Operations Management (33:623:386) 
Professor Eckstein

Instructions for Standard Printouts

Throughout the term, I will ask for "standard printouts" of your Excel models. The standard printouts for a model consist of two things. The first is a printout of the model as a set of values, the way it usually appears on the screen.  This printout must show headings for all rows (1, 2, 3, etc.) and columns (A, B, C, etc.). To get this printout, you perform the following steps:

If possible, you should try to make each spreadsheet printout fit on a single page. Under the Page tab of Page Setup dialog box, select Landscape orientation, and fit to 1 x 1 page before you print. You can use the Print Preview button to see how things will look when printed.

The second printout should be as a set of formulas.  It is absolutely critical that this printout show all row and column headings (1, 2, 3, and A, B, C etc.). It should show the formulas in your spreadsheet; for optimization models (which will be most of our spreadsheets), it should also clearly indicate the target cell, the changing cells, and all constraints. Also indicate whether you are minimizing or maximizing the target cell.

To get this printout, follow these steps:

To indicate the target cell, minimization or maximization, changing cells, and constraints, you may make handwritten notations on this second printout. Alternately, you may make notations using text and graphics on the spreadsheet itself. Excel will let you draw arrows right on your spreadsheet (in Excel 2003, use Toolbars from the View menu to show the drawing toolbar; in Excel 2007, select the Insert tab from the ribbon, and choose from Shapes under Illustrations).

Points will be deducted if you fail to follow these guidelines. Common errors are forgetting the row and column headings, or not clearly indicating the changing cells, target cell, or constraints.

To go back to the values view, type control-tilde again.