Google says Sheets now keeps compact Excel pivot layouts on import
The layout also survives the trip back to Excel, Google says, and the change is reaching accounts in stages.
Google says Excel pivot tables in compact form now keep that layout when imported into Sheets, and keep it if the file goes back to Excel. Until now, the company says, Sheets switched them to outline form on import, which changed their structure. The announcement speaks only to pivot layout.
Both layouts are now offered in the pivot table editor. Compact nests every row field in one indented column, with buttons to expand and collapse levels, while outline gives each row field a column of its own. Google says compact form cuts horizontal scrolling.
Microsoft's documentation describes three PivotTable forms in Excel: compact, outline and tabular. In compact form, it says, row labels use less space and leave more room for numeric data.
The feature appears gradually, taking up to 15 days in each phase. Workspace domains on the Rapid Release track began on October 22, and those on the later Scheduled Release track begin on November 6. It covers all Workspace customers and personal Google accounts, and administrators get no setting for it.