Field Name Error Msg

[Dax Arroway]

I've got a workbook with many sheets. One sheet has pivot tables on it and
one other has charts, charting data pulled from the pivot tables.

When I open the workbook I get three errors, one after the other, which say:
The PivotTable field name is not valid. To create a PivotTable report, you
must use data that is organized as a list with labeled columns. If you are
changing the name of a PivotTable field, you must type a new name for the
field.

That's all well and good but I'm not the only one who uses this workbook and
I don't know where these errors are coming from. Someone else changed
something and now I'm left with trying to figure out what happened. My
problem is that I don't know how to go about finding where these field names
are that need to be "changed back" or "re-written" or "fixed", and I'm
obviously not a brilliant enough Excel user to figure it out. Can anyone
please help with simple directions on how to resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance for any help!
Dax Arroway

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

The first error message "The PivotTable field name is not valid." can occur
if a field name is missing, you must have a title in every cell of the first
row of the pivot table.

The second error message "To create a PivotTable report, you
must use data that is organized as a list with labeled columns. " is
probably reporting the same problem.

The third error message "If you are changing the name of a PivotTable field,
you must type a new name for the field. " is again probably triggered by the
same problem.

Sincerely,
Shane Devenshire

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

Do you know where the data for the pivot tables is stored? Do all the
pivot tables use the same data?

You can right-click on a pivot table cell, and choose PivotTable Wizard.
Then click the Back button, to see if that shows you the source range.
If there's a Get Data button, the data is stored outside of the workbook.

If it's stored on a sheet in the same workbook, make sure every column
in the source data table has a heading.
If it's a named range, it may use a dynamic formula that counts the rows
and columns on the worksheet. If someone has added other data on the
worksheet, that would add extra columns to the count, and the pivot
table wouldn't work correctly.

 

[Dax Arroway]

Thank you! That did it. Someone had come along and added a header in row 1.
So the source range was "Demographics!$F:$F" needed to be changed to
"Demographics!$F$2:$F500" to ignore the added header which is blank and use
the secont row as the header.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!
YOU ROCK!

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

You're welcome! Thanks for describing how you fixed the problem.