Installation
The automatic installers of the programs support customised setup. As most of the programs comprise several optional modules, it is advisable to choose the custom setup mode and to select only the modules really necessary. All installation procedures were flawless except ChemBioOffice 13 Ultra: even selecting the custom setup mode, the appropriate dialog window was not initialised and the full package was installed (checked under Windows XP, Vista and 7/64 versions). This has been fixed in version 14.To load your TLC plate, first draw a line on the plate in pencil (not ink as this will run with the solvent up the plate) 1.0 cm from the bottom of the plate; this marks the starting point. Mark 6 dashes along this line, in pencil, as markers for your samples: aspirin, paracetamol, caffeine, ibuprofen, X and Y. Be careful to mark the silica. ACD/ChemSketch for personal and academic use brings the power of our structure drawing package to your home computer. It allows you to draw chemical structures including organics, organometallics, polymers, and Markush structures, among many other features.
Features include proton NMR with peak splitting and highlighting, amino acid and DNA sequence tools, TLC plate drawing tool, Structure-to-Name, ISIS/Draw mode and stoichiometric analysis.” The license is for both the Windows and Mac versions of the software. Obtain two TLC plates; hold them only by their edges (oils on your fingertips can ruin the plate). G ently draw a line in pencil 1 cm from the bottom of each plate. For the first plate, mark 5 x's.
Every program has one or more specific, proprietary input/output file formats with unique file name extensions. These associations are always entered into the Windows registry. Most programs are able to deal with several other file formats, too. During the setup process some programs are quite aggressive and change the file name associations set previously by others. Fortunately, none of the reviewed chemical softwares behave this way and most of them are polite enough to ask in a dialog box how to handle the foreign file types (if the other program is also installed in your PC, don't allow to alter the corresponding associations).
A rule of thumb with every computer program that save your documents often! This is true in the case of the reviewed programs, too. Although they are generally stable enough, ChemBioDraw suffers mostly from rare and unexpected crashes.