A chemistry formatter is software that does some of the formatting a chemist would otherwise have to do by hand. Chemistry formatters for Microsoft Excel and Word are provided that perform the five functions described below.
- The appropriate numbers in a chemical formula are subscripted, as in H2O.
- The asterisk is replaced by · (to indicate waters of hydration or a radical).
- Charges are superscripted.
- -> is converted to →.
- Numbers in the form of 3.2E8 are converted to 3.2 × 108.
Users select the material to be formatted, click the chemistry formatter button, and the reformatted material appears. The formatters are written in Visual Basic and are packaged as add-ins. The code is not protected, making these add-ins possible templates for new add-ins. A macro and 19 "AutoCorrect" entries are also provided, which can easily be added or removed. After these entries are installed, Word will automatically convert, for example, pKa to pKa, Dgo to ΔG°, Co-60 to 60Co, and <- to ←.
|
|
| Figure. Results of applying the chemistry formatter to cells in an Excel spreadsheet. To run the formatter, users select cells (or other objects), and then click the chemistry formatter button (the O22- button shown at the top). |
|
Citation
