How to install add-ins in Excel? There are two groups of add-ins: “classic” Excel add-ins, and Office add-ins. Let’s start with the first group: “classic” Excel add-ins. For these add-ins, you go to File – Options – Add-ins.

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Excel add ins
0:11 Installing classic Excel add-ins
1:14 Installing Excel Solver
1:59 Installing Microsoft Power Pivot
2:37 Troubleshooting Excel add-ins
3:27 Installing Office add-ins
4:44 People Graph add-in

A popular add-in for financial analysts is the Excel Solver tool. Solver is listed among the currently inactive application add-ins. An add-in is software that adds new features into Microsoft Excel. Not everyone needs that additional functionality, so if you want it, you have to go get it yourself! You might think that double-clicking on that Solver line item would install it, but that’s not the case. You actually have to go down here to “Manage”, and then select the type of add-in you are looking for. The type is listed right here in this column. Next to it, in the middle, is the file path or location where the Solver add-in file resides. Basically, what you are asking by enabling this add-in is for Excel to load the SOLVER.XLAM file. Press “Go”, and a list of available add-ins comes up. We tick the box next to Solver, and at the bottom see a message that Solver is a tool for optimization and equation solving. If the Excel add-in that you are looking for is not listed here, then by clicking “Browse” you can go look for the XLAM file that you want to enable. Solver is listed, so we can simply click OK, and return to Excel. As Solver is very closely related to other types of What-If Analysis like Scenario Manager and Goal Seek, the Solver menu is added right here in the Data tab, which is a logical place for it.

A second example of a “classic” Excel add-in is Microsoft Power Pivot. Go to File – Options – Add-ins, click Microsoft Power Pivot, and you’ll see that this is a DLL file, in the COM add-in type. Down here in “Manage”, we select “COM Add-ins”, and click “Go”. Check the box next to Microsoft Power Pivot for Excel, and you will see at the bottom of the dialog box what the path of the file is, and that it will be loaded at startup of Excel. Click OK. In the case of Microsoft Power Pivot, you get a new menu on the ribbon!

This brings us to one of the most common troubleshooting items for Excel add-ins. If you don’t see the add-in that you just enabled, then you might have to right-click, and go to “Customize the ribbon”. As you can see, the Power Pivot tab is enabled in my version of Excel, but the Draw and Develop tabs are not. You can change that by ticking the boxes, and clicking OK.
If you now close Excel, wait a few seconds, and then reopen it, you will see a message on the Excel loading screen stating that SOLVER.XLAM is being opened.

Now for the second group: Office add-ins. These you will find in the “Insert” tab. Click on “Get Add-ins”, and you get into the Office add-ins store. You can browse the Office add-in store by category. Be aware that some of these add-ins have been developed by Microsoft, and others by external software makers. Some add-ins are free, while for other add-ins there might be a fee. If you work in a corporate environment, the ability to install add-ins might be restricted, you need admin access to download and install.

To the side of this Office add-in section on the Insert tab, are several recommendations from Microsoft. People Graph is an add-in that helps you create infographics. Let’s build one! If you click on the People Graph icon, you get a default picture which you can customize by linking it to your own data. For example, for the Finance Storyteller YouTube channel, for every 100 viewers, 21 live in the United States, 18 in India, and 6 in the Philippines. Click the Data icon on the People Graph, update the title to “FOR EVERY 100 VIEWERS”, select data through clicking the green button, and highlight the cells you want to visualize. You can update the type of infographic, the theme, as well as the shape. Looks pretty nice and professional, right? An infographic is an attractive way to visualize data. Give it a go, play around with “classic” #Excel #addins, and Office add-ins, and see which additional functionality is useful for you!

Philip de Vroe (The Finance Storyteller) aims to make accounting, finance and investing enjoyable and easier to understand. Learn the business and accounting vocabulary to join the conversation with your CEO at your company. Understand how financial statements work in order to make better investing decisions. Philip delivers #financetraining in various formats: YouTube videos, classroom sessions, webinars, and business simulations. Connect with me through Linked In!

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