I'm going to describe my goal in steps because I think that might be the easiest way to explain it. This is what I'm trying to do:
1) Create a template that has various calculations on it. On this template, 1 specific cell is left blank. The calculations will change depending on what's in this cell (I'll refer to this as the special cell).
2) There's one final figure behind these calculations that's important. What I want to do is create a list with every possible final figure and in an adjacent cell, list the value of the special cell that gives this final figure.
The problem is Excel for Mac 2008 doesn't use macros or VBA. In my Windows version of Excel, this is just a simple function. But on Excel for Mac 2008, I'm not sure at all how to tackle this. The only solution I can think of is to create one sheet for every possible value of the special cell, with all the calculations done specifically for that value of the special cell. Then I could just link each final figure/special cell to a main page so all the information is together. However, there are roughly 400 values the special cell can take, and I really don't want to create 400 different sheets. Does anybody know how I can do this?
Also, just as a note in case this is easier to visualize what I mean, I'm basically trying to run multiple what-if scenarios and collect one specific number from each of these scenarios.
Here's an example of the processes involved. I should mention here that there are actual 2 different special cells, I wrote 1 in the original description because I'm assuming the idea would be the same to do 2:
1) The main template sheet is located on Sheet A
2) There are 10 slots for store names
3) Each store has a rate, the rate is found by applying a vlookup which looks up the special cell 1 and where the array table is located on Sheet B
4) Each store also has an index number (referred to as index)
5) Each store has a calculation which is index * special cell 2 (referred to as calc1)
6) Each store has another calculation which is rate * num1 (referred to as calc2)
7) Each store has another index number (referred to as index2)
8) Some of the index2 values have to be multiplied by calc2, the rest will stay the same (referred to as calc3)
9) A summation has to be done, summing all the calc2 values to result in sum1
10) A summation has to be done, summing all the calc3 values to result in sum2
11) The final figure is sum1 + sum2
It sounds like you could create 400 rows where each row is a what if scenario. Then next to each row you could take an input and an output, and graph accordingly.
Update
Per your description so far I've created the attached workbook with some formulas to put you in the right direction: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19599049/120813_2c.xlsx
It calculates the sum1 and sum2 For 10 stores based on the 2 inputs. Note that I colored which cells were ending up in which final output. yellow = original sum1/sum2 blue = array formula version of sum1/sum2 green = data used in both.
I did this to point out that while this example workbook seems to follow all 11 of your rules. the input 2 doesnt appear to be included in the final outputs of my mock-up version for some reason.
Either way this should serve as a good basis to get you started. And I can modify it if you continue to include more details.