Overview Application Documentation Requirements More Info.

Christopher King
Department of Chemistry, Troy State University, Troy, AL 36082

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.

1. The appropriate numbers in a chemical formula are subscripted, as in H₂O.
2. The asterisk is replaced by · (to indicate waters of hydration or a radical).
3. Charges are superscripted.
4. -> is converted to →.
5. 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 pK_a, 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)

	Instructions (for Installation and Use)
	Download: right-click (Windows) or click-and-hold (Macintosh) and choose Save Target As ... (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As ... (Netscape)
	Chemistry Formatter for Word XP	Microsoft Word XP
	Chemistry Formatter for Word 2000	Microsoft Word 2000
	Chemistry Formatter for Word 97	Microsoft Word 97 and Mac
	Chemistry Formatter for Excel XP	Microsoft Excel XP
	Chemistry Formatter for Excel 2000	Microsoft Excel 2000
	Chemistry Formatter for Excel 97	Microsoft Excel 97 and Mac
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