Part IV: Managing and Analyzing Data
No Solver Command?
You access Solver by choosing Data ➪ Analyze ➪ Solver. If this command isn’t available, you need to
install the Solver add-in. It’s a simple process:
- Choose File ➪ Options. The Excel Options dialog box appears.
- Select the Add-Ins tab.
- At the bottom of the dialog box, select Excel Add-Ins from the Manage drop-down
list and then click Go. The Add-Ins dialog box appears.
- Place a check mark next to Solver Add-In and then click OK.
After you perform these steps, the Solver add-in loads whenever you start Excel.
Seeing a simple Solver example
We start with a simple example to introduce Solver and then present some increasingly
complex examples to demonstrate what this feature can do.
Figure 32.4 shows a worksheet that is set up to calculate the profit for three products.
Column B shows the number of units of each product, Column C shows the profit per unit
for each product, and Column D contains formulas that calculate the total profit for each
product by multiplying the units by the profit per unit.
FIGURE 32.4
Use Solver to determine the number of units to maximize the total profit.
This workbook, named three products.xlsx, is available on this book’s website at http://www.
wiley.com/go/excel2019bible.
