Tranferring chemical formulas with subscripts

[daqddyo1]

Hi All,

To transfer data (a chemical formula with subscripts) to another sheet, I am using =Sheet1!G9 to transfer a chemical equation from cell G9 in Sheet1 to a cell in Sheet2. Everything works fine except that the subscripted items are no longer subscripts. Is there a different equation I need to use or is there some setting to go to in my Excel 2003?

[shg]

You can't capture the character formatting via formula.

[MrShorty]

Over the years when I have tried to do this, I have not found a way to do what you want to do. The subscript is formatting applied to a specific character within a cell containing a text string. A cell formula like you want to use can only carry the cell "value" but cannot carry over the formatting associated with the cell.

For me, this isn't a problem most of the time. C3H8 or C₃H₈ are both effective at communicating "propane." The only time I get to worked up over the subscripts is when the table is going to end up as part of an official report. In those cases, I create the string literal, then copy and paste it across the tables, because there isn't a ready way to link them together with worksheet formulas.

I'm sure it would be possible to create a VBA sub procedure that could automate the same thing, but for what I do, it would take longer and more work to write the procedure than to simply make the text string and copy it.

[Alf]

Perhaps you could use a macro like this?

Please Login or Register  to view this content.

Select the range you whish to "transfer" and run macro. The only problem with this macro is if the charge is + or - one unit and the number of molecules before the + or - is equal or greater than 2 it will transfer molecule number to charge number. One workaround is writing NO3- as NO31- and edit.

Don't remember the original author of this macro. I think snb or shg wrote it and I've extended it to transfer more complex formulas.

Alf

[daqddyo1]

Thanks all for your replies. I was concerned that this would be the case. Formatting manually isn't a big task for me. I just thought with Excel's being such a great program, there would be a simple way to do this.

John