Errata: A Quick Mea Culpa to 2007 Users

With all due contrition, it is high time I owned up to an error of omission of sorts, one that may have inflicted no small measure of vexation upon users of Excel’s 2007 version. So here goes; I know I can count on you to be kind.

On a couple of occasions I’ve asked readers to carry out commands of the

PivotTable Tools > Options > Show Values As variety:

These instructions assumed that readers were clicking away on the 2010 iteration; but if you aren’t, you immediately knew something I didn’t: that you couldn’t get there from here. That’s because the pivot table Calculations button group and its concomitant Show Values As (as well as Summarize Values By, i.e., Sum, Average, etc.) button didn’t barge into the Pivot Table ribbon until 2010; and so what I should have added is that command options such as % of Column Total (phrased without the word Total in 2007) can also be actuated by right-clicking anywhere in the relevant field and proceeding to click Value Settings > Show Values As, transporting you somewhere here:

(That’s a 2010 screen shot – again, the 2007 version goes without the word Total.)

There – I’ve said it, and the catharsis is doing me good. But in the interests of transparency, I am duty -bound to acknowledge a catch – namely, the fact that 2010 has stocked at least two Show Values As options that 2007 simply doesn’t have –anywhere. They’re the Rank Largest to Smallest/Rank Smallest to Largest tandem -very good things to know, too and as a matter of fact I may be talking about them soon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you – but remember, there’s always the free 2013 beta to download.