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FAQs

Data Grid

Pasting Data/Information
Displaying the same priorities in the Data Grid & ModelView
Ratings Scales and Negative Numbers
Changing the number of decimal points that are displayed

Installation

I/O Error When Installing EC
Administrative Privileges
MDAC Message
Invalid Serial Number

Alternatives

Deleting Alternatives
Viewing Alternatives in the ModelView
Sensitivity Graph Colors
Pairwise comparison on extracted subset of alternatives from data grid

Keypad Operations

Installing new Keypads
Drivers needed for CRS940 Receiver
Changing the Com Port
Facilitator Keypad Setup
Changing a Keypad Number
Activating Keypads — The software is not recognizing input from the keypads
Keypads Automatically Turn Off
Invert (Asterisk) Key
Switching Judgments with the Keypads
Recording Judgments
Erasing Judgments
What does the facilitator keypad do?
Changing Facilitator Menus that are used with Keypads

Judgments

Skewing Judgments

Miscellaneous

Importing Data to EC
Group Enabling a Model
Structuring – How to Enable
Information Documents vs. Notes
Undo and Revert Commands
After making a backup of my database it got smaller...why?
Why am I being prompted to save changes when closing a model that I have just manually saved
How to generate reports that can be used in Microsoft Office Applications
Possible differences in priorities of the alternatives in the model view and data grid.
How do I choose between using Distributive or Ideal mode
I changed the alternatives costs, but the values in the other columns did not change.

Resource Allocation

Handling direct and indirect costs

Top 5 FAQs

Question: I am installing Expert Choice on a new computer and can’t find my serial number. What do I do?

Answer: First look in the documentation that came with the software for a serial number and if you can’t find it call us. Once you have the serial number install Expert Choice from either the CD or link that we provided via email. When prompted to enter a serial number copy and paste the serial number from the email. If you are typing the serial number you must enter it exactly as shown (upper and lower case letters including hypens).

Also follow these directions if you are installing the trial version.

Question: How do I develop a Ratings Scale from the Data Grid?

Answer:

Select Go, Data Grid.
Select F ormula Type, Ratings. Alternatively, you can right-click in the cell above the covering objective’s name select Ratings.
When the Ratings definition window appears, type an Intensity Name, one per row, starting from the highest to the lowest value, for example, Excellent, Very Good, Good…
Click the Assess button and pairwise compare the relative preference of the intensities. When done you will be returned to the Ratings Definition window to see the derived priorities.

Alternatively, if you know the exact values (priorities) that you want to enter do not click Assess, but click and drag a bar in the intensity priority column until the desired priority appears. Alternatively, you can enter a value between 0 and 1.
Select Close and then the intensities will be shown on the Data grid in priority order.

For additional help see the Ratings section of on-line help or the tutorials.

Question: Can you provide some advice when structuring or building a model?

Answer: Your model can be built in the ModelView’s TreeView and Alternatives panes. Alternatively you can build your model in the TreeView and enter your alternatives in the Data Grid. Expert Choice is flexible and let’s you work the way you want and doesn’t force you to work they way Expert Choice thinks you should work.

In addition, you can use our Top Down Structuring or Affinity Diagramming window – this can be used if you know more about the objectives (criteria) than the alternatives. To access this window select the Down Structuring or Affinity Diagramming Icon located in the ModelView window.

If you know more about the alternatives start with them – this is called Bottom Up Structuring of Pros and Cons. The pros and cons of the alternatives are then used to help identify the objectives that can then be clustered into groups. To access this feature select the ProCon icon located in the ModelView window.

Use the on-line help section or the tutorials to learn more. As an aid we have built

Question: How do I group enable a model using Expert Choice?

Answer: After a defining a model with objectives, sub-objectives and alternatives select the Go Menu and then select the Participants table. Next select the Edit command; then select Add and enter the number of participants to be added such as 5.

Question: How can I import collected data (pairwise comparisons) from Excel to Expert Choice. I don't want to enter my pairwise comparisons one by one since I already have them in a column of an excel file?

Answer: For each set of paired comparisons to be imported;

Select the menu command Assessment | Pairwise
From your Excel spreadsheet highlight the pairwise comparisons to be imported, the range inthe column of your spreadsheet. Note: No error checking is performed.
From the Assessment menu select Edit | Paste from the clipboard.
Save your imported results
Repeat steps 1-4 for the next comparison

If you have a group enabled model you will have to repeat this process for each participants' instance which is accessible from the dropdown in the ModelView.

If you are using Expert Choice in your studies please encourage your school to buy a site license.

Data Grid Questions

Question: How can I paste data/information into the Data Grid?

Answer: To paste information into the Data Grid, follow the directions below. Since you will be changing the contents of your model; it is highly recommended that you make a backup copy of your model for historical purposes prior to pasting.

Use Expert Choice's Data Grid's Edit | Copy command to copy the contents of the Data Grid to the Windows clipboard.
Open Excel and use Excel's Edit | Paste command to paste the contents of the clipboard to the worksheet.
Use Excel's Insert Name Define to mark a region that defines the area that was pasted into Excel from the clipboard (any name will do).
Enter whatever data you want to the Excel worksheet - you can cut and paste from other sources. (Expert Choice assumes you are entering valid data.)
Then from Excel use the Goto command and select the Defined Range entered in step 3.
From Excel, use the Edit | Copy command to clipboard command.
Then from Expert Choice use the Data Grid's Paste from clipboard command to copy the contents back to the Data Grid.

Question: The values (priorities) in the Data Grid and the Alternative pane of the ModelView are not the same. Why?

Answer: By default the Data Grid displays un-normalized priorities while the ModelView displays the normalized priorities.

To see the same priorities in Data Grid as well as the Alternative pane of the ModelView using the Distributive mode do the following:

From the Data Grid:

Select View | Totals. The totals shown here are un-normalized.
Select Normalize | Priority
Select Edit | Extract Alternatives to the ModelView

Go to the ModelView and the priorities will be the same.

To see the same priorities in Data Grid as well as the Alternative pane of the ModelView using the Ideal mode do the following:

From the Data Grid:

Select Tools | Options | General | Include the Ideal Alternative in the Data Grid and Hide the Ideal Alternative in the ModelView displays
Select View | Totals. The totals shown here are un-normalized.
Select Normalize | Priority
Make the Ideal Alternative selected by right clicking on the Ideal Alternative
Select Edit | Extract Alternatives to the ModelView

Go to the ModelView and the priorities will be the same.

Question: Why does Expert Choice use intensities in Ratings scale?

Answer: Expert Choice Ratings does not use scales based on a formula. The objective is to associate ratio scale priorities with the labels on the intensities that match the respondents meaning of the words as closely as possible. This is best done by making pairwise comparisons of the words - the graphical mode works well for this. Ratio scales do not have negative numbers. Whereas positive and negative numbers are traditionally used to represent magnitude and direction in one dimension (with negative being equal and opposite positive), each 'dimension' of an EC model is, in essence, another direction. The ratio scale value is the magnitude and the combination of the values on the various dimensions. This is accomplished through assessment of the relative importance of the dimensions. For example, we do not assume that a unit of red ink and black ink on a financial statement are equal in importance. Note: To represent negative number use either an Increasing or Decreasing Utility function or a Step Function. For more information see the Expert Choice Help system.

Question: How do I increase/decrease the number of decimals that are displayed in the Data Grid? (...and Excel when data is exported?)

Answer: Select Tools | Options | View and change the Number of Decimal Places to be displayed to the right of the decimal point. The default is 3; for example, elements that have more than 3 places to the right of the decimal point will be rounded and displayed to 3 characters. Should you export the Data Grid to Excel it will be displayed as three; to change this use Excel’s format command to increase or decrease the number of decimals shown.

Installation Questions

Question: While installing Expert Choice an I/O error occurred. What do I do?

Answer: An I/O error is normally caused by bad installation media or a corrupt installation file and causes an incomplete download. Repeat the download process, to download any version of Expert Choice, using one of the suggested download managers listed on our download page.

Question: When installing Expert Choice I am told that I must have administrative privileges. What should I do?

Answer: To install Expert Choice you must have administrative privileges. Typically, most operating systems have an Administrator account and some have administrative privileges. Your organization's system administrator must log on to install the software. Please contact your system administrator for assistance.

Question: When installing Expert Choice, I am prompted, "Setup detects that MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) version xxx must be installed (or re-installed) on your system." What do I do?

Answer: This is an informational message; simply click OK and MDAC will automatically be installed. Once this is complete then Expert Choice will be installed.

Question: After installing Expert Choice, I received a message stating my serial number is invalid; what do I do?

Answer: Go to the Expert Choice directory; locate ECREG.EXE (the Expert Choice registration program) and double click on it. Next enter the serial number that was provided to you (include uppercase letters and hyphens); then tab to the next line and enter your user information. Note: Once you enter the serial number, the bottom of the dialogue box will display the components of the software that are licensed to you. If you still have problems contact Expert Choice for a valid serial number.

Alternatives

Question: I want to delete all the alternatives from the model. How do I do this?

Answer: From the Data Grid, select Edit | Data Clear All and this will delete all the alternatives and associated data and/or compared comparisons from the model.

Note: Alternatives inserted in the Alternatives pane in the ModelView are simultaneously added to the Data Grid. Alternatives can only be inactivated from the Alternatives pane.

Question: Why can't I see some or all of the alternatives that are in the Data Grid in the ModelView's Alternative pane?

Answer: Alternatives that are shown in the Data Grid are known as global alternatives. Alternatives shown in the Alternatives pane in the ModelView are known as Active Alternatives. To see some or all of the alternatives that are in the Data Grid in the Alternatives pane you must mark and extract them. To do this:

Right click on each alternative to be extracted or select Edit, Select All.
Then select Edit, Extract Selected to Hierarchy.

Question: What do the colors of the alternatives in the Sensitivity-Graphs mean?

Answer: The colors of the alternatives in the sensitivity plots are dependent on the Sort option. If Sort is ON (the default), then the color is determined by the priority order of the alternatives. If sort is OFF, the alternatives will have the same color in all plots regardless of their priority order. (Turn the sort option off or on from any Sensitivity-Graphs | Options menu.

Question: I made pairwise comparisons on a subset of alternatives by extracting them from the Data Grid to the alternatives pane in the ModelView. The values appear in the Data Grid as they should. However, when I subsequently make all of the alternatives active in the Data Grid and extract, and then go back to the Data Grid, I cannot see the values for the subset previously compared. What is happening?

Answer: When you extracted all of the alternatives, there will no longer be a spanning set of judgments so the priorities cannot be calculated without completing the spanning set (minimal number of judgments to calculate priorities) of judgments. That is why the priorities don't show up when you select and extract all of the alternatives in the Data Grid. To remedy this, go to the pairwise window for the alternatives previously compared and either enter in enough judgments to create a spanning set, or make the alternatives that were not pairwise compared dormant. To make an alternative dormant from the pairwise window, select the alternative from the matrix's first column by pressing Ctrl Click; the alternative line will then be greened out. Repeat this process as necessary. After the desired alternatives have been made dormant, press the Calculate button. Now go to the Data Grid and the values for the subset will appear in the appropriate covering objective column.

Keypad Operation Questions

Question: Installing new Keypads

Answer: We will assume Expert Choice has been properly installed but you can get the system to recognize the RF receiver and keypads.

First, locate the Fleetwood subfolder in the Expert Choice folder, e.g. c:\Program Files\Expert Choice 11\Fleetwood

NOW plug the Reply System into a USB Port.
When the New Hardware Wizard Appears do the following: (Note you will have to do this twice because there are two sets of drivers.)
1. Select No Not This Time
2. Do not Search but Install from a Specific Location - Browse to Fleetwood folder found in step 1 above.
3. Select Continue Anyway
4. Finish
Repeat step 3 for the second set of drivers (if prompted to do so).

Once this is done you might have to change the Com Port that the receiver uses.

Expert Choice will try to install the Receiver in the first available com port. If there are not enough com ports available on your computer you will have to change the port setting.

Directions are dependent upon your computer’s operating system. The scenario is a follows:

Right click on My Computer
Select Properties
Select Hardware
Select Device Manager
Click on Ports
Right Click on Communication Ports (com1)
Select Port Settings
Select Advanced
Select an available Com Port Number from the dropdown list at the bottom of the window or select one that is used but no longer needed. Note the port number for future reference.
Select ok
Select ok again
Close any open windows that were opened in the steps outlined above.

Question: How do I setup a Facilitator Keypad in Expert Choice?

Answer: Use the File Menu of either the Assessment| Pairwise Individual window of the ModelView or the Individuals window of the Data Grid; then select Keypad | Options. Next select the keypad number to be used for the facilitator keypad. Note: The keypad number must not exceed the number of keypads to be used in the session.

Question: How do I change a keypad number?

Answer: To Change the keypad number for Receiver CRS 940 purchased in August 2006 or later: 1) Press and hold down the CLR key and simultaneously press 951. 2) Release the CLR key. Then you have 5 seconds to enter the new 3 digit keypad number such as 010 for ten. (Use the 10 key for zero.) 3) To check that the number you entered is correct repeat steps 1 and 2 above. 4). Now that you have changed the keypad number don’t forget to change the label.
To change the Keypad Number for Receiver CRS 920 purchased before August 2005, press the CLR button on the keypad and hold it down until the display area starts blinking; it will echo back the current keypad number. IMMEDIATELY enter a three digit number using then ten (10) key for zero (0). For example, to change a keypad that is 17 to 7 you would press CLR until the display flashes and immediately press the 10 key twice and then press the 7 key. To check what you did, press CLR until the display flashes; then the display should echo 007. (Don't forget to relabel the keypad!)

Question: The audio-response receiver is connected to my computer but I cannot activate the keypads. I receive the message "Device Unavailable" or "Could Not Find Keypads". What do I do?

Answer: To fix this problem check the items on the list.

Make sure the receiver is connected properly to the computer and the power is on. Soft-fabric case clients, make sure all three antennas are installed with the long one in the center. If you have a hard-case the antennas are built in and there are none to install. A good rule of thumb is to turn the receiver off and on before trying the other options listed below.
Make sure you are not running other software programs such as a hand-held computer that use Com 1. If you are, disable the program.
Make sure your model is group enabled; do this by selecting File | Participants table; check to make sure your participants have keypad numbers assigned.
Select Assessment | Pairwise Individual or Data Grid | Individuals and then select File | Keypad Options. Now check the Com port setting; the receiver should be plugged into the Com port listed. At this point also check make sure the maximum number of keypads is correct. If you are going to use a facilitator keypad make sure that it is set correctly. You may have to revisit three above.
Select Assessment | Pairwise Individual or Data Grid |Individuals and select File | Keypads or Ctrl K to turn on the keypads.
Note: If both the receiver and keypads are on then the status bar at the bottom of the window will say Keypads. When the Receiver is only on the status bar will say Receiver. If neither are on it will say Mouse. Also note there is a File | Receiver command that only turns on the receiver.

Question: Why do keypads turn off as we advance from one judgment to the next?

Answer: The keypad option has been set to automatically turn off the keypads when moving to the next judgment. To leave them on, select Assessment | Pairwise Individual or Data Grid | Individuals; then select File | Keypad Options and un-check the box for "KP off when move".

Question: The Invert key, asterisk key (*), on the keypad does not seem to be working; how do I fix this?

Answer: To program the asterisk key, press the CLR key on the keypad and hold it down until the display flashes; then IMMEDIATELY enter 931. Next, press the asterisk key (*); if an A echoes in the display the asterisk key is programmed correctly.

Question: When using the keypads how do a participants select the second element in the pairwise process (eg switch judgments)?

Answer: The asterisk key (*) on the keypad is known as the Invert key. Use this key to move your judgment to the second item being compared. You can enter your judgment before or after pressing the asterisk key

Question: What does the facilitator keypad do? And what happens if it inadvertently is used by a participant?

Answer: A keypad that had been set as the facilitator keypad can, for example, move from judgment to judgment without using the mouse or keyboard; this gives the facilitator the flexibility to move around the room. It can also control other operations; see on-line help. If the facilitator keypad gets in the hands of a participant during a session it can cause confusion as the participant will think she is making a judgment when pressing a key but in reality she may, for example, advance to the next group judgment to be made. Solution: Mark the facilitator keypad with a color highlighter to clearly identify it and tell the group at the session's inception what the facilitator keypad number is and what it does.

Question: How can participants know when a judgment has been accepted using the keypads?

Answer: When a participant enters a judgment, it appears as a flashing number in the LCD display on the keypad. When the judgment is accepted the flashing number disappears. Participants should also look at the facilitator's projected display of either the Assessment | Pairwise Individuals or Data Grid | Individuals window; it will show their judgment. Alternatively the facilitator might show poll boxes, in which case the participant's poll box will darken when the judgment is accepted.
Note: Participants can change their judgment simply by entering a new judgment. The last judgment entered is the judgment that will be recorded.

Question: Using the keypad, how can a participant erase a judgment that he or she has entered?

Answer: Press the 10 key on the keypad. Alternatively, you can just enter a new judgment and it will replace the erroneous entry.

Question: Can I change the Facilitator menus in Expert Choice

Answer: Yes, any of the facilitator menus in Expert Choice can be customized. Use the File menu from the Individual Assessment window of the ModelView or the Individuals window of the Data Grid; then select Facilitator Menus. Navigate to the menu to be changed; then click on the line to be changed and select the command to be entered or replaced from the Command the pull-down menu. To accept changes click OK.

Judgments

Question: How do you stop individual members of the decision team from "skewing" the judgments to favor their projects/departments?

Answer: A participant may make a judgment that is greater than others in the group because he believes that his judgment will shift the average judgment towards his preference. While it may not be possible to keep people from 'skewing' their judgments slightly, it is easy to see when judgments are inconsistent with the objectives being considered as they are being made. We suggest that the Facilitator have the group agree on some 'ground rules' for the decision session prior to starting. One common ground rule is to ask people to 'explain' their judgment when others question the logic.

Another response to help put the above in context: It is much easier to 'skew' the overall judgments about a favored alternative in an unstructured decision. In fact, this happens all the time. People just talk about those factors that are favorable to their preferred alternative or unfavorable to a contending alternative — over and over and over again!!!!

Miscellaneous Questions

Question: Can I import data from other products into Expert Choice?

Answer: To import data from Microsoft applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. See the Expert Choice Tutorials on the Data Grid and also consult on-line help. Note: Information and Power Points can be imported into our Information documents in both the ModelView and Data Grid.

Question: I am having difficulty group enabling a model (adding participants); how do I do this?

Answer: Make sure you are logged on to Expert Choice as the facilitator because participants cannot group enable a model. Then follow the directions below:

From ModelView's menu select Go Participants Table.
Select Edit | Group Enable to create a combined instance that will contain the results of all the active participants.
Select Add Participants and type the number of participants to be added to the model. (If a group model exists use this command to add additional participants.)

Question: I can not see the Structuring icons that should be displayed in the Expert Choice ModelView. What should I do?

Answer: Structuring is our freestyle, interactive technique for building an Expert Choice model that simulates the flow of ideas, and helps decision-makers organize the objectives of their decision into clusters. To turn on Structuring from the ModelView, select Tools | Options. Click on the General tab; then check-mark Enable in the Structuring box.

Question: What is the difference between Information Documents and Notes?

Answer: Information Documents are credited or edited only by the facilitator. Participants in the group versions can only view Information Documents. Notes are meant to be used by individual participants to document their judgments and rationale. These features can be accessed when a book or note is displayed on the icon bar of one of several Expert Choice windows.

Question: Does EC have an "Undo" command?

Answer: EC has an Edit | Undo command that can be used for editing individual Information documents and Notes as well as undoing individual pairwise judgments.

An Expert Choice model is either stored in a Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database; these databases do not allow undo operations. If an undo command is not allowed, use the "Revert" command to restore an earlier version of the database.

Note: It is a good idea to File | Save periodically; this will not only save your model but will create a temporary backup that you can later revert from.

In our multiple user group versions only the facilitator can revert to an earlier version of the database. Selecting Edit | Revert will display a list of current session database versions of the model that you can revert to.

Question: Why does the size of my database decrease, sometimes, after doing a file | save As?

Answer: When you make a backup of your database with the File | save As command; Expert Choice / Access database features compact the database to save room. You have not lost information!

Question: Why am I being prompted again to save changes when closing a model that I have just manually saved and no additional changes were made?

Answer: The first save is saved to the database and is used as a revert point while the model is still open. The second save goes directly to the database.

Question: How to generate reports that can be used in Microsoft Office Applications?

Answer:

Go to the desired view within Expert Choice.
Size the window accordingly by dragging.
Use Expert Choice's Screen Capture feature by selecting Tools | Screen Capture. You can also access Screen Capture by pressing Ctrl F9.
Save the capture as a .bmp file.
Open Power Point and insert a blank slide. (Or open a Word file)
Select Insert Picture from a File.
Navigate to the file directory and select it.
If you need to resize the picture from Power Point or Word, select Format Picture then select size and then reduce the height and width of the picture for example from 83% to 50%.

Question: Why might there be possible reasons for differences in priorities of the alternatives in the model view and data grid.

Answer: It is customary to work with and view alternative priorities in the model view when working with a small set of alternatives. When working with a large number of alternatives, such as for resource allocation, it is customary to view alternative priorities in the Data Grid. Occasionally, however, there may be a desire to view alternative priorities in both the ModelView and the Data Grid. Since priorities in the ModelView and Data Grid are calculated differently (as explained below), there can be slight differences in the priorities under certain circumstances. These differences can be eliminated by including an Ideal alternative in the Data Grid and then Extracting it to the ModelView where it is hidden.

Priorities of the alternatives in the ModelView are ‘Relative’: Priorities in the ModelView are calculated based on a synthesis using either the Distributive or Ideal modes. In either case, the priorities are ‘RELATIVE’ to one another. The Distributive Synthesis is such that the priorities within each cluster sum to 1.0. The Ideal Synthesis is such that the alternative priorities are normalized by dividing each alternative’s priority by the priority of the ‘best’ alternative in the cluster such that the priority of the alternative with the highest priority in each cluster is always 1.0.

Priorities of the alternatives in the Data Grid are ‘Absolute’: Priorities of alternatives based on formulas. That is, an alternative's priority with respect to a given covering objective is based only on the ‘rating intensity’ or data value for that alternative and doesn’t depend on any of the other alternatives.

What is an Ideal Alternative? An Ideal alternative, which can be added to the Data Grid, has a priority of 1 with respect to every covering objective. The Ideal alternative can be extracted from the Data Grid to the ModelView along with other alternatives to either serve as a ‘reference’, or to provide a mechanism that assures that priorities viewed in the ModelView will coincide with those in the Data Grid.

When IS it necessary to extract an ideal alternative from the Data Grid in order to eliminate any differences? Only when all of the following conditions apply:

Ideal mode synthesis, AND
there is at least one covering objective for which priorities are calculated based on formulas (ratings or data), AND
the set of alternatives being extracted does NOT have at least one alternative for each such covering objective with a priority of 1.0

When it is NOT necessary to extract an Ideal alternative from the Data Grid? With the exception of the above circumstance, it is NOT necessary to extract an ideal alternative from the Data Grid in order to have the priorities of alternatives coincide in the ModelView and Data Grid. It is NOT necessary to extract an ideal alternative when ANY of the following conditions apply:

When alternatives are being viewed in either the model view, or the data grid, but not both.
When a DISTRIBUTIVE synthesis is performed.
When an IDEAL synthesis is performed and the synthesized priorities are calculated only in the ModelView.
When an IDEAL synthesis is performed and synthesized priorities are calculated in both the ModelView and Data Grid AND alternative priorities are based on pairwise comparisons for each covering objective – that is, there are no covering objectives for which priorities are calculated based on formulas (ratings or data).
When an IDEAL synthesis is performed and the synthesized priorities are calculated only in the Data Grid.
When an IDEAL synthesis is performed and there are one or more covering objectives for which priorities are calculated based on formulas (ratings or data), BUT the set of alternatives being extracted has at least one alternative for each such covering objective with a priority of 1.0.

Including an Ideal alternative in the Data Grid (by selecting the Tools | Options | General command) and extracting the Ideal alternative will eliminate the possibility of there being any differences in ModelView and normalized Data Grid priorities. If desired, it is possible to ‘hide’ the Ideal alternative in the ModelView and exclude it in the normalized priorities in the Data Grid using the Hide option in Tools | Options | General command. The following example illustrates how this can be done.

Using Expert Choice select the ECsamples model directory and open the employee evaluation model.
Using the saveAs command save this model to a temporary name.
Go to the Data Grid. If the row numbers are not on, select Tools | Options | View and select the Show Index button to turn on the row numbers.
From the Data Grid, select alternatives 1,3,5,7 by right-clicking on each alternative name. Each alternative will become check-marked.
Select Totals | Normalize | Priority.
Select Edit | Extract Selected to Hierarchy. Notice that priorities are same in ModelView and Data Grid. (Toggle back and forth.)
Go to the Data Grid and change priority of alternative 7, Kesselman, Work Quantity from Excellent to Very Good. (Notice that Condition 5 above no longer holds. You can also see this if you select Edit | Extract again – the priorities in the ModelView and Data Grid will not be the same.
Select Tools | Options | General. Select Include Ideal alternative in the Data Grid.
From the Data Grid select the Ideal alternative by right-clicking.
Select Edit | Extract Selected to Hierarchy. Notice that the priorities will be same in both ModelView and Data Grid. (Toggle back and forth.)
Select Tools | Options | General and select Hide Ideal Alternative from the Alternatives pane
Edit | Extract once more – notice that the priorities are same in both ModelView and Data Grid.

Mathematically this is how Ideal Alternative is treated:
In the Data Grid, the Ideal Alternative gets an implied 1.0 in each column whether it was measured using pairwise comparisons or with formulas.

In the ModelView, the Ideal Alternative is made dormant in each cluster when making judgments, but the Ideal's priority is set equal to the highest priority in the cluster and the cluster is re-normalized. For example: If A1 = .6 and A2 = .4 then Aideal=.6 and normalized piorities will be A1 = .6/1.6, A2 = .4/1.6 and Aideal = 1.0.

Question: How do I choose between using Distributive or Ideal mode.

Answer: There are two methods by which you can synthesize to derive results for your decision, Distributive or Ideal.

Ideal Synthesis
Use the Ideal mode when you are concerned with choosing only one alternative - the best and the other alternatives will no longer matter. The Ideal mode assigns the full weight of each covering objective to the alternative that ranks highest under it. The other alternatives receive a weight in proportion to the highest alternative per covering objective. The weights/priorities for all the alternatives are summed to display the best alternative. Note: If the same alternative is best for all of the objectives the alternative receives an overall value of one while the other alternatives receive proportionately less.

Distributive Synthesis
Use the Distributive mode when all alternatives matter. The Distributive mode distributes the weights of the objectives among the alternatives; thereby dividing the full objectives' weights into proportions relative to the percentage of preference of each of the alternatives.

Question: I changed the alternatives costs in the cost column of the Data Grid, but the values in the other columns did not change. Why?

Answer: The 'cost' column (the one to the immediate right of the Total column in the Data Grid) is NOT part of the determination of the 'total' priority (benefit), but is used in the Resource Allocation module such that you get the maximum benefit, subject to constraints involving cost. If you do not plan to do an optimization, it may be advisable to include a 'cost' objective in the hierarchy itself, if in fact cost is one of the considerations in the decision/prioritization. For example, the cost objective might have a formula type of either an increasing or a decreasing utility curve.

Resource Aligner (Resource Allocation)

Question: How can we handle direct and indirect costs in an Expert Choice model?

Answer: One way is to define objectives for direct and indirect costs in the objective hierarchy. Or you can define extra columns in Resource Aligner (RA) contain direct and indirect costs. Don't forget to set the maximum amount of indirect and direct costs allowed in the appropriate total cells... then optimize.

Question: I can't get my Receiver Model CRS940 to work; what do I do?

Answer: Follow the instructions below to install drivers.

Note: The drivers are subject to change by the keypad/receiver vendor, Fleetwood, without notice. If the following directions do not work contact support@expertchoice.com or contact Fleetwood at http://www.replysystems.com/; their phone numbers are 616-257-6390 and 800-257-6390.

After installing Expert Choice locate the Fleetwood subfolder in the Expert Choice folder, e.g. c:\Program Files\Expert Choice 11\Fleetwood
NOW plug the Reply System into a USB Port.
When the New Hardware Wizard Appears do the following (Note you will have to do this twice because there are two sets of drivers.)
1. Select No Not This Time
2. Do not Search but Install from a Specific Location – Browse to Fleetwood folder found in step 1 above.
3. Select Continue Anyway
4. Finish
Repeat step 3 for the second set of drivers (if prompted to do so).

Question: How can I change my Com Port?

Answer: Expert Choice will try to install the Receiver in the first available com port. If there are not enough com ports available on your computer you will have to change the port setting. Directions are dependent upon your computer’s operating system. The scenario might be is a follows:

Right click on My Computer
Select Properties
Select Hardware
Select Device Manager
Click on Ports
Right Click on Communication Ports (com1)
Select Port Settings
Select Advanced
Select an available Com Port Number from the dropdown list at the bottom of the window or select one that is used but no longer needed. Note the port number for future reference.
Select ok
Select ok again

Close any open windows that were opened in the steps outlined above.

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