Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts

Auto Sum

An Excel feature that adds all the numbers in a selected range.

AutoFit

An Excel feature that adjusts the width of a column to fit the cell content of the widest cell in the column.

Values area

An area to position fields that contain data that is summarized in a PivotTable or PivotChart report.

Formula Bar

An element in the Excel window that displays the value or formula contained in the active cell.

Name Box

An element of the Excel window that displays the name of the selected cell, table, chart, or object.

PivotTable

An interactive Excel report that summarizes and analyzes large amounts of data.

Slicer

Easy-to-use filtering control with buttons that enable you to drill down through large amounts of data in an interactive way.

Print titles

The Excel command that enables you to specify rows and columns to repeat on each printed page.

Flash fill

The Excel command that recognizes a pattern in your data and then automatically fills in the values when you enter examples of the desired output.

Auto Fill

The Excel feature that generates and extends values into adjacent cells based on the values of selected cells.

Paste

The action of placing cell contents that have been copied or moved to the Clipboard into another location.

Category axis

The area along the bottom of a chart that identifies the categories of data.

Plot area

The area bounded by the axes of a chart, including all the data series.

Field names

The column titles from source data that form categories of data for a PivotTable.

Refresh

The command to update a PivotTable to reflect new data.

Source data

The data for a PivotTable, formatted in columns and rows, which can be located in an Excel worksheet or an external source.

General Format

The default format that Excel applies to numbers.

Chart area

The entire chart and all of its elements.

Primary key

The field used to uniquely identify a record in an Access table.

NOW function

The function that retrieves and then displays the date and time from your computer.

Sheet tabs

The labels along the lower border of the workbook window that identify each worksheet.

Layout section

The lower portion of the PivotTable Fields pane where you build the PivotTable report by rearranging and repositioning fields.

X-axis

The numerical scale on the bottom of a chart that shows the range of categories for the data points.

Y-axis

The numerical scale on the left side of a chart that shows the range of numbers for the data points.

Percentage rate of change

The percent by which one number increases over another number.

Sorting

The process of arranging data in a specific order based on the value in each field.

Navigate

The process of moving within a worksheet or workbook.

Operators

The symbols with which you can specify the type of calculation you want to perform in an Excel formula.

Paste area

The target destination for data that has been cut or copied using the Office Clipboard.

3-D

The term that refers to an image that appears to have all three spatial dimensions.

Volatile

The term used to describe an Excel function that is subject to change each time the workbook is opened.

Major unit

The value in a chart's value axis that determines the spacing between tick marks and between the gridlines in the plot area.

Arguments

The values that an Excel function uses to perform calculations or operations.

Sparklines

Tiny charts embedded in a cell that give a visual trend summary alongside your data.

Formula

An equation that performs mathematical calculations on values in a worksheet.

Slicer header

The top of a slicer that indicates the category of the slicer items.

Absolute

The type of cell reference that refers to cells by their fixed position in a worksheet.

PivotTable Fields pane

A window that lists the fields from the source data and an area in which you can arrange the fields in the PivotTable.

Data marker

A shape or symbol in a chart that represents a single data point.

Field

A single piece of information for every record.

Data point

A single value or piece of data in a chart.

Select All Box

A box in the upper left corner of the worksheet grid that selects all the cells in a worksheet.

Relative cell reference

A cell reference that refers to cells by their relative position in a worksheet.

Active Cell

A cell surrounded by a black border and ready to receive data.

Legend

A chart element that identifies the patterns or colors that are assigned to the categories in the chart.

Line chart

A chart that displays trends over time.

Pie chart

A chart that shows the relationship of each part to a whole.

Column chart

A chart type that displays data in vertical columns.

Switch Row/Column

A charting command to swap the data over the axis data being charted on the vertical axis will move to the horizontal axis and vice versa.

Merge & Center

A command that joins selected cells in an Excel worksheet into one larger cell and centers the contents in the merged cell.

Cell style

A defined set of formatting characteristics, such as font, font size, font color, cell borders, and cell shading.

Quick Analysis tool

A feature that displays in the lower right corner of a selected range with which you can analyze your data by using Excel tools such as charts, color-coding, and formulas.

Conditional format

A feature that outlines cells in color to indicate which cells are used in a formula.

PivotChart

A graphical representation of the data in a PivotTable.

Data model

A method of incorporating data from multiple, related tables into an Excel worksheet.

Table

A series of rows and columns that contains related data and that is managed independently from other data.

Data bar

A shaded bar that provides a visual cue about the value of a cell relative to other cells.