Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Pointing PivotTables to Different Data.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 6, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021
Joe uses PivotTables a lot at his company. In creating the PivotTables they would use one workbook for the PivotTables that were generated based on source data in a second workbook. In working with the PivotTables they needed a way to quickly "re-point" their pivot cache to a different data source. Unfortunately they found that re-pointing one PivotTable to a different source workbook only created a second pivot cache, thereby causing a much larger PivotTable workbook and a slower response time in Excel. They needed to actually re-point each PivotTable to the new data source before the old pivot cache would disappear, and some of the workbooks had over 50 PivotTables!
They found a solution, however, that allowed them to very easily make the switch over to the new data source. Assume, for the sake of this tip, that File1 is the workbook containing the PivotTables, File2 is the current data source workbook, and File3 is the new data source workbook. Further, all the PivotTables in File1 share the same pivot cache which, in turn, points to the data in File2. These are the steps they took to switch everything over so File1 finally pointed to File3:
That's all there is to it; File3 is now the new data source for the PivotTables in File1. As well, any fields that do not exist in File3 will also be removed from the PivotTable reports when you next open File1.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8267) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Pointing PivotTables to Different Data.
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