I have a table of employees with their work location (state initials) and their work status (FMLA leave, part time, full time). I've made a pivot table so that I can see the number of employees in each state relative to their status. Making the pivot table is easy, and it looks like this:
My question relates to the column field name cell (highlighted in red). When the table is first created, Excel auto fits the columns. However, if you look at the picture, it is clear that ideally the FMLA, FT, and PT, columns should all be the same size for the table to look good. I can resize the columns, of course, and set the table to not auto size when it refreshes.
When I resize the columns the table now looks like this:
Two problems with the new layout. First, it is not clear at all that the "Employee Status" field name applies to all three columns FMLA, FT, PT. Second, with the first column being narrower "Employee Status" no longer fits. In Excel 2013, the field name is limited to just its column. In Excel 2016 it spills over to the next column, but has the filter pulldown in the middle of it! And of course the formatting doesn't spill over.
In a non-pivot, I would "merge" the three cells above the column headings and make "Employee Status" span all three cells. Leading to a much more intuitive look. However, "merge" cannot be used in pivot tables. My only work around at the moment is to Hide the row with the field name, and put a new row above it that is not part of the pivot table. Ends up looking good, but of course, it will not dynamically adjust if a new value is added to "Employee Status".
I'm looking for other recommendations on how to format this table so it ends up looking like this:
Ideally solution will work with Excel 2013, which unfortunately is what I'm limited to.