Inspiration

I remember using Excel for the first time in physics class and wanting to draw fancy equations like on my graphing calculator. I couldn't do it! And I didn't have the Excel skills to be able to do it manually... so I wanted to make an Excel Add-in that would make this process extremely easy. This should be useful for students and teachers alike.

What it does

Equation Grapher graphs equations in Excel. You can graph using x,y-coordinates or polar coordinates. In addition, you can graph parametric equations.

How I built it

I used React-js with Typescript and the Office UI Fabric React components. I used the yeoman office add-in generator to start the project and edited it using Visual Studio Code.

Challenges I ran into

I had to learn React from scratch as I had no interest learning how to use Angular.js. In addition, I had to learn how to use all of the node.js idiosyncrasies along with modifying the webpack config files so that I could run a separate webpage for help features. I had never used node.js before, either.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  1. Learning React-js
  2. I think my UI looks pretty decent. I give most of the credit to the Fabric team, since their components look pretty good to begin with.

What I learned

React-js :) Writing an office add-in is pretty simple. The hard part is learning what your constraints are...

What's next for Equation Grapher

I'm trying to get it published on the store as a free add-in.

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