Pivot Tables in Excel 2002: lost "Label and Data" functionality?

[Guest]

I was just upgraded from Office 97 to XP, and am having a terrible time making my pivot tables work the way they used to in Excel 97.
Here are some of the issues:
- The "Label," "Data" and "Label and Data" buttons in the Pivot Table toolbar are not permanently active in this version. I have to go to "Pivot Table/Select/Enable Selection" and click "Enable Selection," and even then I must click on "Enable Selection" twice to get them to be active. This is a major problem.
- Because the Label and Data toolbar buttons are not active, I am finding it much harder to move sections around the pivot table and group them. I hate that new feature of an arrow on the left-hand side or top of the pivot columns to make selections because it makes me highlight an entire section row-by-row, instead of highlighting the entire section with one click, like the Label and Data button.
- For some reason, when I drag a field titled "Assigned to" (it lists all of our salespeople) into the pivot table, it inserts a bizarre character : a box, or a
1 in front of each person's name, which shows up as a vertical line in the font I am using.
Finally, I do *not* want the Pivot Table Field list to pop up every time I make a change! I just end up closing it, and it's annoying.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

If you frequently use the Label, Data, and 'Label and Data' buttons, you
could add a copy of each button to the main Pivot toolbar
(Tools>Customize, Commands tab, Data category), so they're easier to access.

What font are you using, that's causing the unusual characters to appear
in the Pivot Table?

I don't know of any way to prevent the field list from appearing after
you've used the PivotTable wizard. However, you could dock it at the
side of the screen, so it doesn't cover any of the worksheet when it
appears.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your response, Debra.
Yes, I do have the 'Label', 'Data' and 'Label and Data' buttons installed on my main
Pivot toolbar, but they are grayed out by default now. If I go to the Pivot Table drop-down box
and click Select/Enable Selection *twice," it activates the Label and Data buttons temporarily.
As soon as I click on the pivot table, they gray out again. This is not the way those buttons
used to work in '97.
However, I've just been playing around with it this morning, and discovered that the new "arrow"
that appears at the side and tops of rows and columns is what activates the Label and Data
buttons. If I mouse over to the edge of the pivot table and click on the first cell of a section
where the arrow appears, then the Label and Data buttons become available again. This is
VERY unintuitive, and not explained anywhere in the Help section.
The default font that comes up in my pivot tables is MS Sans Serif. On my other spreadsheets,
I use Arial. I also just noticed late yesterday that, if I refresh the data on the pivot table, those
strange characters go away.
Yes, I've noticed that I can dock the field list to one side -- I just wanted to make it go away
entirely But I guess we can't have everything we want!
Thanks again,
Heidi

----- Debra Dalgleish wrote: -----

If you frequently use the Label, Data, and 'Label and Data' buttons, you
could add a copy of each button to the main Pivot toolbar
(Tools>Customize, Commands tab, Data category), so they're easier to access.

What font are you using, that's causing the unusual characters to appear
in the Pivot Table?

I don't know of any way to prevent the field list from appearing after
you've used the PivotTable wizard. However, you could dock it at the
side of the screen, so it doesn't cover any of the worksheet when it
appears.

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

You mentioned the selection arrow in your first message, so I assumed
(incorrectly) that's how you were selecting the items. But you've now
discovered how to use this to make the Label/Data buttons work. It does
require a bit more coordination than Excel 97, where you could click on
one of the heading cells, and select the item.

Thanks for reporting that you solved the problem of the strange
characters by refreshing the data. I haven't encountered that problem
(yet!), but the information may help someone with a similar problem.

Someone may discover a way to prevent the field list from popping up,
but till then you can dock it at the side, and use the Show Field List
button to toggle it on/off.