Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007

Chapter 31. Using What If, Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, and Solver

In this chapter

Using What-If 864

Using Scenario Manager 867

Using Goal Seek 874

Using Solver 879

When Dan Bricklin invented VisiCalc in 1979, he was trying to come up with a tool that would let him recalculate his MBA school case studies quickly. Almost three decades later, spreadsheets are still used for the same functionality.

Newer spreadsheet tools such as Goal Seek and Solver allow you to back directly into the assumptions that lead to a solution. This chapter discusses some of Excel 2007’s feaures that are helpful when you are tying to find a specific answer.

Using What-If

Once you have set up a model in Excel, it is very easy to make copies of the model side by side and ...