The PivotTable is one of the easiest tools used to transform huge amounts of data into meaningful reports. Excel didn't disappoint with the improvements that have been made to PivotTables in their 2016 version. These include the following; Field List search, Automatic Time Grouping, and Multi-select Slicers. In this tip, we explore some improvements made to the PivotTable tool in Excel 2016. Applies To: Microsoft  Excel  2016. 1. Field List Search: If you have a large dataset, with many fields, you can now easily search for specific fields. In the PivotTable Fields pane, click in the Search box and start typing the field name. Excel displays a list of fields that match the search criteria.
2. Automatic Time Grouping: When you move a date field to the Rows, Columns or Filters area, Excel automatically adds a new grouped date field to the Field List, PivotTable, and PivotTable area. If you'd like to group the data even further, for example, in this case into quarters, you still can by right-clicking on one of the grouped entries and selecting Group.
3. Multi-Select Slicers: Previously, to filter PivotTables by multiple criteria using a Slicer, you had to hold down the CTRL key. Now, you can simply enable the multi-select feature.
These improvements will save you time when you use PivotTables to analyze and present your data.