Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

Francis — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:37:30 GMT

An easy solution to the metric question would be to allow users to enter pixel values in the Column Width/Row Height dialogs as follows:

User enters: 30 -> old metrics

User enters: 30px -> pixels!

Word lets users manually enter any unit of measurement they please*, even mixing various ones in a dialog.

* With the notable exception of parsecs and furlongs.

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

SteveA — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:15:02 GMT

Dave

Well you asked. I am completely redoing my back garden after removing an outdoor swimming pool (not such a good idea with UK weather). Plan to have some small fruit trees, raised beds for vegetables, and a mixture of shrubs and perennials. Familar problem though, requested features from the whole family exceed the limited space available.

Perhaps row/col size should be made consistant in a future release of Excel. But Sam's macro works just fine (thanks again Sam).

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

David Gainer — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:48:02 GMT

Hi all – thanks for the comments.

To everyone that commented on problems getting solver installed/working - there were known issues with the public beta, but things should work pretty well in the beta refresh coming very soon. My mistake for not mentioning it – please give it a whirl in the beta refresh.

SteveA – What are you gardening? I am a big fan of heaths and heathers. With respect to the units we use for row/col sizes … our metric is based on the average character size for the default font, so not only is it inconsistent wrt width/height, but it varies across fonts/systems. Perhaps a better approach is to use Ctrl+A, then resize one row and one column with the mouse. The pixel size shown in parenthesis should allow you to get things squared up pretty easily. Sam and others have also provided suggestions.

A User – thanks for the feedback.

Francis – thanks for the feedback. Feel free to email me with specific suggestions.

Harlan, yes the former ATP functions will now act like the rest of the function library wrt internationalization. See the comments in this post: blogs.msdn.com/.../483205.aspx

Shawn S – the formulas in the ATP have been built-in as native functions this release. See blogs.msdn.com/.../483205.aspx.

JP3 – Excel 2007 comes with a series of new fuctions that allow you to create free-form reports against multi-dimensional data sources. See this post and the next four for details: blogs.msdn.com/.../483205.aspx

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

Andre T. — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:17:56 GMT

I followed the instructions for ATP and solver but there I have no "Analysis" group in the Data ribbon. What should I do? Aside from reinstalling the whole program.

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

Shawn S. — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 04:19:13 GMT

Personally, I would have hoped that the Analysis Toolpak would have become automatically "included" in Excel - just like all the other functions. I don't really understand why it exists as a separate add-on.

I know I will run into (minor) difficulties when sharing workbooks that use the ATP with other users - and I resist using the ATP functions except when necessary...

So why is ATP a separate add-in anyway?

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

JP3 — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 06:33:13 GMT

This is perhaps not the best place to post, but I have a question about the MSFT "Excel Addin for SSAS" and its future in relation to Office 2007.

I can see that the new Pivot Table functionality makes the addin largely redundant...but what about the ability to construct "free form" reports? Is there going to an equivalent for Excel 2007 or is the intention to rely on SSRS to provide this type of complex report construction?

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

A User — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:34:11 GMT

Sam - "1/72 th of an inch or some thing crazy like that."

That crazy thing is called a point. It has been so called for centuries by typesetters.

What is crazy here is the use of "character width" as a unit of measure, since it is variable.

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

Lynn Wermers — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:34:06 GMT

Solver seemed to install for me but it doesn't show up on the Data ribbon.

I am missing the entire Analysis group on the Data tab.

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

SteveA — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:24:58 GMT

Sam

Thanks for your code. I shall use it.

Steve

re: Hey, Where Did Solver Go?

sam — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:39:21 GMT

Harlan....

I dont use the sampling from Data analysis to get a data sample any more...

I use advance filter.

Try this

a) Take a table of data - say 1000 rows (could be neumeric or text...unlike the Sampling of data analysis which requires data to be neumeric ---dumb !)

b) In a cell type =Rand()<0.02 - This means you want a 2% sample

c) Select the table - Data-advance filter, copy to another location, criteria range = cell containing the rand formula and the cell above it...

d) In the output range select any cell outside the range... and you get a random sample....

Havent figured out why or how it works...

Credit to Jim Cihar....www.dataspectrum.cz

Sam