Report Writer is the only commercial appraisal software that allows excel model customization. However, there are some rules, tips and tricks that can significantly diminish your frustration and support tickets.
Some important Excel terms:
Ribbon: A ribbon is a command bar that organizes a program's features into a series of tabs at the top of a window.
Range Name: Allows you to assign a symbolic name to a cell, range of cells, or formula.
Formula Bar: Where data or formulas entered into a worksheet appear for the active cell. The Formula Bar can also be used to edit data or a formula in the active cell.
How to successfully customize an excel workbook:
- Rule: Always hide, never delete. The Report Writer code relies heavily on certain worksheets and range names being available. Never delete a section of the worksheet as the code could be referencing a named range.
- Tip: In many of the newer templates, there are styles applied to the display tables. You can globally affect the look and feel of your display tables by adjusting these styles, once. Read more, here.
- In the Valuation Model, users can affect the display table and click a button to apply the styles throughout the workbook.
- In the Valuation Model, users can affect the display table and click a button to apply the styles throughout the workbook.
- Tip: Read our articles on workbook customization:
- Trick: Learn what a formula is doing: By clicking on the right side of the formula in the formula bar, the closed parenthesis, the cells the formula is calling will activate in different colors. You can use this trick to evaluate what the formula is calling.
You can also use the “Evaluate” function in the Formula ribbon in excel to step through a formula. This is very helpful when a formula is nested or has a number of IF statements for logic purposes.
- Tip: The Valuation Model has a “Custom Table” worksheet that has built-in Show/Hide functionality. Copy and use this worksheet to build a dynamic custom table.
When in doubt, contact support:
The best defense is a good offense. If you are unsure of how to customize something, send a question to support@narrative1.com . If you don't have the time to customize yourself, you can also send a request to support to set up a meeting with our Pro-Services specialist.