Hide Pivot Table Buttons and Labels

Hide Pivot Table Buttons and Labels

If you’re sharing an Excel pivot table with colleagues who aren’t too skilled in Excel, you might want to hide some of the pivot table buttons and labels before you send it.

Pivot Table Buttons Visible

For example, in the pivot table shown below, the sales are summarized by city and product. There are filter buttons on the Column heading, and on the Row Labels heading.

At the left of the date, there is an expand/collapse button showing.

PivotButtons01

Hide the Buttons

You can change the pivot table options to hide some of the buttons and captions in the pivot table.

Follow these steps to hide the buttons:

  • Right-click a cell in the pivot table and, in the pop up menu, click PivotTable Options.
  • Click the Display tab
  • In the Display section, remove the check mark from Show Expand/Collapse Buttons.
    • This change will hide the Expand/Collapse buttons to the left of the outer Row Labels and Column Labels.

PivotButtons02

  • Next, remove the check mark from Display Field Captions and Filter Drop Downs.
    • This change will hide the filter buttons, and the Row Labels and Column Labels captions.
  • Click OK to close the PivotTable Options dialog box.

Pivot Table Buttons and Labels Hidden

Without the buttons and labels, the pivot table looks cleaner, and may be easier for your colleagues to read.

PivotButtons03
_____________

12 thoughts on “Hide Pivot Table Buttons and Labels”

  1. Doesn’t the formatting go with a pivot table when you copy it and paste it? Or is that another thing they broke in 2007?

    Okay, I tested it. I copied and pasted the pivot table, and it looked just like the original. Then I pasted values, and the formatting went away! In 2003 the pivot table formatting would have stayed after the paste special.

  2. Wonderful. Thanks very much. It makes presenting the report to managers much cleaner.

    By the way, heartiest compliments on your website. It is a powerhouse of information.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.