The screenshot shows that there are filters in the report but there is now way of knowing the actual items except for that there are (Multiple Items).įigure 1: Traditional Excel Pivot Report Filter For instance, Figure 1 shows my fictitious fruit sales report by total quantities of fruits purchased per customer. Some of the negative feedback relating to my excel reports had nothing to do with my report development but limitations of the tool in that users were usually frustrated when attempting to identify items that they have chosen as filters. Some of these advantages can be summarised as follows:Įasily visualise items you have filtered on As per the explanation here, slicers have several advantages to the traditional filtering approach that has long existed in Excel Pivots. Since its initial release in Office 2010, slicers have always been part of the excel reports that I produce for my clients. For some people, this may not be a sufficient reason to upgrade to Office 2016 but for developers of business intelligence (BI) solutions, this new feature further enhances the experience of consumers of BI solutions. Whilst researching for the article Report filtering: Excel slicers vs SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) parameters, I discovered a new Excel Slicer feature in Microsoft Office 2016 that allows users to select/deselect multiple items without having to hold down the control ( Ctrl) keyboard key.

How to use slicers in excel 2016