I posted recently about how you can amend a custom list to change the sequence of a slicer – read it here. Here is another tweak I learned from Mr Excel (Bill Jelen).

When creating monthly reports you often need to have a total column at the end. Well, you can add the word Total to your custom list. The warning is that it may affect the months if you drag more than one year’s worth of months. The word Total may appear between the years.

To create this custom list, create the list on a sheet – see image below.

This list starts in July which is the Australian financial year. Copy the list.

Press in sequence Alt F T this opens the Options dialog.

Click Advanced and then scroll all the way to the bottom and click the Edit Custom List button.

In the Custom Lists dialog, click the Import button and click OK and OK again.

Custom Lists Note: – custom lists only exist on the PC/laptop you create them on. If you email the file to someone else, they won’t be able to create a new list unless they create the custom list on their PC/laptop.

When you drag from July you now have an automatic Total on the end.

If you want this to work with Jul (3 letter abbreviation) you will need to create a separate custom list for that sequence as well.