Help is available from the FinPak Menu in Excel and from the FinPak toolbar. The complete help file can be read online. In Excel 2003 it is also available from the button on the formula bar. There are three ways to use this button:

1. Click on and look for the function by scrolling through the list of functions. Either choose All from the Select Category option or choose User defined (much shorter list). (See Figure 1)

2. If you type in the function you wish to use until the first left parenthesis and click a box will appear allows you choose the inputs and a brief label is provided for each required or optional input. Use the scroll bar to go through all of the inputs. (See Figure 2)

3. If you want help with function, click on the and then choose Help with this function to bring up a page that describes the function and its require inputs and its output.

This web site also contains supporting information for FinPak.

#Name Message and Update Links on file open

If you receive such as Figure 3 on opening a file it maybe related to FinPak. Excel remembers the specific location of FinPak and if files are transferred between computers or if you move the FinPak add-in you may receive this message. It also associated with the #Name error for a FinPak function. This is easiest to fix as the file is opened, since it fixes are occurrences of the problem.

Figure 3

Click on the update link. After that if the FinPak link cannot be found the following appears (Figure 4)

Select “Edit Links” and Figure 5 appears. This shows that Excel could not find the FinPak Add-in. Click the “Change Source” tab and Figure 6 appears.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

This is a standard file open navigation window. It will probably not be pointing at the right directory. So navigate to the correct directory (it should be C:\Program Files\FinPak if you installed to the default location) as shown and then select the FinPak.xla file. Thiis is the add-in. Then click “Ok” and you should be back to figure 5. Click the “Update Values” and if everything worked it should say Source is open (instead of Error: Source not found) Click the close button and all of the Finpak functions should now be available.

If you opened a file without updating the links or do not wish to update the links you can do it manually by editing the link yourself. Figure 7 shows the effect of not updating, all FinPak functions generate a #NAME? error. All formula cells which depend on this cell will also show the #NAME? error. Once you fix the error all dependent cells will automatically adjust.

Click on the cell and the content will appear in formula bar

Figure 7

Figure 8

Highlight the path name, be sure not to include the = sign; and include all characters including the “!” just before the start of the function name (F in this case) and press delete.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11