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Everyone has at least heard of Excel before. We are going to look over some basic tips to help you use it better, using fun examples. So, to make learning easier, let’s imagine this scenario.
Let's say, Poison Ivy has a new super evil plan. She wants to brainwash the Justice League. Now, I know what you are thinking. These types of plans never work. Why is Poison Ivy doing this? Look, this is not a good time. Harley and Ivy had a tremendous fight. Some weirdo keeps sending her weird fan mail again. She needs a huge win, okay. Besides, the supervillain has really thought this one through. Don’t judge her!
Anyway! First, she needs to create the brainwashing potion out of different plant DNA. Why doesn’t Poison Ivy just steal it? She is not in the right mindset. We just explained this. As I was saying, Poison Ivy asks Harley to order the plant samples. That turned out to be a bad idea. Harley accidentally ordered way too many plant samples. Ivy knew she should have not asked that clown to do anything.
In ordered to figure how to fix this mess, Ivy needs to figure out how many plant samples she has and what kind? The supervillain uses Excel to organize this data. To make this simple, we will plant samples in glass containers. The plant samples will refer to them as Sample A, Sample B, and so on. Let’s see what Poison Ivy does!
The plant supervillain starts by counting the plant samples. We will not talk about Harley not helping. It’s best not to make Ivy angry. Also, do not say that Poison Ivy could technically use her powers to make this easier. She is prone to lash out right now.
Once they are all listed, Ivy wants to add the numbers together.
In Excel, you can add the numbers in a column together. To do that, go to the HOME tab and then to AUTOSUM. Then, she selected the range that is going to add up.
Finally, she has a list of the different plant samples and how much it all weighs.
Cool!
Harley comes in. Ivy tried to ignore her, but she can’t. The clown supervillain made a joke about all the plants weighing more than they look. Ivy tried to be nice when telling that Harley even though she caused this mess.
However, as Harley left, the plant supervillain realized she should probably subtract the weight of the glass container from the weight of each plant sample. This would give her a better estimate of the weight of each plant sample. Each glass container weighs 50 grams. Here is what she does!
Go to an empty column and put the Equal sign. Selected the list of all the plant samples. Then, in the formula bar, divide it by 50. The results should look like this:
Wonderful!
Ivy realizes Harley should take part in this plan. To make, so she needs to transfer the data to a chart. Harley sometimes needs visual aids to not get bored. A thought comes to Ivy’s mind. Are Catwoman and Batman really dating? That has never been clear. Catwoman always talks about it in vague statements. As she thinks about this, Ivy needs to work on inserting the chart. Here is how!
Select all the data and then go to the INSERT tab. Then, go to CHARTS. Ivy chooses the column that she wants to put the data in.
Then, she selected the chart that she wanted.
Great!
Things are looking good. However, Ivy forgot how much Sample J she has. To solve this problem, she uses VLOOKUP.
First, Ivy types in =VLOOKUP(). In the parenthesis, she first puts in the value she wants to look up. Here, this is A6. Then she typed in the range that the software needs to look from. This is A1:C17. After that, Excel needed to know which column the data is located from, which is the second column. The following step is to put true or false. You always have to put to false to get the right answer.
Now, all Ivy needed to do is press Enter.
With the data organized, Ivy works on the brainwashing formula. She realizes she should probably think more about this plan. You do not want to do crazy things. So, the supervillain creates several brainwashing formulas. To make this simple, you could call them Formula A, Formula B, and so on.
Ivy kidnaps several civilians to test how effective these formulas are. Their screams of fear serve as music for her to listen to in the background. She had 200 victims to test on. For each formula, she used 20 victims. Eventually, her data set looks like this.
Ivy wants to add the percentage of how often the Formula was successful. To do that, she needs to put in a formula. First, she will click on where the percentage column will go. Then, she will put an Equal sign. Afterward, she will select the list with the number of successes. From there, she will add the Divide sign. Then, the supervillain will select the list with the number of trials conducted.
It should look like this:
Now, Ivy will press Enter.
Fantastic!
Ivy has done a lot with Excel. (I am thankful if you are still reading this cringy essay.) There is more Ivy must do. In Excel, you can you the IF function to make your data clearer to understand. To use this function, you need to type =If()
Between the parenthesis, she will put the logical requirements for the data to be true or false. Ivy can also state what will happen if true or false.
Between the parenthesis, you will Here, Ivy is highlighting a column. She is telling Excel if any number is greater than 0.80, type “true”. If it is not, type “FALSE.”
After pressing Enter, it should look like this:
Excellent!
Now, Ivy has learned which potions she should use. Hopefully, you learned something about Excel. It is a useful program that can help you organize your work. Before we wrap this up, you might be curious about Poison Ivy.
During this entire time, Harley came into her lab every once in a while to bring her food or talk. Eventually, Ivy understood she can not stay mad at her for long. So, it looks like the relationship with these two crazy, demented, and messed up supervillains will go on. The plan to brainwash the Justice League does not end up working. We established that it never does. To Ivy, that does not matter. Plants will one day rule the world, and Harley will be right by Ivy’s side.
