Welcome to Crystal Ball Version 2000.2.2, Standard Edition. Crystal Ball 2000.2.2, Standard Edition is a sophisticated suite of forecasting, and risk-analysis tools for spreadsheet users. With this suite of tools, you'll be able to answer important decision-making questions such as "What are the risks of this project?" or "How do we increase profitability?" You'll no longer have to make decisions like these in the dark.

By taking full advantage of the Microsoft Windows environment, Crystal Ball 2000 offers a unique combination of advanced simulation and optimization techniques in a graphical package that's easy to learn and use. While it's simple to get started with Crystal Ball 2000, we recommend that you read the rest of this document and then consult the Getting Started card for an overview.

For information on what's new in this version of Crystal Ball 2000, see the Release.htm file.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

To run Crystal Ball 2000 Standard Edition, you will need the following:

Microsoft Office 95 or later
Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later, 2000, or XP
PC with 486 or Pentium microprocessor
At least 16 MB of RAM
At least 5 MB of free hard disk space
CD-ROM drive, 2X or faster
256-color graphics card or compatible video graphics adapter and monitor

Recommended system requirements:

Pentium I or II, 200 MHz or faster
32 MB RAM

INSTALLATION ISSUES

Installing Over an Older Version of Crystal Ball

If you are installing Crystal Ball 2000, Professional Edition on a computer where you have an older version of Crystal Ball, it is important to completely uninstall the older version before installing Crystal Ball 2000. In most cases, the installer will detect and prompt you to uninstall during the new installation.

However, if you are installing to a different drive than the previous version, the installer will not detect the older installation, and you should uninstall manually (using the Windows Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs Utility) before reinstallation.

Also, if your previous Crystal Ball version was set up to start automatically with Excel, you might see the error message that it cannot find CB.XLA when you start up Excel. This is because the location of this file has changed with the new installation. If you receive this message, simply browse to the new Crystal Ball folder (C:\Program Files\Crystal Ball, by default) and select the CB.XLA file.

Uninstalling Crystal Ball

To uninstall Crystal Ball 2000:

If you have Excel set up to start Crystal Ball automatically, in Excel, select Tools > Add-ins and deselect Crystal Ball.
In Windows, launch the Add/Remove Programs utility (Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs).
Follow the uninstallation directions.

SPECIFIC PLATFORM LIMITATIONS

Excel 97 (Version 8.0) and Excel 2000 (Version 9.0)

These versions of Excel contain a great many new features for spreadsheet users. Unfortunately, the speed of spreadsheet cell drawing has been sharply reduced from previous versions. This problem is magnified when running simulations on small to medium-sized spreadsheet models where many cells are rapidly changing. To alleviate this problem, you can have Crystal Ball automatically minimize your spreadsheets and/or Excel itself during a simulation using the appropriate settings on the Run Preferences dialog. These settings can significantly improve (up to 500%) the simulation speed for small to medium-sized models.

Excel 97 only

You cannot call Crystal Ball developer kit functions or macros with an Excel command button.

Virus protection: Excel 97 has a feature that warns you when a workbook containing macro commands opens. This protects you from opening workbooks that maliciously make copies of themselves to other workbooks, which is a variety of computer virus. Unfortunately, this protection scheme does not differentiate between a legitimate program, such as Crystal Ball, and a virus. If this option is on, when Crystal Ball attempts to load its components into Excel, you may get this warning message. The message can be disabled by selecting Tools > Options and, on the General tab, unchecking the option "Macro Virus Protection."

Excel 95 (Version 7.0)

The tooltip and cell-note pop-up windows in Excel 95 interfere with Crystal Ball's forecast windows. For this reason, the pop-up windows are disabled automatically when a simulation is run and are re-enabled when the simulation is reset. You can still view the descriptions of the toolbar buttons in Excel's status bar.

OTHER LIMITATIONS

Backward Compatibility

There are two backward compatibility issues:

If you use Crystal Ball 2000.1 or later to define assumptions using cell references, you cannot open the model in any earlier version of Crystal Ball.
If you use the new alternate parameter sets to define assumptions, you cannot open the worksheet using Crystal Ball 4.0 or earlier. Excel and Crystal Ball will freeze.

Sensitivity Analysis Feature

There is an additional limitation of this feature not listed on Page 171 in the user manual: turning on Calculate Sensitivity changes the sequence of random numbers generated from a specific seed value. If you are running the same simulation repeatedly using a given seed value, you can avoid this limitation by leaving the Calculate Sensitivity option turned on all the time. (Leaving the Latin Hypercube Sampling option turned on also avoids this limitation.)

Toolbar

The buttons on the Crystal Ball toolbar are position dependent. Please do not insert or delete buttons to the left of the Crystal Ball Help button (the last one on the toolbar).

DEMONSTRATION SOFTWARE

The CD Browser on your CD-ROM includes the following demonstrations:

Crystal Ball Standard Quick Demo
Crystal Ball Professional Quick Demo
CB Predictor Quick Demo
Engineering Quick Demo
Finance Quick Demo
Financial Planning Quick Demo
Insurance Quick Demo
Pharmaceutical Quick Demo
Telecommunications Quick Demo

These "Quick Demos" demonstrate the business value of Crystal Ball (Standard and Professional Editions) and CB Predictor. The demos are created in a self-guided, slideshow format, and are relatively short and easy to follow.

EVALUATION SOFTWARE

You can use the CD Browser on your CD-ROM to install evaluation copies of any Decisioneering software. These evaluation copies will work for seven days from installation.

CB Turbo is network software that lets you distribute portions of long, complex simulations to other computers on your network to speed up the simulation process. For more information on this product, see the ABOUTME.doc file in the \CBTurbo folder on the CD-ROM.

CB Predictor is an easy-to-use, graphically oriented forecasting add-in for Microsoft Excel spreadsheet users. If you have historical data in your spreadsheet, CB Predictor will analyze your data for trends and seasonal variations. It will then predict future values based on this information using statistically complex methods of time-series forecasting. For more information on this product, see the ABOUTME.doc file in the \CBPred folder on the CD-ROM.

OTHER INFORMATION

The Crystal Ball User Group (CBUG) is a Yahoo! Groups forum for Crystal Ball users who want to discuss issues and methods related to Crystal Ball software. Members can exchange tips, models, and application stories.

For more information on CBUG, including how to become a member, please visit http://support.crystalball.com/.

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS

For more information on Crystal Ball, see our Web site at http://www.crystalball.com/.

If you have questions or problems concerning this product, please contact us at one of the addresses below:

In the United States:

Oracle Crystal Ball Global Business Unit
7700 Technology Way
Denver, Colorado 80237
USA

Main number: +1.303.334.4000 (Switchboard only – no technical support)
US Sales: +1.719.757.2173
Support: +1.303.334.7599 or +1.800.373.5885
Fax: +1.303.334.7598
CBSalesNA_ww@oracle.com
cbsupport_ww@oracle.com

Web-site: www.crystalball.com

For a current list of international dealers and distributors, see the Web site at:

http://distributors.crystalball.com/

All other countries, please contact Crystal Ball in the United States

THANK YOU

We hope that you enjoy working with Crystal Ball 2000, Professional Edition, and wish to thank you for using Crystal Ball's products! Please be sure to visit our Web site for up-to-date news and information.

Support Center > Knowledgebase > Simulation Modeling > ReadMe File