Occasionally
when I run your "Diversification Illustrator" it hangs
midway through. There are no error messages, but the program stops
working and leaves me on a Worksheet that looks like a Case sheet
but with the first column all colored blue and a funny tab name
like "_DSource2A". Other times in the same workbook, and
with other clients’ StockOpter® workbooks, DI runs just fine.
What’s going on here?
P.S. Because I know you always want to know, I’m using Excel
’97 running on Windows ’98.
The
problem:
What’s going on here is the weirdest
bug NWSI has yet run across in Excel and Windows – and that’s
from quite a list. The good news is that there’s an easy way
around it. Part of running the Diversification Illustrator (DI)
involves clearing all the strategy (dark yellow) cells. Depending
on the particulars of the existing strategies on the Case sheet
you’re on when starting DI, clearing the exercise strategies
may momentarily mean you’re selling shares that don’t
exist, leading to #DIV/0 in some of the Excel cell formulas in the
"Tax Calculations" section. In this specific combination
of Windows 98 and Excel 97, this immediately halts any further processing
with no error message. The bug only happens in that particular combination
of Excel and Windows. Excel ’97 on other versions of Windows
works fine, and other versions of Excel on Windows ’98 also
work fine.
The
workaround: The fix is easy: Go to the BaseCase sheet and use
the "Add Case" utility making sure the "Same values
as on this sheet" check box is checked. This will create a
second Case sheet exactly duplicating your existing BaseCase strategy,
just to preserve that information. Then, back at the BaseCase sheet,
manually clear the dark yellow strategy cells. (The "Clear
All Strategy Cells" wizard won’t work for the same underlying
reason creating the DI bug). Then, from the newly cleared BaseCase
sheet, run the DI wizard and proceed accordingly.
NWSI
response: We’ve admired this bug at some length and it
lies too deep within the interaction of Windows and Excel for us
to affect or remedy. Given there is an effective workaround, we
are currently planning no further action.
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Your
"Clear All Strategy Cells" utility doesn’t always
work. I’m running Excel ’97 on Windows 98 and sometimes,
though not always, after I run this utility I notice that the dark
yellow cells aren’t all cleared. There’s not any error
message or anything, things looks normal and both StockOpter® and
Excel continue to work just fine, but there are still values left
in the dark yellow cells. But the vast majority of the time, it
works just fine, including on other Case sheets within the same
workbook. I’m confused!
The
problem: This is one of our favorite
bugs, and very closely related to one involving or Diversification
Illustrator in the same environment [link to DI bug]. Clearing the
exercise strategies may momentarily mean you’re selling shares
that don’t exist, depending on the particulars of the strategies
on the Case sheet you’re trying to clear. This momentarily
creates #DIV/0 value in some of the Excel cell formulas in the "Tax
Calculations" section. In this specific combination of Windows
98 and Excel 97, this immediately halts any further processing with
no error message. The bug only happens in that particular combination
of Excel and Windows. Excel ’97 on other versions of Windows
works fine, and other versions of Excel on Windows ’98 also
work fine.
The
workaround: You’ll need to manually clear the dark yellow
cells rather than use the "Clear All Strategy Cells" utility.
NWSI
response: We’ve admired this bug at some length and it
lies too deep within the interaction of Windows and Excel for us
to affect or remedy. Given there is an effective workaround, we
are currently planning no further action.
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