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How to set a slicer default to multi-select in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

As shown in the screenshot below, by default, the "Multi-select" option is disabled when creating a slicer for filtering pivot tables. So, you need to click to enable it. For some Excel users, they need this "multi-select" option to be always enabled by default. This tutorial provides two ways to help you with this task.

set a slicer default to multi-select

Set a slicer default to multi-select in Excel with VBA code
Make a slicer default to multi-select in Excel by holding the Ctrl key

Set a slicer default to multi-select in Excel with VBA code

This section provides a VBA code to help you set a pivot table slicer default to multi-select in Excel. Please do as follows.

1. Press the Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. In the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, double click ThisWorkbook in the Project- VBAProject pane, and then copy the following VBA code into the ThisWorkbook (Code) window.

VBA code: set pivot table slicer default to multi-select

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.Range(Array("Branch")).Select
SendKeys "%S"
DoEvents
End Sub

copy and paste the code into Thisworkbook module

Note: In the code, “Branch” is the name of the slicer. You can check the name of the slicer by selecting the slicer, clicking Options, then find the name in the Slicer Caption text box in the Slicer group. See screenshot:

find the name in the Slicer Caption text box in the Slicer group

3. Press the F5 key to run the code, you can see the “Multi-Select” option is enabled at once.

run the code to enable the Multi-Select option

4. Save the code and press the Alt + Q keys to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

To enable the “Multi-Select” option on a slicer by default, you need to save the workbook as an Excel macro-enabled workbook.

When it returns to the workbook, click File > Save As > Browse.

click File > Save As > Browse

5. In the Save As dialog box, you need to:

5.1) Select a folder to save the file;
5.2) Give the file a new name as you need;
5.3) Select Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook in the Save as type drop-down list;
5.4) Click the Save button. See screenshot:

set options in the Save As dialog box

From now on, when opening the workbook and clicking the Enable Macro button, the “Multi-Select” option on the specified slicer will be enabled immediately.

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Make a slicer default to multi-select in Excel by holding the Ctrl key

If you don’t want to apply VBA code to enable the multi-select of the slicer. Here we introduce you a little trick to get it done without enabling the “Multi-Select” option.

Each time you need to select multiple values in a slicer, just hold down the Ctrl key and click on those values one by one.

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