Data Summarising

Being in the 'Administrative Industry', I research for, receive, collate and manipulate data in many ways...I was just never sure which app to use and which method/formula was the fastest to produce exactly what I wanted...
Needless to say I think I know this now but I am open to suggestions and welcome all sorts of feedback, advise or whatever input you think would be worthwhile.

I have just learned about Pivot Tables in MSExcel / DataPilots as it is called in OpenOffice Calc...WoW..and did I say WoW yet? I have been on this statistical data high all weekend and it gets worse everytime I add more columns to my table...more columns means more data, means more summarising of data and looking at things in a different light...

I give you the Wiki meaning...

Okay, so now that you on par, here's what you should then know/claim to understand...

and if you still don't know what I'm talking about, go try it for yourself...
Link 1 -Excel
Link 2 - Excel
Link 3 - Excel
Link 4 - Datapilots