246 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 Clear a Data Table Because a data table consists of an array formula, you have to clear the whole of it at once rather than just part of it. (See “Work with Array Formulas,” in Chapter 8, for an explanation of array formulas.) If you try to clear just part of the data table, Excel displays this error message box: To clear the values from the data table, select the range of cells that contains the values, and then choose Edit | Clear | Contents or press DELETE. Make sure you don’t select any formula cells. To clear a data table entirely, select every cell in the range it occupies, including all cells that contain formulas, and then choose Edit | Clear | All. Explore Alternative Data Sets with Scenarios Excel’s scenarios feature lets you define and use alternative data sets within the same workbook. Instead of creating a separate version of a workbook and using it to experiment with different values or different formulas, you can use scenarios to experiment more comfortably without damaging your main workbook. Better yet, you can create a what-if model in a workbook, share it with your colleagues so that they can admire your scenarios and perhaps create their own, and track the results of the changes your colleagues make to the scenarios. Create the Worksheet You Want to Manipulate with Scenarios The first step in using scenarios is to create the worksheet you want to manipulate and to define names for the cells whose values will be manipulable in the scenarios. Defining names isn’t necessary, because you can refer to cells by their references instead, but names make the process so much clearer that you’ll almost always want to define them. Create the worksheet by using the methods you’ve learned so far in this book. Figure 12-1 shows the worksheet I’ll use for examples in the following sections. It summarizes the sales, costs, profit, profitability, and contribution to profitability of the six categories of products that the microbrewery we’ve visited already in this book makes. The worksheet is relatively straightforward: ■ The figures in the Sales column are total sales figures drawn from the underlying worksheets. The total at the bottom of the column adds the sales figures together. ■ The figures in the Costs column are total costs figures (production and distribution costs) drawn from the underlying worksheets. The total at the bottom of the column adds the costs figures together. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:39 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 12 CHAPTER 12: Solve Problems by Performing What-If Analysis 247 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 ■ The figures in the Profit column are calculated by subtracting each product’s costs from its sales. The total at the bottom of the column adds the profit figures together. ■ The percentages in the Profitability column are calculated by dividing each product’s profit by its total sales. The figure at the bottom of the column is the overall profitability, calculated by dividing the total profit by the total sales. ■ The percentages in the Contribution column are calculated by dividing each product’s profit by the company’s total profit (cell D11). The total at the bottom of the column adds the contribution figures to confirm that they represent 100 percent and that nothing is missing. The brewery’s management team will use scenarios to examine what happens when they change the figures in the Sales column and the Costs column. To help the team see instantly which value they’re manipulating, each of the figures in the Sales column and the Costs column (apart from the totals) has a descriptive name defined for it: Health_Sales, Health_Costs, Feedstuffs_Sales, Feedstuffs_Costs, and so on. The longer names are shortened a little (Health instead of Health Products, Std Lager instead of Standard Lager, and so on) because the Scenario Values dialog box truncates longer labels. After creating the worksheet, save it (press CTRL-S) before proceeding. Open the Scenario Manager Dialog Box To work with scenarios, you use the Scenario Manager dialog box (choose Tools | Scenarios). Figure 12-2 shows the Scenario Manager dialog box as it first appears when you display it in a workbook that contains no scenarios. FIGURE 12-1 The sample worksheet used for scenarios P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:40 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 248 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 Create a Scenario for Your Starting Point Before you add any other scenarios, create a scenario that represents the starting point for the worksheet. This scenario enables you and other users to easily return to the starting values and assumptions for the worksheet. To create a scenario for your starting point, follow these steps: 1. If the Scenario Manager dialog box isn’t already displayed, choose Tools | Scenarios to display it. 2. Click the Add button to display the Add Scenario dialog box (Figure 12-3). 3. Enter the name (for example, Starting Scenario) in the Scenario Name text box. 4. Click in the Changing Cells text box, and then select the cells in the spreadsheet that will be changeable in the scenario: ■ Click and drag to select contiguous cells. CTRL-click to add noncontiguous cells to the current selection. ■ Excel automatically collapses the Add Scenario dialog box while you select cells in the worksheet, so you don’t need to click the Collapse Dialog button to collapse the dialog box manually. Excel restores the dialog box after you finish making a selection. ■ After you make a selection, Excel changes the dialog box’s title from Add Scenario to Edit Scenario. Otherwise, the dialog box remains the same. FIGURE 12-2 Use the Scenario Manager dialog box to create and manipulate scenarios. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:40 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 12 CHAPTER 12: Solve Problems by Performing What-If Analysis 249 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 5. Enter a comment (if appropriate) in the Comment text box. 6. Select or clear the Prevent Changes check box and the Hide check box as necessary. See the next section, “Add Further Scenarios,” for details on these check boxes. 7. Click the OK button to close the Edit Scenario dialog box. Excel displays the Scenario Values dialog box, displaying the current values for each of the changeable cells: 8. For the starting scenario, you don’t need to change the existing values. Click the OK button to close the Scenario Values dialog box. Excel returns you to the Scenario Manager dialog box. FIGURE 12-3 Start by using the Add Scenario dialog box to create a scenario that represents the starting point for the worksheet. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:40 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 250 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 Add Further Scenarios To add another scenario, repeat the steps you took to create the starting scenario, but with these differences: ■ Enter a different (and descriptive) name for the scenario in the Add Scenario dialog box. ■ Change the selection of changeable cells only if necessary. Excel automatically suggests those cells that are defined in the first scenario you defined. ■ Change the appropriate values in the Scenario Values dialog box to effect changes in the worksheet. As well as typing values, you can enter formulas in the Scenario Values dialog box to change the existing cell contents. For example, to see what effect a 25 percent decrease in costs would look like, enter =.75* before the existing value. Excel displays this message box to tell you that it has converted the formula result to a value; click the OK button: ■ Select the Prevent Changes check box if you want to prevent changes to the scenario. After selecting this check box, you need to implement protection by using a Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet command. See “Protect Cells, a Worksheet, or a Workbook,” in Chapter 14, for an explanation of protecting worksheets and workbooks. ■ Select the Hide check box if you want to hide the scenario from other users. After selecting this check box, you need to implement protection by using a Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet command. Edit and Delete Existing Scenarios To edit an existing scenario, select its entry in the Scenarios list box in the Scenario Manager dialog box, click the Edit button, and then work in the Edit Scenario dialog box. Excel automatically adds details of the modification to the comment attached to the scenario—for example, Modified by Jason Acme on 11/22/2003. After making such edits as are needed, click the OK button. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:40 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 12 CHAPTER 12: Solve Problems by Performing What-If Analysis 251 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 To delete a scenario, select its entry in the Scenarios list box in the Scenario Manager dialog box and click the Delete button. Excel deletes the scenario without confirmation. Switch from One Scenario to Another To switch from one scenario to another, follow these steps: 1. Choose Tools | Scenarios to display the Scenario Manager dialog box. 2. Select the scenario in the Scenarios list box. 3. Click the Show button to display the scenario in the workbook. 4. Click the Close button to close the Scenario Manager dialog box. That’s easy enough, but it takes a handful of clicks or keystrokes. If you need to switch more easily from one scenario to another, add the Scenario drop-down list to a toolbar that you keep displayed on screen. You’ll find the Scenario drop-down list in the Tools category on the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box. (See “Customize Toolbars,” in Chapter 17, for instructions on customizing toolbars.) You can then switch instantly from one scenario to another by using the Scenario drop-down list: Merge Scenarios into a Single Worksheet Often, you’ll need to share workbooks containing scenarios with your colleagues so that they can create new scenarios. When you receive the workbooks back, you can merge the scenarios they contain back into your master workbook. You can also use Excel’s scenario-merging capability to merge scenarios from one worksheet into another worksheet. To merge scenarios, follow these steps: 1. Open each workbook that contains scenarios you want to merge. 2. Activate the workbook and worksheet into which you want to merge the scenarios. 3. Choose Tools | Scenarios to display the Scenario Manager dialog box. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:40 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 252 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 4. Click the Merge button to display the Merge Scenarios dialog box: 5. Select the source workbook in the Book drop-down list. Excel lists the workbook’s worksheets in the Sheet list box. 6. In the Sheet list box, select the worksheet that contains the scenarios. Excel displays the number of scenarios on the worksheet in the readout below the Sheet list box. 7. Click the OK button to merge the scenarios. If any scenario you’re merging has the same name as a scenario in the destination workbook, Excel adds the creator’s name and date to the scenario name to distinguish it. Create Reports from Scenarios Excel can create either a summary report or a PivotTable report from scenarios. To create a report, follow these steps: 1. Choose Tools | Scenarios to display the Scenario Manager dialog box. 2. Click the Summary button to display the Scenario Summary dialog box: 3. Select the Scenario Summary option button or the Scenario PivotTable Report option button as appropriate. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:41 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 12 CHAPTER 12: Solve Problems by Performing What-If Analysis 253 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 4. In the Result Cells text box, enter references for the cells that you want the report to contain. As usual, either type the references (separating them with commas) or select the cells in the worksheet by clicking, dragging, or CTRL-clicking. If necessary, click the Collapse Dialog button to reduce the Scenario Summary dialog box to its essentials and get it out of the way. 5. Click the OK button to close the Scenario Summary dialog box. Excel creates the report. If you chose to create the summary report, Excel adds a new worksheet named Scenario Summary before the active worksheet and places the summary report on it (Figure 12-4). If you chose to create the PivotTable report, Excel adds a new worksheet before the active worksheet and places the PivotTable on it (Figure 12-5). You may need to format or manipulate the PivotTable to make it useful. FIGURE 12-4 A summary report created from three scenarios P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:41 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 254 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 Solve Problems with Goal Seek If you ever find yourself trying to work backward from the result you want to achieve, you may well find the Goal Seek feature valuable. For example, suppose you’re using your current sales worksheet as the basis for next year’s planning spreadsheets. The sales worksheet shows you how many units of each type of item have been sold and how much money that brings in—but you want to work out how many units of each type of item the company will need to sell in order to get sales up by another couple million dollars. You could create a new copy of the worksheet and try increasing the numbers until you reach the level needed. Or you could build a new version of the worksheet with formulas that work backward from your revenue target instead of forward to the revenue total. Or you could use Goal Seek, which can give you the information you need much more quickly. To use Goal Seek, follow these steps: 1. Open the workbook if it’s not already open. 2. Select the cell that contains the formula you’re interested in. FIGURE 12-5 A PivotTable report created from three scenarios P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:41 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen 12 CHAPTER 12: Solve Problems by Performing What-If Analysis 255 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3071-1 / Chapter 12 3. Choose Tools | Goal Seek to display the Goal Seek dialog box, shown in this illustration. The cell you selected in step 2 appears in the Set Cell box. (If you chose the wrong cell, type the reference for the correct cell, or click the Collapse Dialog button and select it.) 4. In the To Value text box, enter the target value for the formula. 5. In the By Changing Cell text box, type the reference for the cell whose value you want Goal Seek to manipulate. Alternatively, click the cell in the worksheet. If necessary, click the Collapse Dialog button to collapse the Goal Seek dialog box so that you can access the cell. 6. Click the OK button. Goal Seek computes the problem and then displays the Goal Seek Status dialog box: 7. Goal Seek automatically enters the target value it achieved and the By Changing Cell value it found in the worksheet. Click the OK button to accept these values, or click the Cancel button to reject them. Use the Solver to Manipulate Two or More Values As you saw in the previous section, Goal Seek is a powerful tool for working backward from a conclusion by manipulating a single value. But if you need to work backward by manipulating two or more values, Goal Seek can’t help. Instead, you need to use the Solver, one of the add-ins that comes with Excel. The Solver is an add-in rather than a built-in component of Excel, so you need to load it before you can use it. To load the Solver, follow these steps: 1. Choose Tools | Add-Ins to display the Add-Ins dialog box. 2. Select the Solver Add-in check box. P:\010Comp\HowTo8\071-1\ch12.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:11:41 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen [...]... Format dialog box to apply a border and background color to the chart area or another item P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:04 PM HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 276 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 FIGURE 13-10... elements P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:05 PM HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 278 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Create Sophisticated Fill Effects with Pictures When you use a picture as a fill, Excel offers a...HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 12 Composite Default screen 256 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 3 Click the OK button to close the Add-Ins dialog box Excel adds the Solver You may need to provide the Office CD or network installation source if your computer doesn’t... data series in the chart without changing the data in the underlying worksheet P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:03 PM HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 272 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 4 Select a series in... 12:08:01 PM Create Effective Charts to Present Data Visually HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 262 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 How to ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Understand the basics of Excel charts Create a chart with the Chart Wizard Choose the... P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:03 PM 13 HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 270 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 FIGURE 13-6 Configure chart options on the Chart tab of the Options dialog box The Chart tab lets you control: ■ How. .. Order | Send to Back from the shortcut menu to send it to the bottom of the drawing layer P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:05 PM HowTo-Tght Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen CHAPTER 13: Create Effective Charts to Present Data Visually 279 8 Drag... (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 274 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 ■ Use the Category (X) Axis Crosses At text box to specify the value at which you want the other axis to cross this axis By default, Excel makes it cross at the Minimum value for most chart types, but you may need to change it... printer profile (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Composite Default screen 268 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 chart on which you’ve subtly manipulated the axis values For example, you might be able to change the timescale on a chart to obscure a decline in sales Such sleight of mouse is much more likely to pass unnoticed... P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12: 07: 59 PM Share, Publish, and Present Data This page intentionally left blank HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 13 Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profile Composite Default screen blind folio 261 Chapter 13 P:\010Comp\HowTo8\ 071 -1\ch13.vp Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:08:01 . screen 256 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 12 3. Click the OK button to close. screen 250 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 12 Add Further Scenarios To add. 246 How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 HowTo-Tght (8) / How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 / Hart-Davis / 3 071 -1 / Chapter 12 Clear a