Mac Mojo: The Office for Mac Team Blog

Since the launch of Office 2008 for Mac, a number of customers have asked about the fate of Solver, an Excel add-in we shipped in Excel 2004, but that is not part of Office 2008.

Generally, the two questions we receive are, “What happened to Solver?” and “What should I do to get Solver functionality?”

I’ll take each in order.

First, Solver (if you don’t know) enables you to do linear programming in Excel, which makes it enormously useful for cracking business problems around scheduling (how many tellers should a bank have on hand to meet demand?), capacity planning (which of our factories should be producing widgets, gizmos, or doohickeys?), or finding the minimum or maximum value for a problem, given certain constraints. While linear programming techniques are regularly used in businesses, most people first encounter Solver in higher education; Solver is a common requirement among business schools (including, it must be said, the one I graduated from).

Solver was not included in Excel 2008 because it depends on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to function. When we removed VBA from Office 2008, it meant that we also removed Solver.

Now, on to the second question – “what should I do to get Solver functionality?” Today, the best option for people who need Solver is to run Excel 2004 and Excel 2008 side-by-side, and switch to the 2004 environment for workbooks that require Solver.

However, we have been hearing loud and clear from our customers – particularly in education – that the side-by-side solution is suboptimal. For many people, Solver is a critical and necessary tool for coursework, and they want to work with Solver natively in the Excel 2008 environment.

We definitely hear you, and we’re working on it.

The Excel team is actively working to bring Solver to Excel 2008 as part of a future update. We have two distinct technical approaches and are exploring both. Once we have established which is the best option – and have code that meets our quality bar – we will announce a timeframe for availability here on Mojo.

In the meantime, please know that this is a top priority for the Excel team.

Watch this space for details.

Posted by: Gavin Shearer in Office, excel, Announcements, Announcements, Office 2008, Excel 2008

9 Comments

Comments | Who's Blogging This

[schalliol]

schalliol

Jun 26, 2008

8:53pm

Thanks! Looking Forwad To It!

I was shocked to see this long-standing core function of Excel was missing in 2008 and find that there's no way to do side-by-side that works for me. I have to try to use goal seek in sections to approach what I'd do in solver, but it doesn't quite cut it. I sure hope the time-frame is in terms of 2-3 months and not longer.

[kevrut]

kevrut

Jul 07, 2008

4:08pm

Office 2008 vs Office 2007

As a recent Mac convert who still uses both the PC and MAC in day to day work activities, I have a few comments.

I like the look and feel of Office 2008, however, I wish it mirrored 2007. I'd like both applications to look and feel the same. In addition, many excel files created in 2007 don't open or work the same in 2008, especially ones with pivot tables. OneNote is lacking in 2008 and Entourage won't import my Office 2007 PST files, which I see as a big negative, since both are Microsoft products. Finaly, where is Access in 2008? This lPST file issue almost kept me from converting to a Mac as I have over 14 GB of data in my PST files that I need to keep.

[eloc]

eloc

Jul 11, 2008

1:53pm

Office 2008

I use Solver almost everyday and uninstalled Office 2008 after realizing that it was a downgrade from 2004. I have used Excel since version 1.0, a Mac program, and have never been disappointed until now.

Thanks for listening to your customers and addressing these issues.

[dkg40]

dkg40

Jul 23, 2008

2:51pm

Help - I need Solver!!

I am a recent mac convert - hoping I would be able to get away with using Apple's Numbers application instead of excel. Numbers is pretty and great if you are doing very simple home budgets, but sucks for ANYTHING substantial.

I finally broke down an bought Office '08 because I need it for a graduate level operations class I'm taking, we need solver for the most of the course work. I am SOO disappointed (and screwed) that '08 doesn't come with this add-in.

[Brian]

Brian

Jun 30, 2008

9:19pm

Thank God

Now all we need is VBA to come back! The lack of MathType support made me actually uninstall my copy of Office 2008! Practically every time I open word, it is to make engineering reports. Reports without formulas above high school level - are useless. This is at least a STEP in the right direction

[Stuke]

Stuke

Jun 30, 2008

9:25pm

Don't Stop Short

Make sure you not only double but triple your hiring needs to get all of VBA (including Solver as a feature) back in Office 2008 for the Mac. Now that you've "heard" us, you should sit in timeout for even bring us 2008 without VBA, and get cracking. (I'm sure the quarterly profits reports are stinging enough! Thanks for moving extra fast in top priority mode for all the VBA issues!!)

[Steve]

Steve

Jun 30, 2008

9:25pm

Awesome.

Gosh. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

[Dove, Martin]

Martin Dove

Jun 30, 2008

9:25pm

Good news

This is very good news. I work in a university, and for both my research and my teaching the solver function is the key function – without it excel is little more that a standard graph plotting program (and to be honest its default settings are not particularly optimal). In short, the drawback of not having solver far exceeds any gains from other updates that it means that Office 2008 is a lemon.

[Phillips, Troy]

Troy Phillips

Jun 30, 2008

9:25pm

Good move

Personally I don't need Solver, but I am impressed that you guys are taking it on the chin and responding to customer requirements.

I previously ranted about the need to have VBA in Mac Office 2008 - I am also glad that is being addressed eventually.