Mac users with Excel may want add-on applications for more functionality. Solver for Excel 2011 for Mac integrates well into the existing Excel program and performs additional operations on spreadsheet data. The program is available for free and is actually included in later versions of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program for Mac. Solver for Excel 2011 for Mac downloads and installs directly onto the Excel program without any problems or user input required. After opening Excel, the user must go to the add-in area and select the Solver program. It then imports and installs a button in Excel's Data tab. Technical support and user tutorial videos are available through the developer's Web sites.
This is the 2008 version of Solver for Mac. However, the developers recommend that you use Excel 2011 which includes a better Solver. Solver is a Mac OS X desktop application designed to make changes to Microsoft Excel 2008 from outside of Excel and to help you determine the best way to do something.
Once the program button is selected in Excel, the add-on's interface matches Microsoft's well. The user can manually type in the cells to which it will apply, or they can be clicked from the main area. Max, Min, and Value of functions are clearly labeled, as is the entry box for constraints. Once this information is entered, the user can then select from several solving methods, which are clearly explained in a separate text box. The basic test functions applied worked well and the application ran smoothly within Excel. For those who need additional operations in Excel, Solver for Excel 2011 for Mac adds more functionality to Microsoft's program and integrates well.
Solver for Excel 2011 for Mac has the same new features and user interface as Solver for Excel 2010 for Windows - which is greatly enhanced over Solver for Excel 2007. Includes New Evolutionary Solving Method Based on genetic algorithms, this method complements Solver's linear programming and nonlinear optimization methods. Use it to find solutions for models with IF and LOOKUP functions. Global Optimization for Nonlinear Models Automatically run the GRG Nonlinear Solver from multiple, intelligently chosen starting points, to find better solutions when the old Solver would be 'trapped' in a local optimum.
Albright, Winston Textbooks For more information on our books, including errata, click on any of the following covers: New additions: New add-ins: See the top of the page for links to free add-ins I recently developed. Business Analytics: Data Analysis and Decision Making, 7 th edition: This edition is now in production and is due out sometime in Spring 2019. Practical Management Science, 6 th edition: This edition was released in Fall 2017.
It is accompanied by plenty of materials at the Cengage MindTap site. Excel tutorial: The Excel tutorial that used to be available has been revised extensively.
It is now called ExcelNow!, and it is available at at a very reasonable price. A version of ExcelNow! Without videos is available at the page. Analysis ToolPak Guide: Some users have expressed a desire to use Excel’s built-in Analysis ToolPak add-in, instead of Palisade’s StatTools, for data analysis. Although StatTools is definitely a better statistical add-in, Analysis ToolPak does have the advantage that it’s free and built into Excel. Therefore, I have written an Analysis ToolPak Guide that’s now available in the page. Mac users: There seems to be an increasing number of students using Mac computers, and the question is whether they are compatible with the software in our books.
There are two answers, one positive and one negative. First, as we have seen with many of our students at Indiana, it is possible, and fairly easy, to install Windows emulation software on Macs, the two most common being Bootcamp (free) and Parallels (not free). Then everything appears to work fine. You are simply running Windows on a Mac. Second, however, if you are running the Mac OS with Excel 2011 for the Mac, then all bets are off. This version of Excel is basically a different product from Excel for Windows, with a very different look and feel.
Admittedly, Excel 2016 for the Mac is better. Its ribbon structure is very much like Excel for Windows, although it still has a menu bar that is largely redundant, given the ribbons. However, some of the features in Excel for Windows, notably quick analysis, flash fill, and Power Pivot, are simply missing in Excel for the Mac.
(These missing features are apparently being added through time, but who knows when they might appear.) Bottom line (in my opinion): If you want to use a Mac and get the most from Excel, you should install Windows emulation software. Mac version of SolverTable: I have gotten a number of requests for a Mac version of my SolverTable add-in.
Finally, after installing Office 2016 on a Mac running OS X El Capitan (the latest Mac OS), I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, a number of things simply do not work, and there is virtually no help available. It’s frustrating, not just for me but for other VBA programmers. E.g., take a look at the complaints on the following site:.
So until the support for VBA on the Mac improves (a lot!), you won’t see a Mac version of SolverTable. Software didn’t come with book?
All new copies of our books (except for VBA for Modelers) should give you access to the Palisade suite. If you have purchased used books and your access code has already been used, you can purchase electronic resources at. Due to royalties and legal agreements, we often can’t offer these resources free of charge.
Visit any of the following links for free downloads and information about software.