when I search for a name in a list, say bill, the pivot table brings up all the bill's in the list. Then, if i type in say ahdkjdheu it will tell me, " no item of this name exists in the pivot table report. rename "bill" to "ahdkjdheu?

The problem with this (and its already happened to me) is that if a do a search and then accidentally mistype a name the next time I search, the pivot table brings up that error message and if your not paying attention and hit enter without reading the message, you will change the names.

I tried protecting the work sheet, but if you do that it will not allow you to edit the table, and if you select "allow pivot table use" then it will allow you to do the accidental name change.

If I am careful, i can use the pivot table with no problem. The problem is if someone else uses it then they can mess it all up. Right now I have another worksheet which took me a while to construct, which is essentially a pivot table made from scratch using v lookup. The worksheet works great, although the only negative thing is that when I search for a first name that is duplicated, it will not bring up all the names available, just the first on the list.