Just in case you haven't already heard, Excel 2008 lost a great deal of functionality with the removal the Data Analysis Pack as a result of Microsoft's decision to drop VBA scripting in it's latest versions of Office for Mac.
Academia was outraged and rightly so. Many universities and individual faculty rolled their Office 2008 installations back to Office 2004, to regain the critical, lost functionality or put upgrading on-hold until a solution could be developed.
Fortunately, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit heard the message - loud and clear. Frontline Systems, working with the Mac BU's support has created an AppleScript-based solution named "Solver" to return the missing functionality to Excel 2008 and released it last fall.
The best news, is that Solver works great and is available as a free download from Frontline Systems' website. If you rolled back or stayed on Office 2004 or have been frustrated with Excel 2008's data analysis functionality, Solver for Excel 2008 is just what the doctor ordered.
Many thanks to Eastern's Dr. Ross Koning (Biology) for discovering this solution and bringing it to our attention.
