“Report Layout” The Secret Behind A Neat Excel Pivot Table Looks Like Regular Tables

Are you bored with the rigid, cluttered, and unnecessarily hierarchical look of Excel Pivot Tables? Whenever you have to present data to a client or boss, you spend hours just tidying up the format, even though the analysis is done. This is a common problem for Excel users: wanting the speed of a Pivot Table, but also wanting the neatness of a regular table.

Microsoft has provided a clever solution called Report Layout, a hidden feature that can turn the look of the Pivot Table into a flatter and more professional one in just three clicks. Unlike the Convert to Range option that eliminates dynamic functionality, this technique retains all the advantages of the Pivot Table while providing design freedom like manual tables.

In this exclusive guide, we’ll reveal how to enable Tabular Form and Repeat All Item Labels to eliminate ‘tiered’ views, management consultant-style professional formatting tricks, and fatal mistakes that can make your reports look worse when using Report Layout. Are you ready to change your Excel report from ‘regular’ to ‘stunning’ with no extra work?

Why is Report Layout the Best Solution?

In the professional world, especially when compiling business reports or presenting data to management, the default view of Pivot Table often presents visual challenges. This is what makes the Report Layout feature a very viable solution.

A Classic Annoying Problem: Pivot Tables Are Too Storied

By default, Pivot Table displays data in a Compact Form format, where multiple fields are joined in a single column, making the view “tiered”. Some of the problems that often arise are:

• Difficult to understand by audiences without a technical background
• Not ideal for inclusion in a formal report
• Complicating the process of filtering or merging with other tables

Advantages of Using Report Layout

The Report Layout feature, especially in Tabular Form mode, offers several advantages that make it the best choice:

1. Maintain Dynamic Update Capability

Unlike the Convert to Range or Copy-Paste Values method, the use of Report Layout still keeps the data active. When the data source changes, the Pivot Table can be refreshed automatically.

2. Compatible with All Excel Versions

Report Layout features are available from Microsoft Excel 2010 to the latest version (2023), making them a safe and consistent choice in various work environments.

3. More Flexible for White Papers

With the Tabular Form and Repeat All Item Labels options, tables are neatly arranged row by row, similar to regular tables, which are much more suitable for financial reports, sales recaps, or data audits.

4. Doesn’t Sacrifice Functionality

You can still use filters, slicers, or calculated fields like the ones in a regular Pivot Table.

“90% of Excel users don’t realize this feature is in the Design ribbon, even though it’s the most elegant solution to the Pivot Table formatting problem.”

Step 1: Enable the Report Layout Feature in the Pivot Table

For the Pivot Table view to resemble a regular table, you need to change its default structure using the Report Layout feature available in the Pivot Table design tab.

Follow these steps to change the Pivot Table view to tabular format:

1. Click on any area within your Pivot Table.
2. Go to the Design tab (in the Indonesian version of Excel, it’s usually called Desain).
3. Click the Report Layout dropdown.
4. Select the Show in Tabular Form option

5. Click Report Layout again, and then select Repeat All Item Labels

To make your table look cleaner and focus only on the main data, also enable the features:

• Do Not Show Subtotals

By eliminating subtotals, the view becomes minimalist and is perfect for report purposes that require a clean and aligned format.

• Banded Rows

This feature adds alternating shading for easy line reading!