Formulas and Functions with Microsoft® Excel 2003

16. Solving Complex Problems with Solver

IN THIS CHAPTER

Some Background on Solver

Loading Solver

Using Solver

Adding Constraints

Saving a Solution as a Scenario

Setting Other Solver Options

Making Sense of Solver’s Messages

Case Study

Displaying Solver’s Reports

In Chapter 14, “Using Excel’s Business-Modeling Tools,” you learned how to use Goal Seek to find solutions to formulas by changing a single variable. Unfortunately, most problems in business aren’t so easy. You’ll usually face formulas with at least two and sometimes dozens of variables. Often a problem will have more than one solution, and your challenge will be to find the optimal solution (that is, the one that maximizes profit, or minimizes costs, or matches other criteria). For ...