PowerPivot for Excel

1. Go to the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=258219).
2. Download either the x86 (32-bit) or the x64 (64-bit) version of PowerPivot_for_Excel.msi installation program. The version of the add-in must correspond to the version of Excel on your computer. To determine whether you are using 32-bit or 64-bit software, look at the C:\Program Files folder.
   Download x86\PowerPivot_for_Excel_x86.msi if you have only “C:\Program Files”. Both the operating system and Office 2010 are 32-bit.
   Download x86\PowerPivot_for_Excel_x86.msi if you have both “C:\Program Files” and “C:\Program Files (x86)”, and the Excel.exe application file is found in “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14”. The operating system is 64-bit, but the version of Office is 32-bit.
   Download x64\PowerPivot_for_Excel_amd64.msi if you have both “C:\Program Files” and “C:\Program Files (x86)”, and the Excel.exe application file is found in “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14”. Both the operating system and Office 2010 are 64-bit.
3. Double-click the .msi file to start the Setup wizard. Click Run.
4. Click Next to get started.
5. Accept the license agreement, and then click Next.
6. Enter your name, and then click Next.
7. Click Install.
8. Click Finish.

Verify Installation

Start Excel. After you install the add-in, you can open the PowerPivot window by clicking the PowerPivot tab on the Excel ribbon, and then clicking PowerPivot Window. An empty PowerPivot window opens over the Excel application window. You can then use the Import Wizard to add tables of data, create relationships between the tables, enrich the data with calculations and expressions, and then use this data to create PivotTables and PivotCharts. For more information about PowerPivot for Excel, see Learn About PowerPivot Capabilities and Take a Tour of the PowerPivot UI.

Differences between Excel and PowerPivot Workbooks

As mentioned above, there are differences between the PowerPivot window and the Excel window in terms of how you work with data in each. There are some also other important differences that we want to call out specifically:

• PowerPivot data can be saved in workbooks that have the following file types: Excel Workbook (*.xlsx), Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm), and Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb). PowerPivot data is not supported in workbooks with other formats.
• The PowerPivot window does not support Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). You can use VBA in the Excel window of a PowerPivot workbook.
• In Excel PivotTables, you can group data by right-clicking a column heading and selecting Group. This feature is often used to group data by date. In PivotTables that are based on PowerPivot data, you use calculated columns to achieve similar functionality. For more information, see Grouping Dates.