How to use continuous solvers

Once you have set up the dialog box, you have the choice of either solving the problem just once or creating a continuous solver. In both cases the problem will be solved by changing the variable cells. But if you have chosen to create a continuous solver, it will continue monitoring the target range and the constraint range and whenever they change, the variable cells will immediately be updated with the new solution. This is very useful for quickly trying out different scenarios. The continuous solver will even be saved into the OpenDocument Spreadsheet file and will continue to function when loaded into an OpenOffice.org application that has the EuroOffice Solver extension installed.

If you have the variable range of a continuous solver selected when you open the simplex dialog from the menu, the dialog will be filled with the properties of the solver. If you create a continuous solver with the same variable range as an already existing continuous solver then you will be asked if you want to overwrite the existing solver.