
One last step before we move on, go to Tools > References and select Solver. If there is a lot of extra code and you are worried about breaking it, you can always rerecord. If you happened to click through a bunch of other things while recording you can clear those out now and be left with something similar to below.

Now that we have our code editor open we can start making tweaks. Navigate to your macro in the new menu and click edit. To access your recorded code click the Macros button. You can edit the code through Excel’s VBA editor. Now we can edit the code, remove any unnecessary parts, and make sure we are only using the essential pieces of the macro recording. Now that we have the base code we can clean it up and prep it for the next steps. It’ll be the same location as the button you used to start the recording. Once this is complete go back to the developer tab and stop recording. Go through the steps of setting up your solver and solve it. Give your macro a name and fill in the description if you’d like. Click on that button to open the recorder. You will see a piece of paper with a red dot. Make your way back to the developer tab on the ribbon. You’ll want to set up everything to the point before you build the solver model. Now that the set up is complete we we are ready to record! Set up your workspace appropriately with all your formulas and references. The Microsoft support site has instructions for all platforms, Load the Solver Add-in in Excel. If you have not installed the solver add-on you can install it via the Add-ins menu. The screenshot below is for Mac but PC based Excel is similar. If you navigate to your ribbon options you will see a checkbox for the developer tab.

This is not available by default but is easy to implement.

The macro record functionality is found in the developer tab in the ribbon. This will be semi-technical but through this style of development we can focus on the process and the concepts instead of focusing on how to write code. Then we will create a loop to dynamically select and replace these values and run the solver again. We will then identify the key pieces of code to change. The record macro tool will allow Excel to convert our manual steps into VBA code. We’ll leverage the macro recorder in Excel to handle most of the actual code. By the end you’ll be able to automate any of your own personal models and scale your analysis. In this article we’ll go in depth from start to finish covering the concepts and methods step by step. There was a brief explanation in the previous article, but nothing dedicated to how to implement it from start to finish.
