count is 13? shouldn't it be 67?
Great Answer! Saved me lots of time!
Thank you!!!
Worked awesome! Thanks!!
Hi Chandoo,
I am using pivot tables for distinct count and now I need to update them with new set of data. But when I update the source data, all the columns and formatting of Pivot table disappears and I need to build it from Scratch.
Is there a possibility that I can update the source data with new rows added and also retain my pivot tables?