Turning Off Automatic Sorting in PivotTables

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 7, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


1

When Katara creates a PivotTable, Excel automatically sorts the data that appears in the PivotTable. She would rather not have the data sorted at all—it is just fine in the data range on which she's basing the PivotTable. Katara wonders if there is any way to turn off the automatic sorting.

Automatic sorting can be turned off by taking advantage of a setting that is (honestly) not that easy to find. Follow these steps:

  1. Create your PivotTable as you normally would.
  2. Click the down-arrow at the right of the Column Labels cell or the Row Labels cell, depending on whether you want to affect column or row sorting. Excel displays some options.
  3. Choose More Sort Options. Excel displays the Sort dialog box.
  4. At the bottom left of the dialog box click More Options. Excel displays the More Sort Options dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  5. Figure 1. The More Sort Options dialog box.

  6. Clear the first checkbox in the dialog box (Sort Automatically Every Time the Report is Updated).
  7. Click OK to dismiss the More Sort Options dialog box. Excel again displays the Sort dialog box.
  8. Click OK to dismiss the Sort dialog box.

If you would like to explore additional PivotTable sorting capabilities, you might find this web page, by Debra Dalgleish, to be helpful:

https://www.contextures.com/excel-pivot-table-sorting.html

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12880) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

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

Labeling X-Y Scatter Plots

Figuring out how to get the data points in an X-Y scatter plot labeled can be confusing; Excel certainly doesn't make it ...

Discover More

Spell-Checking in a Protected Worksheet

When you protect a worksheet, you can't use some tools, including the spell-checker. If you want to use it, you must ...

Discover More

Printing Index Field Codes

Word allows you to configure what you see so that field codes are visible instead of the results of those field codes. ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Editing PivotTables without Underlying Data

If you ever try to edit a PivotTable and get an error that tells you that the "underlying data was not included," it can ...

Discover More

Displaying a PivotTable's Name in the PivotTable

When you create a PivotTable, it can have a name. You may want this name to appear within the PivotTable itself. There is ...

Discover More

Counting with PivotTables

One of the ways you can use PivotTables is to generate counts of various items in a data table. This is a great technique ...

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 7 - 6?

2022-06-18 14:18:04

ProblemChild

I have many pivot tables in a sheet. How to disable auto-sort option for columns for all the pivot tables using VBA. I don't want the columns to auto-sort and move left or right from the order in which I've set it up.
(see Figure 1 below)

Figure 1. 


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.