How to Install or Upgrade Planning Analytics for Excel (PAX/PAfE) Add-in

Time needed: 10 minutes.

Here are the detailed, step by step instructions for installation of the Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE) for version 2.0.65 and beyond.

1. Check Supported Environment

   First, check that your PC satisfies the supported environment from IBM. This is available here and includes: At least .Net 4.6.1 (if not present, download it from here).
   If installing PAX onto an old version of Excel (2007, 2010), then install the Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) for your version of MS Office Office 2007 here, Office 2010 here. For Office 2013, 2016 or 2019, Microsoft doesn’t publish a PIA as apparently they are not needed).
   If you get errors installing please see this post.
   Finally, check what version of Excel you are running – is it 32 or 64 bit. This will determine which version of the PAX plugin you need to use (File, Account, About Excel).

2. Backup PAX Connections

   Backup the connections inside Planning Analytics for Excel if you are upgrading. Just copy and paste the connection string out to Notepad.

3. Quit from Excel

   Exit from Excel, if it is still open.

4. If Upgrading from prior to 2.0.65, Uninstall Previous Version

   Uninstall any previous version of PAX.
   Click Start menu, Programs, IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Office, Uninstall IBM Office Addins, Uninstall IBM Office Addins.
   This will bring up the Uninstall Wizard and you should follow the steps in it to remove your current version of PAX.
   Ensure you select the option to leave your configuration settings in place as you don’t want to lose them!
   Removing the prior version is absolutely mandatory, especially if you are upgrading from a version up until 2.0.64.

5. Create a Folder for PAfE

   Create a new folder somewhere that is accessible to you. Say, C:Planning Analytics for Excel, or E:PAX or something similar. Then copy the relevant .xll file (either 32 or 64 bit) to this location. These are the files that need to be directly run to open PAX directly inside Excel.

6. Download and Save .xll File

   Then either from PAW (on the Administrator screen) or from IBM Fix Central, download the relevant .xll file (either 32 or 64 bit) and save to this new folder. There is no Windows installation for PAX now. These are the files that need to be run directly to open PAX inside Excel.
   Make sure you are deploying the correct .xll file (i.e. 32 or 64 bit – if you don’t know which one to use, open Excel and check the About info). You can see the two versions of it below, differentiated by the x64 or x86 in their names.
   

7. Rename Downloaded .xll

   We now have the .xll file in a location that is easy to find, but we want to get it into our Windows Start menu. This is an easy process and below are the steps that will make it easy for you to find and update it in the future.
   Rename the .xll file as just plain old “Planning Analytics for Excel.xll” (i.e. without any version info). This is done this so that when we create the shortcut it is named this AND, more importantly, when we upgrade PAX to a later version in a few months time, we will rename the newly downloaded version using that same name and Windows will still locate the shortcut target.

8. Create Shortcut

   Next we create a short cut to it to place in the Windows Start Menu.
   You will see here that we have placed the .xll it to a folder, called E:PAX.
   Then create a shortcut to the .xll and rename it to just be “Planning Analytics for Excel” – nothing more, because that is how we want it to appear in our Start Menu.
   

9. Copy Shortcut to Start Menu

   This is a little beyond my Windows pay grade, but if you go to %AppData% in Windows Explorers, and then Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and paste the shortcut there, it will now be visible on the Start Menu.

10. Open the .xll File

    Now with the file in the correct location on your PC, go to your Start menu and open Planning Analytics for Excel.
    

11. Enable Code from IBM

    When you first open PAfE directly from the .xll, Windows will ask you about a potential security threat from the .xll file. You can either select to enable for this session only, or to enable all code from the publisher. Obviously if you don’t want to have to answer this popup every time you open PAX, then you need to choose the first option, to “Enable all code published by this publisher”.

12. If you Don’t get the three options above (so it looks like the screenshot below), you will need to get your IT administrators to allow you to click the “Enable all code published by this publisher” button.
    
13. Set Language and Accept IBM Licence

    Straight after the security warning from Windows, you will also be asked to select your language and accept the licence from IBM. This only occurs once.

14. PAX is Open – et Viola!

    Planning Analytics for Excel will then open in Excel and will not open any document (unlike in the pre 2.0.65 days). You will then need to Connect to Planning Analytics to work with the files stored inside your TM1 server.
    

15. Create Connection to TM1 Model

    Now that you have installed the Planning Analytics for Excel add-in, you need to create a connection to a TM1 model. Please see this post for detailed instructions on how to do this.