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Goal Seek in Excel- Instructions and Video Lesson

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Goal Seek in Excel: Video Lesson

            This video lesson, titled “Using Goal Seek,” shows you how to use Goal Seek in Excel. This video is from our complete Excel tutorial, titled “Mastering Excel Made Easy v.2019 and 365.”

Goal Seek in Excel: Overview

            You can use Goal Seek in Excel when you know the result you want a formula to return, but do not know the value needed to create the desired result. Anytime you have a situation where you know the result that you need to obtain, but are unsure of one of the values that would be needed to attain that goal, you can use Goal Seek in Excel to help you find the missing value required.

            For example, if you knew that you could pay up to $600 dollars per month on a loan, using Goal Seek in Excel could help you determine what the amount that you could borrow would be for known loan terms.

            To use Goal Seek in Excel, click the “Data” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “What-If Analysis” button in the “Data Tools” button group. Then select the “Goal Seek…” command from the drop-down menu to open the “Goal Seek” dialog box. In this dialog box, you must enter three pieces of information. The first piece of information is which cell contains the result to set to a given “goal” value. The second piece of information is the “goal” value, itself. The third piece of information is which cell contains the value to change to achieve the goal value.

Goal Seek in Excel- Instructions and Video Lesson: A picture of the “Goal Seek” dialog box in Excel.

Goal Seek in Excel- Instructions and Video Lesson: A picture of the “Goal Seek” dialog box in Excel.

            Click into the “Set cell:” text box. Then click the cell within the worksheet that contains the result to set to a given goal value. Next, click into the “To value:” text box and enter the goal value that you want to find. Then click into the “By changing cell:” text box. Then click the cell in the worksheet that contains the variable to change to achieve the desired result. After entering that, just click the “OK” button to instantly see the result. To accept the result and place it into your worksheet, click the “OK” button again. Alternatively, click the “Cancel” button to discard the information.

Goal Seek in Excel: Instructions

  1. To use Goal Seek in Excel, click the “Data” tab in the Ribbon.
  2. Then click the “What-If Analysis” button in the “Data Tools” button group.
  3. Then select the “Goal Seek…” command from the drop-down menu to open the “Goal Seek” dialog box.
  4. Click into the “Set cell:” text box.
  5. Then click the cell within the worksheet that contains the result to set to a given goal value.
  6. Next, click into the “To value:” text box.
  7. Then enter the goal value to find.
  8. Next, click into the “By changing cell:” text box.
  9. Then click the cell in the worksheet that contains the variable to change to achieve the desired result.
  10. Then click the “OK” button to instantly see the result.
  11. To accept the result and place it into your worksheet, click the “OK” button again.
  12. Alternatively, to discard the information, click the “Cancel” button.
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