Science PowerPoint tips and tutorials

PowerPoint has adequate set of tools and overall depth to draw simple and complex chemical structures such as cyclic carbon elements. Although there are many more sophisticated drawing programs better suited for chemical structures in general, for the infrequent drawing needs in the area of chemistry PowerPoint is as good as any other such program. When used creatively, PowerPoint XP or 2003 will let you draw quite complex chemical structures that may surpass those created by more expensive software. It may be helpful if you familiarize yourself with PowerPoint briefly by reading “Setting up your personal workspace“, “Essential drawing tools I“, “Creating customized floating toolbars“, and “Essential drawing tools II“.

When it comes to drawing cyclic compounds, which for some may appear as quite a formidable task, the important thing to remember is that lines which form a specific cyclic structure, are positioned relatively to each other by a fixed angle. This angle could be simply calculated by dividing 360° by the number of line components within a given structure. For example pentagon has 5 lines that form 5 walls and all neighbor lines will be positioned to each other at a fixed angle of 72° (360 divided by 5 equals 72). Figure 6 describes step by step drawing of pentagon.

Fig. 6. Essential steps from simple lines to the formation of pentagon.

Each subsequent line rotation is performed using Format > AutoShape dialog box (select Format pull down menu, click AutoShape and select Size tab). For example second line rotation is 72° and third is additional 72°, which means you will need to increase the rotation number for the third line (which after copy/paste of the second line is already rotated 72°) from 72° to 144°.

To avoid any discrepancies in line length, which may cause the final pentagon assemble difficult, the lines should always be duplicated by copy/paste command sequence. It is also strongly recommended that each assembly step be performed under at least 200% viewing area magnification (zoom). This will ensure visual inspection of very fine line position adjustments. Using keyboard arrows, rather than mouse for line movement, will further aid the accuracy of object assembly.

By default PowerPoint is set to snap objects to grid and this setting will not allow for fine tuning of the object position. To disable this setting select View pull down menu, click Grid and Guides to activate dialog box and remove check signs from Snap object to grid and Snap object to other object boxes (Figure 7). These changes will now allow moving objects without any spatial constraints.

Figure 7. Recommended settings in Grid and Guides for drawing line objects.

Drawing Hexagon and Heptagon follows the same general guidelines. Again, calculate the proper angle degree in each case and make sure the sum of all angles is 360°. In order to speed up the process of assembly of hexagon, instead of doing the whole process line by line, assemble the 3-line partial object, copy/paste it and construct the full hexagon from two halves. To represent the aromatic state of benzene, you may add small circle inside of hexagon. To make sure that the circle is proportional (not oval), choose Format pull down menu, click Object to activate the dialog box, select Size tab and check the height and width of drawn circle; these have to be the same for the symmetrical circle. Adjust if necessary by typing in the required number. Make sure the Lock aspect ratio box is unchecked. Finally, Align center and Align middle commands will allow to perfectly aligning the circle and the hexagon vertically and horizontally. Reduce the circle line thickness to enhance the esthetic appearance. Essential steps leading to hexagon, benzene and heptagon formation are shown in Figures 8 and 9.

Fig. 8. Essential steps from simple lines to the formation of hexagon and benzene.

Fig. 9. Essential steps from simple lines to the formation of heptagon.