How To Save Excel Pivot Table Format: Easy Guide

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Pivot tables are an incredibly useful tool in Microsoft Excel for summarizing and analyzing large amounts of data. They allow you to dynamically reorganize and aggregate your data, revealing insights that might be hard to spot in a raw data table. However, one challenge people often face is preserving the formatting they’ve applied to a pivot table, such as column widths, number formats, fonts, colors, and more.

It can be frustrating to spend time getting a pivot table looking just right, only to have to redo that work when refreshing the data or building a new pivot table. Fortunately, there’s a way to save your pivot table formats in Excel so you can quickly reapply them anytime. In this article, we’ll walk through the steps to save a pivot table format and share some tips for managing and using your custom templates effectively.

Why Save a Pivot Table Format?

Before diving into the how-to, let’s consider why you might want to save a pivot table format in the first place. There are a few key benefits:

1. Consistency – If you’re creating multiple pivot tables that should have a similar look and feel, saving a format ensures consistency. This is especially valuable if you’re preparing reports for clients or executives where a polished, professional appearance matters.
2. Efficiency – Formatting a pivot table to your liking can be time-consuming, with many options to tweak like fonts, colors, number formats, and column sizes. Once you’ve got a format you’re happy with, saving it lets you instantly reapply it to future pivot tables, saving significant time and effort.
3. Flexibility – Saving formats separately from your data gives you the freedom to reuse them even if the underlying data changes. You can refresh your pivot tables or even build them from entirely new data sets, and still be able to apply your standard formatting with just a couple clicks.

Step-by-Step: Saving a Pivot Table Format

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of actually saving a pivot table format in Excel. We’ll break it down into clear steps.

Step 1: Format Your Pivot Table

The first step is to create a pivot table and apply all the formatting you want to save. This can include:

• Adjusting column widths and row heights
• Setting font styles, sizes and colors
• Applying fill colors to cells or entire rows/columns
• Defining number formats, like currency or percentages
• Adding borders and shading

Basically, make your pivot table look exactly how you want it to appear by default. As an example, let’s say we have a pivot table summarizing some sales data by region and product category:

We might format this with a bold header row, currency number format, alternating row shading, and auto-fitted column widths.

Step 2: Select a Cell in the Pivot Table

With your pivot table formatted, the next step is to select any single cell inside the pivot table. This lets Excel know which pivot table you want to work with.

Step 3: Navigate to PivotTable Analyze / Options

The exact navigation for this step depends on your version of Excel:

• In Excel 2016, 2021 and Microsoft 365, go to the PivotTable Analyze tab on the ribbon
• In Excel 2010 and 2013, go to the Options tab under PivotTable Tools

This tab contains various tools and settings specific to the selected pivot table.

Step 4: Click on Save As Template

Within the PivotTable Analyze or Options tab, locate the Save As Template button. In some versions it’s under the Options section. Click this to open the Save As Template dialog box.

Step 5: Name and Save Your Template

In the Save As dialog, Excel will default to saving in the standard templates folder, usually located at:
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

You can choose a different folder if you prefer, but using the default Templates folder keeps things organized and makes your templates easy to find later.

Give your template a descriptive name in the File name field, like “Sales Pivot Format” or “Color-Coded Pivot Template”. This will help you identify and retrieve it later.

Click Save and Excel will save your pivot table format as a template file with the .xltx extension.

Step 6: Applying Your Saved Format to a New Pivot Table

To use your saved pivot table format, start by creating a new pivot table from your data as usual. Don’t worry about formatting it at this point.

Once your new pivot table is ready, go back to the PivotTable Analyze or Options tab and click on the Apply Template button, right next to where you found Save As Template earlier.

In the Apply Template dialog, browse to the location where you saved your template (.xltx) file, select it, and click Open.

Excel will immediately apply all the formatting from your saved template to the new pivot table. It should now look identical to your original formatted version, regardless of the underlying data.

Managing Your Saved Pivot Table Templates

As you create more pivot table templates, it’s a good idea to develop a system for organizing and managing them. Here are a few tips:

• Use descriptive names – Give your templates clear, specific names so you can quickly find the right one later. Include details like the type of data it’s for or the formatting style.
• Organize with folders – If you have many templates, consider creating subfolders within the main Templates directory to categorize them by project, department, or usage.
• Share templates – If you’re part of a team that often works with similar pivot tables, share your templates so everyone can benefit from consistent formatting. You can distribute the .xltx template files via email, shared network drives, or collaboration tools like SharePoint or Teams.
• Update templates – If you find yourself tweaking a saved format often, don’t forget to re-save the template so your changes are preserved for future use. You can overwrite the existing .xltx file.

Final Thoughts

Saving custom pivot table formats is a simple but powerful way to streamline your Excel workflow and generate polished, professional reports faster. By spending a little time upfront to design and save your ideal formatting, you’ll save time and ensure consistency in the long run.

Remember to give your templates clear names, organize them for easy access, and share them with your team if appropriate. With your formatting handled automatically via saved templates, you can focus on what matters most – diving into your data to uncover valuable insights and make informed decisions.

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Vaishvi Desai

Vaishvi Desai is the founder of Excelsamurai and a passionate Excel enthusiast with years of experience in data analysis and spreadsheet management. With a mission to help others harness the power of Excel, Vaishvi shares her expertise through concise, easy-to-follow tutorials on shortcuts, formulas, Pivot Tables, and VBA.