A Complete Guide to PivotTables: A Visual Approach

Rating:
Summary: More about the how, less about the why
Review: I was hoping to hear more about why I should use pivot tables and under what circumstances they are useful. There is some material on that to be sure but in general the book focuses on how to use the Pivot Table features of Excel. The advanced material is on how to script Pivot Tables using VB. The text is well written. The book is a little screenshot heavy, but you would expect that from this type of book.

It's a good book, and it will come in handy for heavy users of this feature. But for those looking for more on data analysis techniques you will probably be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: It used to be when you see the imprint, APress, you expect a certain level of programming sophistication. This book is just a "Pivot Tables for Dummies" book at twice the price. Be warned you will get no code except in the last chapter. The rest of the book is pictures and a beginner's level tutorial on how to use Excel wizards. This book is more suited for someone in the Marketing Department and should have been appropriately labeled as such.

Rating:
Summary: A well-researched tutorial on PivotTables
Review: Like most people, I've only scratched the surface (well, maybe I gouged it a bit) of the capabilities of the Microsoft Office products. There are more features buried in them than most users ever discover. I use Microsoft Excel frequently in my job to analyze all sorts of data. When they came out with PivotTables, I dabbled in them and found several uses for them. However, documentation being what it is, I never really got to understand and utilize PivotTables to their full capabilities. Now, Apress has published A Complete Guide to PivotTables: A Visual Approach, by Paul Cornell.

If you have any need to analyze data in Excel, you must read this book. I learned so much more about PivotTables after I read it that they are now actually useful, rather than just being something I would occasionally try out. Every chapter is packed with excellent information in an easy-to-follow format. A beginning to intermediate user can understand most of the book. Only the chapter on programming PivotTables requires intermediate to advanced knowledge to fully comprehend.

Mr. Cornell takes a tutorial approach to explaining what PivotTables are, what they are capable of doing, and how you can apply them to your needs. Each chapter in A Complete Guide to PivotTables gives you an overview of the topic, a series of step-by-step examples, a "Try-It" section for more practice, and a summary of next steps. The book was written for Excel 2003, but most of the techniques can be applied to Excel 2002 and even Excel 2000.

Chapter 1 gives you the basic overview of the PivotTable feature, what it's meant to do, and why you would use it. Chapter 2 starts the in-depth training of building basic PivotTables from Excel Lists, external data sources, other PivotTables, etc. Chapter 3 goes even deeper with information on advanced settings, filters, calculated fields, and other little gems that make analysis easier. These three chapters complete your basic training and lead to chapter 4 "Using PivotTables in the Real World." Paul proceeds to give not just one, but three examples of how PivotTables could be used to provide insight into company operations.

Chapter 5 explains PivotCharts, which are simply a graphical representation of the information shown in a PivotTable. If you need to distill and analyze multidimensional, relational data, PivotTables are up to the task, as chapter 6 will demonstrate. The book describes how you use cube files, OLAP databases, and Microsoft Query to get the data and manipulate it. If you're a really capable programmer, comfortable with VBA, chapter 7 shows you how to work with PivotTable programmatically.

There is an appendix that describes the differences between Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003. I was originally reviewing this book while using a computer with Excel 2000. I was delighted to find out that most of the information in the book works exactly as Paul described (albeit the screen shots didn't match). I did recheck some of the examples on my other machine running Excel 2002, and had no problems at all.

As I said in the beginning, if you need to analyze data in Excel, get this book. You won't regret the investment. I give it a 5 out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: think of SQL view
Review: Spreadsheets and SQL databases are represented as tables. That is, as rectangular grids of data. But in many ways, the common spreadsheet view is quite limited, though powerful within its context. Spreadsheet functions are often tied to specific cells as inputs. Then, interchanging two rows might cause the result to be different. A SQL view is more robust. Typically, you use data in a given column. The rows from which you take that data are selected based on criteria met by values in another column or columns. Hence, swapping 2 rows in a SQL table usually has no effect on an answer.

In essence, this is what PivotTables offer. Cornell doesn't seem to describe it in such a fashion. He writes for a spreadsheet user who has no acquaintance with SQL. Certainly, this is a larger audience. But if you have a SQL background, then the idea behind PivotTables is easy to grasp.

Most of the book deals with the mechanics of how to use PivotTables. Necessary, but secondary, once you realise what's going on.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea for a book, BAD BOOK
Review: This book can be described in 5 words "RUSHED AND FULL OF FILLER"

It's obvious this book was slapped together quickly. In the First couple of chapters, the author does a good job copying any other Excel Book's Chapter on Pivot Tables.

Then when it comes to the advanced functionality of Pivot Tables(where this book had a chance to shine) the author chose to create a mish mash of tips that is convoluted, disorganized and incomplete.

Then when you're still reeling from all his annoying "TRY IT" filler, he plops a pitiful attempt at OLAP cubes into your lap.

The worst is his chapter on creating pivot tables with VBA, apparently written for Excel Developers who have A negative blood type, wear brown leather jackets, and enjoy cotton candy sunrises. WHO IS THIS CHAPTER FOR?! Don't ge me wrong, I'm sure that someone out there will enjoy this chapter....IN THE BASEMENT OF THE SCIENCE BUILDING.

Look, if you're an intermediate Excel user looking for help on Pivot Tables, this is not it. You'll have better luck on sites like DataPigTechnologies.com.






Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was disappointing. The best part of the book is the section where he describes how to do tasks using the "old way" -- without Pivot tables -- that is not what I bought this book for!! I agree with the other opinions that state that this book was rushed out in a hurry -- with poor quality. One reason for this is that many of the examples require you to type in your own data instead of providing an example file in the files that you can download from the web site. There are missing or mistaken instructions. I was looking for a step by step example based approach and this book left me scratching my head in many cases. They spent several pages describing the Pivot Table Wizard. But this description is of little value if you don't tie it to an example or examples. Examples are used later, but as I mentioned before, the examples were done in a hurried and sloppy manner. How about testing the instructions in the book with real users next time!