Frequently Asked Questions: General Chemistry Collection (Student Edition)
Edited by Jon L. Holmes and Nancy S. Gettys University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396
General Questions Macintosh Questions Windows Questions General Questions Will all the programs on the CD run on both Macintosh and Windows? No. Some programs are available for both Mac OS and Windows, but most are for only one or the other. The only programs that have both Macintosh and Windows versions are: Answer Sheets, Alkanes in Motion, Lake Study, Solid State Resources, Solid State Structures, and Window on the Solid State, Parts 1 and 2. The table below gives the programs for each platform. Table 1. Titles and Topics in the JCE Software General Chemistry Collection Macintosh Programs Topics           Windows Programs Topics           PC Programs Topics Acid-Base Package Titration curves, Buffers, PH, Alpha plots   Alkanes in Motion Molecular dynamics Alkane Isomers Organic nomenclature, Organic structural isomers Alkanes in Motion Molecular dynamics AnswerSheets Unit conversions, Inorganic nomenclature, Stoichiometry, VSEPR theory, Chemical structures Chemistry CAI Nuclear chemistry, Colligative properties, Coulomb's law, Solubility product, Faraday's law of electrolysis, Periodic trends AnswerSheets Unit conversions, Inorganic nomenclature, Stoichiometry, VSEPR theory, Chemical structures BCTC Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry, Chemistry and society FactGame Drill on chemical facts Atomic Spectra-Graph Atomic emission spectra Bonding Theory History of chemistry, Metal complexes, Structural isomers KinWorks Experimental determination of rate constants, Design of kinetics experiments Chemistry Navigator Periodic table, History of chemistry, Minerals, Periodic trends Buffers Plus Buffers, Titration curves, pH, Alpha plots Periodic Table Games Periodic Table, Inorganic nomenclature Coordination Compounds Octahedral complexes, Structural isomers Equilibrium Calculator Equilibrium calculations REACT Balancing equations, dH, dS, dG calculations, Equilibrium constants Inorganic Nomenclature Inorganic nomenclature Fields of pH pH of dilute solutions Rutherford Alpha-particle scattering experiment, Nuclear atom Lake Study for Macintosh Scientific method, Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry Illustrated Periodic Table History of chemistry, Periodic table, Periodic trends, Descriptive chemistry of elements, Structural chemistry of elements SIRs Modules covering 24 General Chemistry topics MolVib 2.0 Molecular vibration animations Lake Study for Windows Scientific method, Water chemistry, Environmental chemistry Spec20 Visible spectrophotometry Organic Nomenclature Organic nomenclature Solid State Resources Material Science, Solid state Precision of Calc. Values Experimental error Solid State Structures Solid state, Structural chemistry Solid State Resources Material science, Solid state VizQuiz  Quizzing and homework Solid State Structures Solid state, Structural Chemistry Window on the Solid State (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) Solid state, Structures of metals and ionic compounds Window on the Solid State (Parts 1 and 2) Solid State, Structures of Metals Questions from Windows Users Why do icons in the Windows Start menu installed by General Chemistry Collection 2nd Edition not work with the 3rd Edition? Although most of the programs are the same, the icons installed by the 2nd Edition installer do not work with the 3rd Edition CD, because the program locations are not the same. If you are no longer using the 2nd Edition CD, you should uninstall its parts as follows: 1. Open My Computer by double-clicking, then open your C: hard drive. You should see a folder named "JCE-Soft". Drag this folder into the Recycle Bin. Answer Yes to All in any dialogs that appear. 2. Right-click the mouse on the program bar at the bottom of your screen and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Start Menu Programs tab and then the Remove... button. Find and select the "JCE DOS Software" folder and click Remove. Answer Yes to any dialogs that appear. Do the same for the "JCE Software Docs", "JCE Software WiscQuizzes", and "JCE Windows Software" folders. Empty the Recycle Bin. How can I get icons for the 3rd Edition programs to appear in the Windows Start menu? The General Chemistry Collection 3rd Edition CD-ROM has three levels of installation. The Typical and Minimal options install only the system support files needed to run the software. In order to start the programs, you must double-click the program executable file in the Windows Explorer. The Custom install allows you to select one or more programs from the CD to be installed on the computer's hard drive. Icons for any programs selected will appear in the Windows Start menu. The CD will not be needed to run these programs. Window on the Solid State and Werner/Jorgenson do not have a "program icon" on the CD Explorer window. How do I start these programs? These programs require Runtime ToolBook in order to run. To start these programs, drag the program ToolBook file icon onto TBook.EXE in the same folder. The ToolBook files for these programs are listed below. Werner-Jorgensen: Wern_16.tbk Evol_16.tbk Window on the Solid State: Part I: Metals.tbk Part II: Met_cell.tbk Part III: Ion_Str.tbk Part IV: Ion_Cell.tbk AnswerSheets AnswerSheets will not run from the General Chemistry Collection CD-ROM. Instal AnswerSheets on your hard drive by using the Custom installation option in the Setup program. AnswerSheets requires a version of Microsoft Excel numbered 3 or higher, but may not run properly with Excel 97 or higher. BCTC The README.TXT file on the CD gives information needed when installing BCTC from floppy disks. You do not need this information for the program on the General Chemistry CD. Fields of pH Documentation for Fields of pH was not included on the General Chemistry Collection, 3rd ed. CD-ROM. You can download a copy of the pdf file using the link below. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the file. Get Fields of pH documentation. LakeStudy The README.TXT file included on the CD describes updates in Lake Study, as published in JCE Software Volume 5D, Number 1. The version included on the CD is the newest version published in JCE Software Volume 5D, Number 1. Please ignore the contents of this file. Illustrated Periodic Table Solid State Resources How do I start Solid State Resources? In order to start Solid State Resources go to the Windows Explorer (Windows 95) or Windows File Manager (Windows 3.1) and navigate to the SOLID_II directory on the General Chemistry CD. Inside find the file SOLIDS.HTM and double-click it. The file will open in your WWW browser. Solid State Structures Where can I get PCMolecule2? Solid State Structures requires PC Molecule2 by Molecular Ventures, Inc. PC Molecule 2 is available in Full, Demo, and Lite versions and can be downloaded from their WWW site at http://www.molvent.com/. All versions can be used to display Solid State Structures files. How do I start Solid State Structures? Windows 95: Double-click one of the Solid State Structure files from the Windows 95 desktop or from Windows Explorer; or start PCMolecule2, Select Open... from the File menu and then select the file you wish to view. Windows 3.1: From the File Manager, locate and double-click one of the Solid State Structure files; or start PCMolecule2, select Open... from the File menu and then select the file you wish to view. Questions from Macintosh Users Where can I get a copy of HyperCard Player? Several of the programs on the CD require HyperCard or HyperCard Player. You can obtain the most recent information about HyperCard including updates at http://www.apple.com/hypercard/. HyperCard Updates and HyperCard Player can also be downloaded from Apple Computer's Software Updates. Look for HyperCard under Macintosh Utilities. AnswerSheets AnswerSheets will not run from the General Chemistry Collection CD-ROM. Drag a copy of the AnswerSheets folder from the CD to your hard drive, and run AnswerSheets from there. AnswerSheets requires a version of Microsoft Excel numbered 3, 4, or 5. It may not run properly with Excel 98 or higher. Chemistry Navigator Precision of Calculated Values The Important Warning file is partially incorrect. Rather than dragging a copy of Precision of Calculated Values to your hard disk, double-click the installer and it will be placed there for you. Solid State Structures MacMolecule is required to view the Solid State Structures files. MacMolecule 1.7.1 included on this CD works only with 680x0 Macintosh computers that have a hardware Math Coprocessor (also called a floating point unit or FPU). It will not run on a Power Macintosh or a standard Macintosh that does not have an FPU. You can obtain a free copy of MacMolecule2.0 Lite that will run on Power Macintosh computers or on standard Mac's with our without an FPU from Molecular Ventures, Inc. Text messages included in the Solid State Structures files will not be visible with MacMolecule2. Window on the Solid State Only Parts I and II are available for Macintosh. Window on the Solid State for Macintosh was created for Macintosh computers running with 256 colors. We recommend that the program always be run with the monitorŐs color depth set to 256 colors. Instructions for changing the color setting are included below. Some of the newest Macintosh computers do not have color settings lower than thousands of colors. The four programs will run with the monitor set to display thousands or millions of colors, but there are two difficulties of which you should be aware. 1. Additional memory will have to be allocated to each of the four Window on the Solid State applications in order for them to open properly with thousands or millions of colors. If the memory allocation is insufficient, the program will open to a white screen with no text visible. The suggested and minimum RAM allocation is sufficient for 256 colors but not for higher color resolution. The procedure for increasing the memory is as follows: Click one time on the application icon to select it. Select Get Info from the File menu or press Command-I on the keyboard. Examine the information window for the application. Increase preferred memory allocation, located in the lower right corner of the Information window. Set the value to 3000 K. Close the window. Open the application as usual by double-clicking on its icon. If the program still does not open properly, repeat the steps above, increasing the memory allocation by 500 K. Start the program again. You may have to repeat this procedure several times in order to find the memory requirement needed for your computer. Repeat these steps for each of the four Window on the Solid State applications you wish to use. 2. When thousands or millions of colors are used, the dark green background on some screens in the programs may appear to retain shadows of certain screen objects, such as text boxes, after they have been dismissed. The background may sometimes appear blotchy or patchy. While unsightly, this does not interfere with the material presented in the program. When running with the monitor set to 256 colors, this problem does not occur. To change the color setting: Open the Monitors control panel. Select 256 from the list of monitor settings and be sure the colors button is selected. If all the numbers of colors listed are greater than 256, select the lowest number. (You will need to increase the memory allocation for the programs as described above.) Close the window by clicking in the close box in the upper left corner. If you do not observe the monitor switching to 256 colors (or whatever number of colors you selected) when the window closes, you must restart the computer in order for the change to take place.

Published: 1st Edition: January 1997, 2nd Edition: August 1998

Citation: Holmes, J. L.; Gettys, N. S. About This Issue: General Chemistry Collection (Student Edition) J. Chem. Educ. Software SP16

Keywords: High School; General; Lecture Aid; Computer Room; Simulation

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Last Updated: December 9, 1999 Created: September 7, 1999	Created by: N. S. Gettys Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu
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