Issue when taking notes in chemistry

Question

Level 1

20 points

Issue when taking notes in chemistry

Hi out there!

I want to help improve Pages '09 since I've just changed from Windows to Mac OS X operating systems, and an issue I found in both Microsoft Word and actually also in Pages is the special symbols. There is a lot of symbols, which is great, and I probably ain't going to use them all in my lifetime, but when writing notes in chemistry, I seem to miss a lot of symbols. The symbol I need the most is the sign describing a reversible reaction especially in chemical equilibrium, and to see the use of the symbol, you can check it out on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_reaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_equilibrium

You can see the arrows going both ways on top of each other, and also the sign with harpoons on top of each other. Shouldn't be that big of an issue to solve, but I need those symbols, so to help improve Pages '09 I just chose to write it!

Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 16, 2011 11:37 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Jan 17, 2011 1:34 AM in response to Dooba

Hi Dooba,

This is more a font issue than a Pages (or Word) issue. I did a search of the Character palette for equilibrium, reaction, reversible (individually), and got no results within the fonts installed on my machine.

Try a search for "font chemistry equation" (without the quotes) to get several possible sources for this type of specialty font. If one of the teachers/professors at your school generates material using these symbols, you might ask him/her the font being used and a source for it.

Regarding your remark, "so to help improve Pages '09 I just chose to write it!"

Good idea, but wrong place. This is a user-to-user forum, and is generally unread by Apple employees.

The direct route to Apple for your suggestions for improvement is to Provide Pages Feedback. You'll find a link to do that in the Application menu of most Apple software. In Pages, the Application menu is the "Pages" menu. The menu items will take you to a web form. Messages sent there go straight to Apple, are read, and if deemed worth acting on are forwarded to the appropriate development team.

Regards,
Barry

Reply

Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

Jan 17, 2011 5:57 AM in response to Dooba

The symbol I need the most is the sign describing a reversible reaction especially in chemical equilibrium

This is Unicode 21CC. ⇌
It is already included in fonts installed in OS X by default.

To find it, open Character Palette (Edit > Special Characters), View = Code Tables, Tab = Unicode, range 00002190 Arrows, navigate to 21CC.

Any other symbols you need which you have not been able to find yet? Most likely they are available somewhere.

Reply

Answer 3

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jan 17, 2011 6:02 AM in response to Dooba

It's really funny to see that someone knowing the description of the character was unable to use the Search feature in the Character Palette.

Searching with the obscure key harpoon which I found in the original question, I got:

To reach such characters easily, you may copy them to the palette's favorites page.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 17 janvier 2011 15:02:01

Reply

Answer 4

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

Jan 17, 2011 7:40 AM in response to Dooba

If you get MathType you'll be able to write all the chemistry equations. When you have the application you can in Pages go to Insert > click on MathType Equation and it'll start > write your equation > File > 'Close and return to Pages' (is a menu option) > the equation is now in Pages.

!http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6527/mathtype.png!

Reply