Summarizing with Pivot Tables and Charts

Understanding Large Spreadsheets With PivotTables

When a spreadsheet has hundreds or thousands of rows, you can't read it directly — you need a way to summarise. Copilot can generate PivotTables and accompanying charts that turn raw data into something you can actually interpret, without you having to build the formulas or pivots yourself.

Generating A PivotTable Summary

To summarise a large dataset:

1. Right-click anywhere inside the table;
2. Open Copilot Suggestions;
3. Select Summarise using PivotTable or chart.

Copilot creates a new sheet containing PivotTables and visualisations that let you compare totals, group data by categories, and see trends — without writing any formulas. The fact that they go in a new sheet matters: your original data stays untouched, and the summary lives separately.

PivotTables Are Interactive

This is the part that makes PivotTables genuinely powerful — Copilot's output isn't a frozen snapshot. The tables it creates are fully interactive, and you can keep working with them after generation:

• Filter categories;
• Select specific regions, products, or time periods;
• Apply date filters like "Last Quarter";
• Adjust which fields appear in rows, columns, or values.

Every change updates both the PivotTable and its chart at the same time. The result is an exploration tool, not just a one-time summary — you can keep slicing the same data from different angles without going back to Copilot for each new view.

Asking Copilot Directly For Specific Answers

Sometimes the generated PivotTables don't show the exact angle you care about. In that case, ask Copilot directly. A clear prompt — "Show top 5 products by revenue in Q4", "Compare regions by average order size" — and Copilot creates a new table or chart focused on that question.

Use the auto-generated PivotTables to explore the data, and targeted prompts to answer specific questions you've already formed.

Wrapping Up Excel

You've now seen how Copilot can:

• Build tables from text or from prompts;
• Add formula columns and conditional formatting;
• Split data, generate insights, create lookups across sheets;
• Summarise large datasets into interactive PivotTables.

The common thread across all of these: Copilot turns instructions in plain language into the structured Excel work that used to require formulas, menus, and manual steps. Knowing what to ask for is now most of the skill.