Applications that you can use to design or modify a PivotTable list

A PivotTable list is a component that you create and design in one program, the design program, for use in another program, the run-time program. PivotTable lists are intended primarily for use in the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser, version 4.01 or later.

Depending on the content of your Web page and the tasks that users will perform with your PivotTable list, some programs might be better suited to your design task than others. You can start creating a Web page and adding components, including PivotTable lists, in one design program, and then open the Web page in another program to do further work.

For example, if you have designed a PivotTable report in Microsoft Excel, you can use Excel to save or publish this report to a PivotTable list on a Web page. If you want to customize the resulting PivotTable list to change the default settings, or if you want to add other controls to the page, you can then open and modify the Web page in Microsoft FrontPage.

See the Help for the design program you want to use to find out whether the program supports designing PivotTable lists, and to learn its procedures for creating and modifying one.

If you want to try different layouts and adjust the source data you make available for your PivotTable list, Excel is an excellent design environment. You can access external data within Excel and create an Excel PivotTable report. From Excel, you save or publish a PivotTable report to a PivotTable list on a Web page. (A PivotTable report is the Excel version of a PivotTable list.) The source data you specified in Excel is automatically attached to the PivotTable list, and most Excel PivotTable report features are included when you publish.

You might want to format the PivotTable list and make adjustments to its size and appearance in another design program. If any of the users of your Web page have Internet Explorer version 4.x, be sure to use FrontPage to modify PivotTable lists published from Excel. Excel publishes PivotTable lists to Web pages with support for Internet Explorer 4.x and later, and FrontPage maintains this support. If you modify a Web page that was published from Excel in Microsoft Access by using data access page Design view, however, your users might need to install Internet Explorer 5 in addition to Internet Explorer 4.x before they can use your Web page.

FrontPage is the recommended design program for creating PivotTable lists for users who have Internet Explorer version 4.x, and for modifying PivotTable lists saved or published from Excel. In FrontPage, you can create PivotTable lists on Web pages, modify PivotTable lists that were designed in other programs, and then use the features of FrontPage to construct and manage your Web site.

Access provides specialized features for creating Web pages that operate on and display data from Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server databases. For example, you can use the field list to locate data and drag it onto a PivotTable list. You can establish links between PivotTable lists and other controls that display and manipulate data from databases on a Web page. If a page includes data other than that displayed in a PivotTable list or other Microsoft Office Web Component, users of your Web page must have Internet Explorer 5 or later to view the page.

If you need a more comprehensive programming environment than the scripting capabilities of Excel, FrontPage, and Access provide, you can design PivotTable lists in the Microsoft Visual Basic. Use Visual Basic when you want to include a PivotTable list in a custom solution. Users can view and interact with PivotTable lists on the Visual Basic forms in your programs. Instead of a browser, your form becomes the run-time environment, and your program can automate many PivotTable list features.