From the course: Learning Excel What-If Analysis

Activate Solver - Microsoft Excel Tutorial

From the course: Learning Excel What-If Analysis

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Activate Solver

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- [Instructor] You can use Excel to find the optimal solution for a complex problem, such as determining the optimal portfolio for an investment strategy. To find solutions to this type of problem, you can use Solver. Solver is an Excel add-in that is not automatically activated when you install the product, but it's not that difficult to add. In this movie, I will show you how to add Solver to the Data tab of the ribbon if it's not there already. The sample file I'm using is 02_02_Install, but you can have any Excel file open because we won't be interacting with the worksheets at all. In Excel, the Solver tool can be found on the Data tab of the ribbon. When I go to my Data tab, I see that it is not currently installed. It doesn't appear anywhere on the ribbon, so I need to add it. To do that, I will go to the File tab, and then all the way down at the bottom in the categories, I will click Options. Then in the Excel Options dialogue box, I will click Add-ins and then down at the bottom here in the Manage box, I'll make sure that Excel Add-ins is selected, and click Go. The Add-ins dialogue box appears, and the last of the four that I see here, your list might be different but this is common, is the Solver Add-in, so I will check that box and then click OK. And then on the Data tab, you will see that the Analyze group appears and Solver appears within it. Other add-ins might appear within the Analyze group as well, but for now all I have installed is Solver. So with Solver in place, I can move on to creating my model to analyze my investment portfolio.

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