Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Creating Scenario Summaries.

Creating Scenario Summaries

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 6, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you have a number of different scenarios devised for a worksheet, you can quickly create scenario summaries. These list the values in each of your scenarios, along with any result cells you want to show. They are very helpful for providing an overview of the different scenarios.

To create a summary, all you need to do is follow these steps:

  1. Choose Scenarios from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Scenario Manager.
  2. Click on the Summary button. Excel displays the Scenario Summary dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Scenario Summary dialog box.

  4. Using the two radio buttons in the Report Type area of the dialog box, select the type of summary report you want. Most of the time you will select the default (Scenario Summary), although you can create a PivotTable, if desired.
  5. Specify in the Result Cells field the result cells you want included in the report.
  6. Click on the OK button. Excel inserts a worksheet before the current one and constructs a fully formatted summary report in it.

Even though the report is fully formatted, you can make formatting changes as you deem appropriate. You will probably want to do this anyway, since Excel uses cell addresses for cells that aren't named. Make your changes and then save your workbook as you normally would.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2863) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Creating Scenario Summaries.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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