Watch this page for free downloads as they become available.

·         StatPro, SolverTable for Excel 2003 and earlier: StatPro_SolverTable_Setup.zip (See the Albright_Add-Ins page for more information.)

·         SolverTable for 2007: SolverTable 2007.3.zip This version, as of March 2008, adds a third option for selecting values of the input cell(s). It also fixes a bug where the SolverTable dropdown disappeared from the Add-Ins ribbon any time you clicked on Cancel in one of the SolverTable dialog boxes. To ensure that this version (or the previous version) works correctly, you should do the following:

o   Inside Excel, click on the Office button, then on Excel Options, then on Trust Center, then on Trust Center Settings, then on Macro Settings. Make sure the bottom checkbox is checked (Trust access to the VBA project object model). This is a one-time setting per PC.

o   When you open Excel, open the Solver dialog box and close it. This “wakes up” Solver, which allows SolverTable to work properly. You need to wake up Solver only once per Excel session.

·         StatBasics for 2003 and earlier: StatBasics.zip (See the Albright_Add-Ins page for more information.)

·         Excel Tutorial for 2007 and for 2003 and earlier: Excel_Tutorial.zip This popular tutorial lets you or your students get up to speed quickly in Excel. Use the .doc version for Excel 2003 or earlier and the .docx version for Excel 2007.

·         Grading add-in for Excel 2007: Grading_Add-In.zip This add-in is the 2007 version of the grading macro below. See the instructions inside the zip file.

·         Grading macro for Excel 2003 and earlier: Grading_Macro.zip This add-in helps you grade spreadsheet models by listing formulas, Solver settings, and range names. See the instructions inside the zip file.

·         General grading program: Grader.zip Many of you have used the above grading macro I created several years ago for grading spreadsheet files. I've now created a different kind of grader application that in one sense does less (it doesn't specifically grade spreadsheet files), but in another sense is much more general (it can help you grade anything). It provides a way to enter points off for mistakes, and explanations of these mistakes, in individual students' gradesheet files, and I've found that this makes me much more efficient and consistent in my grading. Besides, it takes at least some of the drudgery out of grading. The instructions are included in this zip file.

·         Decision support application: Decision Support Application.zip Chapter 3 of Practical Management Science (and of Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications) contains a decision support application of the production scheduling example. In response to a request from one instructor, this zip file contains two versions of this application, each with a writeup of how the application was developed. The first (stored in Excel 2003 format) is essentially what you see in the book. The second (stored in Excel 2007 format) is a slightly different version you might prefer. If you’d like to give your students a taste of VBA in the context of management science models, these applications should work well.

·         Transient queueing analysis: Transient Queue.zip Did you know that you can analyze queues with time-varying behavior (e.g., arrival rates that increase during peak periods of the day) with spreadsheets, using analytical approximations, not simulation or steady-state analysis? This is indeed possible, as Wayne Winston has pointed out in the 4th edition of his Operations Research book and we have included in the third edition of Practical Management Science. Although Wayne's approach is to use Excel formulas, this file uses a VBA program to perform the calculations. Enjoy!

·         Automating Sudoku with VBA: Sudoku.zip If you love the laborious effort of working Sudoku puzzles—the pencil marks, the erasing, etc.—then you should not open this file. But if you want to see how powerful VBA programs can be, check it out the Sudoku.xls file. I’ve password-protected the code, but you can trust me that it’s pretty straightforward. And if you want to go a step farther, with 16x16 grids instead of the usual 9x9 grids, check out the Suduko16.xls file.

·         Getting Dow Jones prices: DJ_StockQuery.zip I developed a VBA program that you can download and use to download stock prices from the Yahoo website. Actually, there are six downloads available. They are, respectively, for the Dow Jones Industrial, the Dow Jones Transportation, and the Dow Jones Utilities indexes, and there is an .xls and .xlsm version of each. Each allows you to download up to 200 prices at a time (monthly, weekly, or daily) for the index itself and the stocks that comprise the index. The data analysis is then up to you!

·         NCAA March Madness simulation:  March Madness 2008.zip Some of you have come to rely on our annual NCAA basketball simulation. Here is the latest for the men and women.

·         Baseball data: Baseball.zip Back in the early 1990s, I published a paper in JASA on hitting streaks in Major League baseball. It was based on a rich set of data collected during 1987–1990 on thousands of individual at-bats. Even though the data sets are somewhat old, I still get occasional requests for them, so I'm posting them here for your pleasure. Enjoy!

·         Extra goodies: Extra goodies.htm From time to time, we develop new files that illustrate functionality that's not in our books – at least, not yet. Feel free to download these and adapt them for your own uses.

·         Useful Macros: From time to time, I develop VBA macros to perform handy tasks that I do all the time and like to automate. To make these available at all times, I store them in my Personal.xls file, and I attach them to a new menu item or new toolbar button. The file Creating Macros.doc explains how to do this in general. As I create macros I find useful, I'll provide the code here in text files that you can paste into your own Personal.xls file. (Note: In Excel 2007, you will still be able to create these macros, but because of the fixed ribbon structure, you won’t be able to create your own toolbars or toolbar buttons. Too bad!)

o   Here are the macros for creating the colored borders (or getting rid of them) that you see in many of our models: ColoredBorders.txt. I like to create toolbar buttons for each of these and place them on a new My Favorites toolbar.

• Excel has an Insert/Worksheet menu item that always inserts a new worksheet, with a generic name like Sheet6, to the left of the active worksheet. Do you wish you could automatically insert a new worksheet to the right of the rightmost sheet and give it a name of your choice? If so, check out this macro: InsertWorksheetToRight.txt. I like to attach it to a new menu item Insert/Worksheet to Right, placed directly under the Insert/Worksheet menu item.
• Similarly, Excel always places pivot tables and associated pivot charts on separate sheets, gives them generic names, and places them to the left of the data sheet. The following macro creates a new pivot table sheet, with a name you can choose, places the sheet to the right of the rightmost sheet, and places an associated pivot chart on that same sheet: InsertPivotTableToRight.txt. I like to attach it to a new menu item Data/PivotTable, Chart to Right, placed directly under Excel's PivotTable menu item. (Note that it assumes your cursor is within the data set when you run it.)
• I used to have the same habit most of you probably have. When you want to add some sort of explanation to an Excel worksheet, you start typing in a cell, and when it gets too long, you drop down to the cell below, keep typing, and so on. This works fine -- until you want to make edits. Then your lines tend to be all different lengths and it gets ugly. It's much better to put explanations in textboxes (from the Drawing toolbar), because you then get wordwrap. Now suppose you have a whole lot of explanations in cells, and you'd like to take my advice and transfer them to textboxes. Here's a macro to do it: AddTextToTextbox.txt. The comments inside indicate how to use it. I like to run this from a toolbar button you can place on any of your toolbars.

• Modifying the ribbon in Excel 2007: MyMacros.zip In previous versions of Excel, it was easy to create your own macros and then attach them to existing menus, toolbars, or even your own new toolbars. This has all changed in Excel 2007. You can still create your own macros, by recording or writing VBA code, but it is more difficult to modify the new tab/ribbon structure in Excel 2007 to give you a way of running these macros. However, it is possible. If you really want to learn how, read Chapter 22 in John Walkenbach’s Excel 2007 Power Programming with VBA book, or read the article at Microsoft’s web site: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406046.aspx. It uses a new technology, RibbonX, based on XML. Rather than make you struggle, however, I’ve created a small add-in in this download. Download this zip file and unzip it to any folder. (Actually, I suggest you unzip it to Microsoft’s default AddIns folder. This is in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns. That way, it will automatically show up in the list of add-ins for Excel.) This zip file contains the add-in, MyMacros.xlam, along with a My Icons folder with icon files for the buttons that will appear in the new ribbon. Once you’ve unzipped the file, open Excel, select the Office button, then Excel Options, then Add-Ins, then Go to see the list of add-ins. If you unzipped to the suggested AddIns folder, you should see MyMacros in the list, so check it. Otherwise, Browse for the MyMacros.xlam file. You should see a new Excel tab, Custom Formatting, along with an associated ribbon. I kept this one simple. It gives you the options for color borders discussed in our books, and it also allows you to do some useful formatting (formatting as integer or as currency with 0 decimals).
• Simulation with VB.NET: Simulation with VB.NET.zip In a recent doctoral simulation course I taught, I experimented with VB.NET (within Visual Studio). Here are some sample files I used. Feel free to use them for your own course. Two notes: (1) The Excel file illustrates an easy way to simulate an M/M/s queue without any programming. (2) The .NET simulation of the M/M/s queue is already broken if you’re using Office 2007. It has a reference to the Microsoft Office 2003 library (because I use Excel for getting inputs and dumping results). If you’re using Office 2007, all you need to do is reset the reference.