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Pivot Chart Instructions

Pivot tables are a wonderful way to help students look at a large body of data. While this giude is written for classes using Census at School datasets, pivot tables can be used with any contiguous dataset.

These instructions assume you have downloaded and shared the results of the Census at School survey. If you haven't done so, you can get more information on the Census at Schoo website from the  Teachers' Help Page or you can watch a video on Teacher Tube on "Census at School: Getting the class results."

Please pick the software you'll be using from the list at the bottom of the page.

  • Microsoft Office 2003 (Windows)
  • Microsoft Office 2003 (Mac) - coming soon
  • Microsoft Office 2007 (Windows) - coming soon
  • Calc from OpenOffice.org (Ubuntu Linux) - coming soon
  • NeoOffice (Mac OSX - Snow Leopard) - coming soon

Hints

  • Often when downloading the results as a csv file, there might be an extra blank row in row 2. This row must be deleted before being shared with the students.
  • Sometimes Mac computers in the Calgary Board of Education try to open class.csv with Appleworks. Close Appleworks, right-click (or control-click) to pull up the context menu and select Open With... to select Excel
  • Most of the newer Mac computers in the CBE will be able to download and use the Excel file. The only extra step is changing the downloaded file from Class.asp to Class.xls. Older computers will need to use the csv file.
  • iLife 9 does not support  pivot tables. Consider using either OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice. Both are free and run on OS X.