Using Scenarios
A Office Calc scenario is a set of cell values that can be used within your calculations. You assign a name to every scenario on your sheet. Define several scenarios on the same sheet, each with some different values in the cells. Then you can easily switch the sets of cell values by their name and immediately observe the results. Scenarios are a tool to test out "what-if" questions.
Creating Your Own Scenarios
To create a scenario, select all the cells that provide the data for the scenario.
-
Select the cells that contain the values that will change between scenarios. To select multiple cells, hold down the
Ctrlkey as you click each cell. -
Choose Tools - Scenarios. The Create Scenario dialogue box will appear.
-
Enter a name for the new scenario and leave the other fields unchanged with their default values. Close the dialogue box with OK. Your new scenario is automatically activated.
Using Scenarios
Scenarios can be selected in the Navigator:
-
Open the Navigator with the Navigator icon
on the Standard bar. -
Click the Scenarios icon
in the Navigator.
In the Navigator, you will see the defined scenarios with the comments that were entered when the scenarios were created.
- Double-click a scenario name in the Navigator to apply that scenario to the current sheet.
- To delete a scenario, right-click the name in the Navigator and choose Delete.
- To edit a scenario, right-click the name in the Navigator and choose Properties.
- To hide the border of a set of cells that are part of a scenario, open the Properties dialogue box for each scenario that affects the cells and unmark the Display border check box. Hiding the border also removes the list box on the sheet from which you can choose the scenarios.
If you want to know which values in the scenario affect other values, choose Tools - Detective - Trace Dependents. You will see arrows to the cells that are directly dependent on the current cell.