Setting Cell Preferences

You can change the appearance of Crystal Ball assumption, forecast, and decision variable cells so you can quickly identify them in spreadsheets. You can set Crystal Ball to change the appearance of these cells as you define them, or you can change the appearance of predefined cells.

  To set cell preferences:

  1. Select Define, and then Cell Preferences.

    (In Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, select Define, and then Cell Prefs.)

    The Cell Preferences dialog opens.

  2. Click the tab for the kind of cell to format: Assumptions, Decision Variables, or Forecasts.

  3. Make appropriate settings for the chosen cell type:

    • Color — Changes the color of each Crystal Ball data cell of the type modified by the selected tab.

    • Pattern — Changes the pattern of each Crystal Ball data cell of the type modified by the selected tab.

    • Add Comment To Cell — Adds a Microsoft Excel comment that provides more information about the Crystal Ball data within each cell. (Crystal Ball only updates cell comments when you define or redefine an assumption, decision variable, or forecast.)

      Note:

      If you change values in cells referenced by assumption or decision variable parameters, any cell comments for that cell will indicate the old value. Re-create those assumptions or decision variables to ensure that cell comments are updated

    • Set Cell Value To Distribution: — Changes assumption cell values to the selected value (Mean or Median) when no simulation is running.

    • Set Cell Value To Range: — Changes decision variable cell values to the selected value (range Midpoint, Minimum, or Maximum) when no simulation is running.

  4. Click Apply To and select whether to apply settings from only the current tab or all tabs in the Cell Preferences dialog.

  5. Select whether to apply the settings to all cell preferences of the chosen type(s) on the current Microsoft Excel worksheet, all worksheets in the current workbook, or all open workbooks and any new workbooks to be created later.

    (The default is All Open and New Workbooks.)

  6. Click OK to close the Apply To dialog and apply the settings to the chosen cell types and worksheets.

    Note:

    Like some other preferences, cell preferences must be applied to all cells of the selected type(s) on the chosen worksheet(s) or workbook(s). If necessary, you can click the Defaults button before choosing Apply To to clear current cell preference settings and restore the original defaults.