Copy and paste

Hi,

I have been showing JChem for Excel to some of my colleages and many of them wanted to create a number of structures in Excel, calculate some some simple properties for the molecules, such as mass formula, name etc. they then wanted to copy the structures and data and paste them into another application such as PowerPoint, where they would ideally still be able to access the structures in MarvinSketch. We have found an number of issues with this though -

If I try to copy multiple structures as Marvin OLE objects, I get the message that only one structure can be used as the target of a clipboard transfer. I get the same message when I try to copy one structure and the data. If I copy the data and paste into PowerPoint and then try to copy the structures and paste them in one at a time, the structure is pasted in with a different cell size to the data table and I have to resize it and then cannot group it with the data.

If I convert my structures to images, then the property calculations for the molecules are lost, unless I copy and paste special/values first. Then when I paste my data/images into PowerPoint the structure images are not attached to the data, and I have to manually move each structure image into position, but again i cannot group the structures with the data. this works better when the table is pasted into Word, the structures are with the data, but still not linked to it.

Is there a better way to copy multiple structures and their data and paste into another application or is this a feature that will be in a future release?

Thank you

Regards

Bob

Dear Bob,

Let me tried to give you an explanation and solutions if possible to your issues.

What we know now in 5.3.3:

- Copy 1 JC4XL structure to any other Office application as an IMAGE throughout Clipboard.

- Copy 1 JC4XL structure to any other Office application as an OLE  throughout Clipboard.
These features are availabe from context menu.

 

What we have done for 5.3.4 (but it is still under testing):

- Copy multiple JC4XL structures to any other Office application as IMAGES  throughout Clipboard.

- Copy multiple JC4XL structure to any other Office application as OLE  SHAPES throughout Clipboard.
These features will be avialable from context menu.

 

In terms of the copy images or OLE shapes along with other data (the hardest request from you) I would suggest you using the following scenario to make it feasible:

- Please use Converting JC4XL structures to IMAGES or OLE SHAPES and when it is done, please select the cells with structure shapes plus the data cells in one selection range and copy them.
If you want to continue the work with JChem4XL structures you can easily convert them to JChem4XL structure using From Shape conversion.
This feature is avaialbel in 5.3.3 and from toolbar as well or from the context menu.

 

In the very future we are planning to introduce a brand new data transfer mechanism among Office application but this is coming only the last months of this year.

Viktor

Dear Bob,

From my previous post:

- Please use Converting JC4XL structures to IMAGES or OLE SHAPES and when it is done, please select the cells with structure shapes plus the data cells in one selection range and copy them.
If you want to continue the work with JChem4XL structures you can easily convert them to JChem4XL structure using From Shape conversion.
This feature is avaialbel in 5.3.3 and from toolbar as well or from the context menu.

That was true however if the value cells (non structural cells) contained calculated values absed on structures could be broken after the structure->image/ole shape conversion.

This tends to be fixed in 5.3.5 (we decided not to roll out 5.3.4 since the underlying core API came out with a newer version)

All others in my previous post are okay (please consider the 5.3.4->5.3.5 version change).

https://www.chemaxon.com/download.php?d=/data/download/jchem4xl/Development

please visit our web site to check the release candidate, please note that this is not bug free yet, but close to the final release.

JChem_For_Excel_5.3.5.215.msi contains the fix for the bug mentioned above.

Viktor

 

Dear Bob,

our context menu with convert and multiple copy features are available in a new format that you can check with our new development snapshot:

https://www.chemaxon.com/download.php?d=/data/download/jchem4xl/Development/JChem_For_Excel_5.3.5.232.msi

I try to make the multiple convert/copy features more understandable by attaching some screenshots for this post.

Basically 2 different copy options are available from our structure types as I described above in this post. 

1, Structures only in ONE step convert and copy. The corresponding screenshots are OLE conv.jpg and OLE conv and paste into Word.jpg. This technique can be applied for images not only OLE shapes.
We group the individual pictures in order to get a smotth placement so you need to ungroup them if you would like to manipluate the pictures individually afterwards.

2, Structures and simple data and calculated (chemical functions =JCxxx) cells can also be copied. Before copying a conversion is recommended from Jchem Structure to OLE or image shape. The corresponding screenshots are OLE conv and data selection.jpg and OLE conv and data paste into Word.jpg.

Ini both case please rely on the office clipboard how it serializes its own data and paste it into the target office application (Word, PPT). Please use Ctrl+V or Paste menu point and DONT use paste special as image (vectorgraphical image) becasue the rendering in office might be incorrect, and it is not more like a Print Screen. The advantage of pasting normally is that you can manipulate images separately from the data if you would like to in the target application.

 

Yes, I would also like to ask something similar. What is the most convenient way to insert structures into Excel? Because when they are inserted as Embedded Marvin objects, I cannot either edit (by double-click) them with MarvinSketch or paste them into IJC. The only functionality they preserve is to be pasted in Marvin.

This is the next we will be working on in last period of this year to improve the communication between JC4XL, OLE, IJC, ...

For the time being what you can do is to copy single structures between these applications, Marvin OLE as  single instance is quite smart at the moment. Please check right mouse click Many Copy as OLE or Paste.

Or if you would like to use batch data (more structures) please use export import functionility from JChemExcel to sdf or any file formats supporting more records and import the file into IJC.

 

Just a comment on batch import/export. When I try to export an Excel spreadsheet containing a column with structures embedded as Marvin objects, the process complaints about the absence of any structures, so my Marvin embedded structures are not preceived as structures by the export module.

Please use Import from file and Export to File. You can find them in the first section of JChem ribbon.
IJC does have similar import functionality from file.

If you use convert to cliboard shapes mean that JChemExcel structures will be converted to Image or OLE and they are put on the clipbaord by Office clipbaord API, and afterwards you are able to paste them into other office applications.

HI, I would like to pinpoint an additional problem I faced when using JChem for Excel and also ask if there is a solution for this. In one of the computers (Windows Vista, office 2007) having  JChem for excel installed, when I have a structure as an embedded object and I click on it to "Edit" or "Open" it from the right click menu, I get a message that MarvinOLE server is not working and I cannot edit the structure. However, in an other computer of the same OS and excel version, it does work fine. What could be that is missing from the former machine for the Marvin server to work well?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Vassilios

Dear Vassilios,

 

it seems that Marvin OLE Server was injured for any reason on your machine. Please try to check the log file or event viewer against application level errors.

The log file you can find here:

C:\Users\<Your User>\AppData\Roaming\ChemAxon\Marvin OLE
....
MarvinOLE_2010_10_27.mrvlog

Please send it us to see why it is not able to launch the server component.

(But finally a reinstall of JChem4XL or marvin might be needed)

Please tell me what ChemAxon components are installed on your machine?

Marvin, IJC, JChem4XL, Marvin.NET, .... ??

Viktor