Chemical equilibrium symbol and Equation Editor

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car22@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk - 27 Jul 2007 15:45 GMT

I'm running Word 2004 on OS X (10.3.9) and am using the chemical
equilbrium symbol (rightwards harpoon over leftwards - unicode 21CC) -
hopefully shown here: ⇌. This is fine normally (I'm inserting using
the character pallette), but there are times when I'd like to insert
it into an equation (ie to annotate the arrows with rate constants
such as 'k1' above and 'k2' below). Sadly, Equation Editor won't
accept the symbol in the same way - although it can find the same font
that Word is using to display it. Copying and pasting doesn't work
either. Does anyone have any ideas?

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JE McGimpsey - 27 Jul 2007 16:35 GMT

> I'm running Word 2004 on OS X (10.3.9) and am using the chemical
> equilbrium symbol (rightwards harpoon over leftwards - unicode 21CC) -
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> that Word is using to display it. Copying and pasting doesn't work
> either. Does anyone have any ideas?

Equation Editor is a cut-down version of MathType. You can download the
full version here:

http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mathtype/osx.html

It has enormously more capability, even in "lite" (free) mode, including
the equilibrium symbol.

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Bob Mathews - 27 Jul 2007 16:50 GMT

You're correct that Equation Editor (EE) does not include an
equilibrium arrow. There are a total of 6 chemical reaction
arrows in EE, none of which include annotation slots both above
and below the arrow, and none of them are for equilibrium
reactions. MathType is the full-featured big brother to EE, and
has a total of 27 chemical reaction arrows, including the ones I
mentioned that EE lacks. For a full MathType feature list, see
our web site:
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype_mac/default.htm. You
can also download a 30 day trial if you want to try it out.

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Director of Training
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bobm at dessci.com
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FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide

> I'm running Word 2004 on OS X (10.3.9) and am using the
> chemical equilbrium symbol (rightwards harpoon over leftwards -
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Copying and pasting doesn't work either. Does anyone have any
> ideas?

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Elliott Roper - 27 Jul 2007 17:04 GMT

I found equation editor was a bit limited.
I tried pasting the glyph into an EQ field, and that failed too.
There are two paths you might consider. The full version of MathType on
which it is based, and LaTeXit a nifty front end to your TeX
environment. It is free, but there is a bit of a faff setting up TeX if
you have not already done so. There are good directions in the LaTeXit
doco.
A numpty version of what you want is
\begin{array}{c}
k_1\\
\rightleftharpoons\\
k_2
\end{array}

(I'm a bit new at LaTeX, and those rate constants need to be smaller)

LaTeXit will produce a PDF eps or TIFF which you can paste as picture,
or simply drag into Word. It also supports services and link back,
which as far as I know, is not supported in Word. I can't make 'em work
here.

I don't know whether MathType can handle your Unicode harpoons. I think
there is a 30 day trial.

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Bob Mathews - 27 Jul 2007 18:24 GMT

> I don't know whether MathType can handle your Unicode harpoons.

MathType does indeed have both the Unicode 21CC and 21CB double
harpoons. There's also a very useful "Insert Symbol" feature
(available in MathType's Edit menu) that lets you search by
character description. For example, a search for right harpoon
reveals that I have 129 different characters in various fonts
installed on my computer that have both the word "right" (or some
form thereof, such as "rightward") and the word "harpoon".

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Elliott Roper - 27 Jul 2007 19:20 GMT

> > I don't know whether MathType can handle your Unicode harpoons.
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> installed on my computer that have both the word "right" (or some
> form thereof, such as "rightward") and the word "harpoon".

Thanks Bob. You have made your case well.
I spent a happy half hour playing with chemistry formulas in LaTeX
after posting, and it ain't all that easy for a novice.

It is a pleasure to see such prompt support from MathType here. Long
may it continue.

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car22@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk - 27 Jul 2007 21:48 GMT

Thank you all - I've downloaded MathType and it's working beautifully.
I've only had a brief play but it looks an excellent piece of
software...!

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John McGhie - 28 Jul 2007 11:15 GMT

Yeah, I would LOVE to know how he does it :-)

You only have to post "Equation Editor" or "MathType" anywhere on the
Internet and Bob is there within minutes with the answer.

It's like he has a special Clairvoyance software... PC, Mac, Unix, doesn't
seem to matter. Mutter MathType and Bob's there!!

Cheers

On 28/7/07 3:50 AM, in article 270720071920407839%nospam@yrl.co.uk, "Elliott
Roper" <nospam@yrl.co.uk> wrote:

>>> I don't know whether MathType can handle your Unicode harpoons.
>>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> It is a pleasure to see such prompt support from MathType here. Long
> may it continue.

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Elliott Roper - 28 Jul 2007 11:58 GMT

> Yeah, I would LOVE to know how he does it :-)
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> It's like he has a special Clairvoyance software... PC, Mac, Unix, doesn't
> seem to matter. Mutter MathType and Bob's there!!

He's not bad is he?

I found that it *is* possible to create an eq array containing those
chemical equilibrium harpoons in Word. The trick is to force the
correct font. Word does not respect the Character Palette's 'insert
with font' properly.
You have to march up to that stupid box with the X in,select it and
change the font to MS PMincho or similar. I have to guess which is
which, because I cannot read Japanese script, and Word's font listing,
even non-wysiwyg, displays the font name after the first three letters
in Japanese on this machine.

In summary I'd have to sort the experience from easy to crazy as:
MathType
LaTeX
EQ fields (I put that last because you have to fiddle with sizes and
sub and supersripts for the rate constants even after solving the
Mincho puzzle. In the long run EQ still ends up last, after discounting
the hassle of putting a LaTeX environment on your machine)

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Bob Mathews - 28 Jul 2007 13:37 GMT

Wow, thanks John. Really no big secret though. I use News Rover
as my usenet client. NR lets me build "Interests" and scan the
groups at whatever frequency I choose. For example, I have one
Interest that finds all posts with "MathType", "Equation Editor",
"Microsoft Equation", and a few words & phrases every 60 minutes.
That way I'm able to find pretty much any post I need to answer
just by restoring focus to NR.

Bob

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> Yeah, I would LOVE to know how he does it :-)
>
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
> > here. Long
> > may it continue.

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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / July 2007

Chemical equilibrium symbol and Equation Editor