If you choose to construct the Solver workbook example yourself (a fine idea), you want to tell Excel to display actual formulas rather than formula results in the workbook.

To do this, select the worksheet range in which you want to display the actual formulas rather than the formula results and then simultaneously press the Ctrl and the (grave accent) keys.

By pressing Ctrl, you tell Excel to display the formula rather than the formula result within the selected range.

In the case of trying to figure out the number of books to write and seminars to give to make the most money in your one-person business, the two Solver variables are books and seminars.

The objective function is the formula that you want to maximize or minimize.

The values stored in the worksheet range B2:B3 are the starting guesses about what the optimal variable values should be.

You wont know what the optimal number of books and seminars actually is until you work out the problem.

When Excel displays the Create Names from Selection dialog box, select the Left Column check box and click OK.

In other words, by following these steps, you name cell B2 Books and you name cell B3 Seminars.

In the case of a profit formula, you want to maximize a function because you want to maximize profits, of course.

For example, if you create an objective function that describes the cost of some advertising program or the risk of some investment program, you can logically choose to minimize your costs or minimize your risks.

In the case of a profit function for the one-person business, you make 15,000 for every book that you write and 20,000 for every seminar that you give.

You can describe this by entering the formula 15000Books20000Seminars.

Four constraints can limit the profits that you can make in your business.

In this example, each book requires 500 cash, and each seminar requires 2,500 cash.

If you have 20,000 cash to invest in books and seminars, youre limited in the number of books that you can write and the number of seminars that you can give by the cash, up-front investment that you need to make.

The value shown in cell C8, 20000, identifies the actual constraint.

Use these two pieces of information, the formula and the constant value, to describe a working hours limit.

In a nutshell, this constraint says that the number of hours that you spent on books and seminars needs to be less than 1880.

The minimum number of seminars constant value, 4, goes into cell C11.

He is the author of more than 100 books, including QuickBooks For Dummies and Quicken For Dummies.

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