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Using Excel Data to Create a Pivot Table

· Posted by Mike in Products · 3 Comments

Occasionally I write a support response in our Get Satisfaction forum that seems like it could serve as a mini-tutorial, so I thought it might be helpful to surface those on our blog. I find that the best tips are the ones that are based on solving problems in real-world scenarios, so I'm going to start blogging these as a best tip of the week series, and put it under the tags "tips."

The Problem

One of our customers wanted to know if we had a pivot table component in Excel. We don't but that doesn't mean you can't create a datagrid that communicates the functionality of a pivot table. Mockups is just puzzle pieces you put together to communicate an idea. Here's how I'd do it.

The Solution

If you're creating pivot tables in Excel, here's a handy way to create a pivot table in Mockups by formatting the table using your Excel data.

1) Create your pivot table in Excel, and then copy the data.

2) Add a Datagrid / Table component to your Mockups canvas, and paste the copied values into the component.

3) Your pivot table is now in a table.

4) Do a little formatting if you need to indicate other aspects of the pivot table. I added some sem-transparent rectangles and icons for the headings.

Hope that gives you an idea of how use Excel data in datagrids. If you don't have a need for this now, store it in the back of your mind. You never know when a wireframing technique like this one might turn out useful to you in the future.

Mike for the Balsamiq Team

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Comments (3)

  1. Thanks for the post. Could include some downloadable files(just a suggestion)..

  2. neat! simple and effective – very much what I think of as the balsamiq mindset