How to
Pivot Table Formatting
Format generated pivot columns (the unique values of your column fields) like a normal table, and override values on detected body rows.
Updated August 14, 2026
A pivot table turns source fields into a new grid. If you put fields on Columns, their unique values become new columns (for example East, West, North). Those generated columns can each have their own number formatting, the same way a regular table formats each column.
Open formatting settings
- Open the pivot table widget and go to Visualization Setting.
- Open Data Formatting.
- Under Column Formatting, pick a generated column from the dropdown. Under Row Formatting, pick a detected body row from the dropdown.
Measure formatting in Pivot Fields → Show As is still the default. A column or row format overrides it for those cells.
Column formatting
After you add one or more fields to Columns and at least one Value, Data Formatting lists each generated column (and each measure under it when there are multiple values).
For each generated column you can set:
- Number, currency, or percentage
- Prefix, suffix, and cell alignment
- Precision, locale, grouping, and compact notation (where they apply)
Leave a column on Default to keep the measure’s format from Pivot Fields.
Row Total columns appear in this list when Show Row Totals is on.
Row formatting
Rows are detected from the pivot layout. Each body row (including subtotal rows) is listed with its category label. The Grand Total row is not included.
Leave a row on Default to keep column or measure formatting. When both a row format and a column format apply to the same cell, the row format wins.
Targeted conditional styling
Under the same Column Formatting or Row Formatting dropdown, you can add conditional style rules (greater than, equals, colors, and so on). Those rules apply only to the selected generated column or body row.
Pivot-wide Conditional Styling in Style (or Pivot Fields) is unchanged: those rules still run across the whole table.
If a cell matches both a row rule and a column rule, use When row and column styles conflict at the top of Data Formatting: Prefer row (default) or Prefer column.
Header labels
Category labels on row and column headers can still be formatted from Pivot Fields (Format As on a row or column field). That changes the header text only, not the numeric cells.