Non-PivotTable Slicers and Timelines

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 5, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


When Terry adds slicers and timelines to a PivotTable, he finds them incredibly helpful. He wonders if there is a way to add them to other parts of Excel, as well. There are times he doesn't want to go through creating a PivotTable, but would still like to get the benefits of slicers and timelines.

Slicers were introduced in Excel 2010 and timelines in Excel 2013, both for use with PivotTables. (They will also work just fine with PivotCharts.) In Excel 2013 slicers were "expanded" so that they could be used with formatted tables in a worksheet, as well as with PivotTables. Both tools allow you to easily filter data to home in on exactly what you want to find in your data.

I won't go into how to add slicers or timelines to PivotTables, as Terry apparently knows how to do that. To add a slicer to a formatted table in your worksheet, select a cell in the table and make sure the Table Design tab of the ribbon is displayed. (This tab is available only if you select a cell in a formatted table.) There you'll find an Insert Slicer tool that can be used to add what you want.

Timelines can only be used in PivotTables; they are not available elsewhere in Excel. You can attempt a workaround, though, by adding a date column to your formatted table data and then adding a slicer based on that data column.

The nature of both slicers and timelines requires a formal data structure and so it makes sense that they work with formatted tables, PivotTables, and PivotCharts. For free-form data, there would be no way for the slicer or timeline to know what to include, though some people have tried to work around this limitation:

https://www.sageintelligence.com/tips-and-tricks/excel-tips-tricks/2014/03/using-slicers-non-pivot-data/

The approach is interesting, but it seems (to me) much easier to just format your data as table and then use the tools you want.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12837) applies to Microsoft Excel 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Remembering Copies to Print

If you routinely need to print more than one copy of a document, you'll love the ideas presented in this tip. There's ...

Discover More

Removing All Formatting

Getting rid of formatting from a cell or group of cells can be done using several different techniques. This tip ...

Discover More

Adding Page Numbers in Headers or Footers

While Word has a default format for page numbers, you can design and specify how you want them to appear in your ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Copying the Results of Filtering

Filtering is a great asset when you need to get a handle on a subset of your data. Excel even makes it easy to copy the ...

Discover More

Showing Filter Criteria on a Printout

When you print out a filtered worksheet, you may want some sort of printed record as to what filtering was applied to the ...

Discover More

Finding Rows with Values in Two Columns

When you use Excel to input and store information, you need to be concerned with whether the information meets your ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.