Customizing Excel Pivot Table Styles

Pivot Table has several built-in styles that you can customise to make it look professional. You can modify fonts, colors, borders, and formatting for different sections of the Pivot Table. In this article, I will show you how to customize a Pivot Table style in Excel.

Key Takeaways

What is Pivot Table Style?

Pivot Table style is an in-built formatting option that can be used to control the appearance of a Pivot Table.

It includes formatting for:

• Header rows
• Row and column headings
• Grand totals
• Subtotals
• Banded rows
• Banded columns
• First and last columns
• Data cells

Instead of formatting every section manually, a style allows you to apply a professional appearance with just a few clicks.

 

How to Customize Excel Pivot Table Styles

STEP 1: Go to Design > PivotTable Styles and click the down arrow to open the options

If you want to create a new custom style from scratch, select New PivotTable Style

STEP 2: If you have a starting point in mind, you can right-click on any style and select Duplicate

STEP 3: Change the Name into your own preference. There are a lot of elements you can format!

For our example, let us try out First Column. Select that and click Format.

STEP 4: Try out any formatting that you want. We can try out to change the Fill color. Click OK

STEP 5: You can see a preview of how it looks like. Our first column did change its fill color! Click OK

STEP 6: The new style that we created is not applied yet automatically.

To use that, go to Design > PivotTable Styles and select the new style that we have created

And there you have it!

I have also created this diagram for you to immediately see the different Pivot Table Elements. Have fun creating and customising pivot table styles!

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find Pivot Table styles in Excel?
Go to the PivotTable Design tab → PivotTable Styles group, where you can browse through various predefined styles.

Can I create my own Pivot Table style?
Yes! In the PivotTable Design tab, click New PivotTable Style, customize the elements, and save it for future use.

Is it possible to highlight specific rows or columns in a Pivot Table?
Absolutely. Use the Banded Rows/Columns options or apply conditional formatting to highlight specific areas.

Do Pivot Table styles affect the data?
No, customizing styles only changes the appearance; the underlying data and calculations remain unaffected.

Can I apply different styles to multiple Pivot Tables in the same workbook?
Yes, each Pivot Table can have its own unique style, allowing you to differentiate tables easily within one workbook.