For those of you who keep track of a lot of data records in Excel and organize these records either in data tables or pivot tables, be sure to check out Slicers to get the most interactive visual displays of how your data is trending. For those of you who have experience in pivot tables, the old-school method of adding a data field in the filters quadrant of the field list was time consuming and not very efficient when you wanted to look at different fields and scenarios to filter by. Well ... Slicers have taken away all that and have added much more!
To get started using Slicers in a data table: (1) just select any data record and navigate to the Table Design contextual tab and (2) select Insert Slicer in the Tools grouping. To get started using Slicers in a pivot table: (1) just select any data record and navigate to the PivotTable Analyze contextual tab and (2) select Insert Slicer in the Filter grouping.
Slicers are available for each field header in your data table or pivot table and when selected appear as pop-up panels on your worksheet containing the data values associated with that field. To query data quickly on your worksheet just select a Slicer value (or multi-select) and only that information displays visually. Just click the handy clear filter icon in the slicer header to see all records again. Slicers can be arranged and resized anywhere on your worksheet. To remove a Slicer panel from your worksheet just select its border and press your Delete key or right-click on the Slicer panel and select Remove. You can open as many Slicer panels on your worksheet that you want to work with – the possibilities are endless!
Slicers also have their own contextual tab with options to change the caption that is displayed in the header of the Slicer panel, Slicer styles that offer different color variations for your slicer panels, the option to convert your Slicer panel into multiple columns for ease of use, and much more.
So start slicing data your way by using the innovative Slicers in Excel!
Click below to see slicers in action:
