From the course: Microsoft Data: SharePoint, Power Platform, Access, Excel

Expand charting to multiple data sources with PowerPivot

From the course: Microsoft Data: SharePoint, Power Platform, Access, Excel

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Expand charting to multiple data sources with PowerPivot

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- [Instructor] Sometimes you've got data that already exists in a variety of places. Maybe it's in different Excel workbooks, or maybe it's in Excel and SharePoint or some other database. If you wanted to create a chart or graph that represents this, could you do it without having to copy everything over into a single location? Guess what, the answer is, yes, you can. There are actually a couple of ways that work pretty well. The first one we'll look at is Microsoft Power Pivot. "Wait," you're saying, "we already know about pivot tables." Well, Power Pivot is actually a different thing. You're just confused because Microsoft has too many products with similar names, Power Pivot, Power Tables, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI. It's all a little overpowering, but Power Pivot is a free add-on to Excel that lets you create relationships between data that has elements in common. In effect, you're setting up a relational database within Excel. There is one drawback. Power Pivot is meant to be used with the desktop version of Excel. So if you're using Excel online, this option will not be available there. To get started with Power Pivot, from the desktop version of Excel, click the File tab in the ribbon menu, then select the options link in the left navigation. In the Excel Options dialog menu, click Add-ins. You'll see a display of the active and inactive add-ins that are already installed in Excel. Go down to the Managed field at the bottom of the dialog and click the small arrow to expand the choice menu. Then select COM Add-ins and click Go. Select Power Pivot and Power View, and then click OK. If you don't see them here, it may mean that your system administrator has not enabled them for your organization. You will need to speak to them before you can do anything else. Once you've activated Power Pivot, it has its own tab in the ribbon menu. Importing data sources, setting up relationships, and building tables and charts is frankly a bit complex and it's more than I can explain at this time. However, a lot of information is available in the online course library, including a course of mine dedicated primarily to linking Power Pivot with list data from SharePoint. I highly recommend that you check this product out if you need to connect data from various sources and want to work with it in Excel.

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