Slicer in Excel is used in conjunction with Excel tables and pivot tables to operate as one-click software filters. Slicers are used to extract the essential information from a large amount of data in seconds.
What is a Slicer?
A Slicer is a tool that lets us filter reports by clicking on any of the elements in the Slicer. It’s essentially a customized filtering menu that can be applied to charts, tables, or pivot tables. Excel Slicers not only help users comprehend the data being retrieved and shown on the screen, but they also help them filter out irrelevant data.
How to use Slicers in Excel?
Follow the two steps below to use a Slicer in Excel tables or Excel pivot tables.
Step 1: Convert the information to a tabular or pivot table format
Convert the information to a table or a pivot table.
Excel interprets data as a database by default, which means that adding Slicers isn’t always possible. As a result, users may get started right away by transforming the data into a pivot table or an Excel table.
- To make a pivot table, choose any cell in Excel.
- On the toolbar, pick “pivot table” from the insert menu.
- Navigate to the insert option on the pivot table sheet and pick the Slicers option to insert Slicers.
Now test it with the Excel table that contains all of the data.
- In the Excel sheet, choose any cell.
- To make a table out of the data, press the Ctrl + T keys simultaneously.
- Press OK after choosing the table range.
Step 2: Insert Slicers in an Excel or pivot table
Slicers may be inserted into any cell by selecting it in an Excel or pivot table, and inserting Slicers into a pivot table is the same.
- In the Excel table or pivot table, click anywhere.
- Go to the Home tab, and select the Slicer option from the Insert tab.
- Select the checkboxes next to the fields users wish to display in the Insert Slicers dialog box, then click OK.
- A Slicer will be produced for each field that users choose. When users click on one of the Slicer buttons, that filter automatically applies to the associated table or pivot table.
- The Slicer tab (in recent versions of Excel) or the Design tab (in Excel 2016 and earlier versions) on the ribbon may be used to customize the Slicer options.
- To link a Slicer to several pivot tables, go to the Slicer option, Report Connections, tick the Pivot Tables to include box, then hit OK.
The benefits of using Slicers in Excel:
Using Excel Slicers offers several benefits and simplifies life while performing real-time data analysis. A few key advantages are addressed further down.
- The Slicer formulae may be duplicated or relocated to various tables with ease.
- Slicers make it simple to access the information users need a fraction of the time.
- Slicer in Excel aids in data protection and integrity. The user is solely concerned with filtering out the essential information and not tampering with the data itself.
This is a simple, time-saving strategy for how to use Slicers in Excel. Apply it to discover the advantages of this procedure over others. The Excel Slicers may also be customized according to users’ preferences.
