Pivot tables are great for quickly updating reports with new information. However, the new information might not come in the order you want. Here is how to take care of it by using the sorting features available for the pivot table fields.
The exercise and result are in the Pivot Table Sort file.
Here is a pivot table we had from an earlier lesson. We added sales from a new product line, jewelry.
Notice that this comes down at the bottom, out of order. Here is how to change it so your fields are sorted automatically if you want.
Right click on the pivot table field name (in this case the Product field) and choose field settings.
Then in the PivotTable Field dialog box, click on Advanced (note if you do not see this type of dialog box with Product in the Name section, you may have clicked on the body or top of the pivot table and gotten the dialog box for a different field).
Now you get the dialog box where you can change the sort.
Once we choose ascending, then it asks what field do we want to sort on.
We will keep it with Product. We then click OK and see that the pivot table changes to alphabetical order.
Alternatively, we could have sorted it by invoice amount, using the data field.
Now as additional product lines are added to the data, when we refresh the pivot table, the new products will automatically be added in alphabetical order. (Or invoice amount order if we had chosen that sort instead).
There is a time when you might prefer a manual sort. With a manual sort, you can drag items into whatever order you please (click on the item in the field and then drag it to the spot you want). When sorting will not give you the order you need, keep it at a manual sort and drag items as needed, In this case, when you add a new item, you will have to drag them into the proper place you want on the pivot table.
But generally, you will want to use an automatic sort. Remember to set up this sort after you have first run your new pivot table.