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Slicers provide buttons that you can click to filter tables, or PivotTables. In addition to quick filtering, slicers also indicate the current filtering state, which makes it easy to understand what exactly is currently displayed.

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You can use a slicer to filter data in a table or PivotTable with ease.

  1. Click anywhere in the table or PivotTable.

  2. On the Insert tab, select Slicer.

    Insert Slicer
  3. In the Insert Slicers dialog box, select the check boxes for the fields you want to display, then select OK.

  4. A slicer will be created for every field that you selected. Clicking any of the slicer buttons will automatically apply that filter to the linked table or PivotTable.

    Notes: 

    • To select more than one item, hold Ctrl, and then select the items that you want to show.

    • To clear a slicer's filters, select Clear Filter Delete in the slicer.

  1. You can adjust your slicer preferences in the Slicer tab (in newer versions of Excel), or the Design tab (Excel 2016 and older versions) on the ribbon.

  2. On the Slicer or Design tab, select a color style that you want.

Note: Select and hold the corner of a slicer to adjust and resize it.

If you have a slicer on a PivotTable already, you can use that same slicer to filter another PivotTable. 

Note: Slicers can only be connected to PivotTables that share the same data source.

  1. First create a PivotTable that is based on the same data source as the PivotTable that already has the slicer want to reuse.

  2. Select the slicer that you want to share in another PivotTable. This displays the Slicer tab.

  3. On the Slicer tab, select Report Connections.

  4. In the dialog box, select the check box of the PivotTable in which you want the slicer to be available.

  1. Click anywhere in the PivotTable to which slicer you want to disconnect. This displays the PivotTable Analyze tab.

  2. Select the PivotTable Analyze tab, and then select Filter Connections.

  3. In the dialog box, clear the check box of any PivotTable fields for which slicer you want to disconnect.

Do one of the following:

  • Select the slicer, and then press Delete.

  • Right-click the slicer, and then select Remove <Name of Slicer>.

A slicer typically displays the following components:

PivotTable slicer elements

1. A slicer header indicates the category of the items in the slicer.

2. A filtering button that is not selected indicates that the item is not included in the filter.

3. A filtering button that is selected indicates that the item is included in the filter.

4. A Clear Filter button removes the filter by selecting all items in the slicer.

5. A scroll bar enables scrolling when there are more items than are currently visible in the slicer.

6. Border moving and resizing controls allow you to change the size and location of the slicer.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in Communities.

See Also

Filter data in a PivotTable

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