Pivot Table Data Crunching for Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007

Chapter . Introduction

<feature><title>In This Introduction</title>

• What You Will Learn from This Book 1

• What Is New in Excel 2007’s Pivot Tables 2

• Skills Required to Use This Book 2

• Case Study: Life Before Pivot Tables 2

• The Invention of the Pivot Table 5

• Case Study: Life After Pivot Tables 7

• Sample Files Used in This Book 9

• Conventions Used in This Book 9

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Pivot tables are the single most powerful feature in all of Excel. They came along during the 1990s when Microsoft and Lotus were locked in a bitter battle for dominance of the spreadsheet market. The race to continually add enhanced features to their respective products during the mid-90s led to many incredible features, but none as powerful as the pivot table.

With a pivot table, you ...