Skip to main content

Questions tagged [formatting]

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
26 votes
28 answers
4k views

Formatting Sandbox I: please **don't** test stuff here [duplicate]

This thread has been retired due to the large number of posts. The newest sandbox can be found here: Formatting Sandbox III: please test stuff here Before that, there was also this Sandbox: ...
26 votes
2 answers
13k views

How do I draw chemical compounds and chemical reaction mechanisms and add it to my questions?

Lots of organic chemistry questions require the knowledge of chemical structures and reaction mechanisms. We even have a tag: reaction-mechanism for it. Here, I will address the following: How do I ...
Pritt says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
330 views

Enable syntax highlighting for code

Editorial comment As of 7th August 2017 there is quite strong support for the proposal. The developers have been asked via e-mail to take a closer look. Here is a block of Python, indented by 4 ...
pentavalentcarbon's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
615 views

On formatting electron configurations

I usually pay a very high attention to the formatting of anything I write, especially to the mathematical notation, because in my opinion it is really important. Of course, the most important thing in ...
Wildcat's user avatar
  • 19.1k
15 votes
16 answers
2k views

Formatting Sandbox II: please *don't* test stuff here [duplicate]

This thread has been retired due to the large number of posts. The newest sandbox can be found here: Formatting Sandbox III: please test stuff here Spoiler warning: Be aware that this page ...
15 votes
4 answers
329 views

How appropriate it is to improve typography of quoted text from the third-party source?

Often there is a quoted question (e.g. a block quote with >) from the textbook with certain typographic flaws which I would edit without any doubts, among which ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
14 votes
2 answers
653 views

What is the recommended style of citing on chemistry.se?

In principle citing is fine in any way that attributes the original author(s) unambiguously. The highest principle should always be: Give credit. However, recently we decided to have a community ...
13 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to render Angstrom and Parts-per notations in MathJax?

Summary: Angstrom, Parts per thousand, Parts per Ten-Thousand cannot be displayed. Prior efforts: Searched Google and Detexify. Angstrom. (The letter), (the diacritic mark). The detexify (...
user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
6k views

Should the images with transparent background be preferred?

Since the default background color on Chemistry.SX is white, any image, whether it has an alpha-channel to it (e.g. PNG with transparency enabled) or not (e.g. JPEG of GIF) looks fine. However, ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
10 votes
3 answers
335 views

We need some upgreek, please!

Correct typesetting is what you would expect from an academic community. Chem.SE has always tried to be one, and we always value their standards; and our meticulous editors have always had an eye on ...
M.A.R.'s user avatar
  • 10.7k
10 votes
1 answer
330 views

How to solve mhchem/MathJax rendering problems

Edit: This is not a bug, it is a feature, see my answer post. While recently directing a new user to this meta post about formatting using MathJax, I noticed that some components were not rendering ...
Ben Norris's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
143 views

Usage of literature references and external sources

I see many question with "my book says that ..." expression, and no reference is provided, which makes it harder to pinpoint the problem. Probably an idea of proper quotation and citing should be ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
10 votes
1 answer
171 views

Fully or partially handwritten, scanned and photographed Q&As

If a post either consists of, or contains hand-written/scanned/photographed parts, what's the best way of handling or improving it? From what I see there are the following possibilities: Leave it as ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
9 votes
11 answers
3k views

Formatting Sandbox III: please test stuff here

Sandbox II has become as clogged as Sandbox I was (and is), especially for users with 10,000 reputation or above. So, here is a new new post... Before you delete a post here, please reduce it to one ...
9 votes
2 answers
186 views

What happened to writing ions with \ce?

I took a look at some old questions and noticed that some \ce{} expressions were not working as they should. I am especially interested in how to write polyatomic ...
Linear Christmas's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
61 views

Should we pay attention to possible bugs of MathJax in the apps?

It is quite well known that the (android) app(s) are behind on which MathJax version they are currently using (see here for an example). I find this very unfortunate as many of the newer features, ...
Martin - マーチン's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
98 views

Should fractional units be displayed as fractions or as negative exponents

The comments in this post discuss this issue, though without a clear conclusion unless I'm missing something. For something as simple as grams per mole for example, there are actually several ways ...
airhuff's user avatar
  • 17.6k
8 votes
4 answers
438 views

PLEASE STOP SHOUTING AT US!

This is a note to all those that ask questions on the main site. If something is italicised, that is usually perceived as emphasised, i.e. read with a slightly stronger voice. Bolding is typically ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 68.5k
8 votes
2 answers
263 views

American vs British spelling: Is there a standard? Should there be?

The only mention of this that turned up in a quick search was a passing mention three years ago. I've just encountered a pending edit on this question where the editor tidied up the question with ...
hBy2Py's user avatar
  • 17.4k
7 votes
1 answer
199 views

(Title LaTeX test) Why does NMR Ix+iIy ($\hat{I}_x+i\hat{I}_y$)

I wanted to test some $\LaTeX$ in the title for myself, and I didn't know any other way to do so. Why does the transverse magnetization in Fourier Transform NMR consist of Ix+iIy ($\hat{I}_x+i\hat{I}...
Nicolau Saker Neto's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
156 views

Has there been any development in drawing structures on Chem.SE?

I understand that this question has been asked earlier here and here (The instances could have been more and I hope I can be pardoned for such follies:) Then, there is another one about Lewis ...
user79161's user avatar
  • 484
6 votes
1 answer
67 views

Forcing italic for e.g. R/S stereodescriptors in comments

For some special border cases, syntax formatting does not work as expected. E.g. trying to italicize “R” stereodescriptor in “(2R)-butan-2-ol” in a comment, with ...
mykhal's user avatar
  • 6,252
6 votes
1 answer
92 views

Formatting hints no shown to user

Why are the basic (math/chemical) formatting hints https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/help/notation not always displayed next to the form where users enter new questions, and why is the elementar \ce{...
Karl's user avatar
  • 12.2k
6 votes
1 answer
112 views

Nonconforming MathJax example on the Markdown Editing Help page

The Markdown Editing Help page on Chemistry Stack Exchange (https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/editing-help#latex) includes the following short example for the the use of MathJax: ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
43 views

How to line up a discussion about a bullet point?

I have the following three bullet points in text like this: BP 1 BP 2 Yada yada BP 3 How do I get "Yada yada" to line up the text "BP 2". In other words I want the same ...
MaxW's user avatar
  • 22.4k
5 votes
1 answer
73 views

Latex Subscripting

How do I write $\ce{C_{2}{v}}$ properly in Latex so that the "2" and the "v" are both subscripted on the same subscript line? If I write it as $\ce{C_{2v}}$ (\ce{C_{2v}), I get an down-arrow symbol ...
ron's user avatar
  • 85.2k
4 votes
2 answers
115 views

How to append supplementary information as hidden multi-line comment?

What would be an appropriate way to attach non-essential information to the post that is only visible when needed/requested and doesn't get in way or distract the reader? My use-case is an urge to ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
4 votes
1 answer
610 views

How do we write catalysis when writing equations?

Many reactions are invoked/sped up by presence of certain chemical substance. This is called catalysis. As far as I know, catalyst is then written above the arrow of the reaction. The same is also ...
Tomáš Zato's user avatar
  • 2,518
3 votes
2 answers
70 views

Spreading awareness about using \ce{....}

I have seen most of the question without \ce{...}. I don't know why user don't use that. Might be they are not aware about that because it is not used in other S.E. So how to aware users about it I ...
Freddy's user avatar
  • 5,097
3 votes
1 answer
30 views

Is there a way to put a hyperlink in a cell of a table?

I have the following table. I'd like to use the hyperlinked dates which follow the table inside the table. Is this possible? $$\begin{array}{|c|c|l|}\hline Year(s) & page & value \\ \hline ...
MaxW's user avatar
  • 22.4k
2 votes
1 answer
64 views

Does the discussion about new table support in main meta apply to chem SE?

A new table format supported by markdown is discussed in meta, as you might have become aware from links to this page Inserting a table appears to be as simple as inserting e.g. the following: ...
Buck Thorn's user avatar
  • 22.7k
2 votes
0 answers
44 views

How to render a square-scheme reaction using MathJax?

I'm try to write a square-scheme reaction using MathJax. Until now I managed this one. ...
grsousajunior's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
85 views

Petition to add links to a online resource for drawing compounds to help center

ChemdrawJS Online is a sample version of the original chem draw which is freely accessible to all as of now. Can we add a link to this on the help page? It should help a lot in encouraging new people ...
Safdar Faisal's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
51 views

Wouldn't be text highlighting useful?

Often quote citations of literature references are included in an answer, with original text formatting features like bold and/or italic font. Sometimes it is desirable to emphasize specific text ...
mykhal's user avatar
  • 6,252
1 vote
1 answer
55 views

Textual description of complex reaction schemes involving organic compounds on Chemistry.SE

I came across a question with this figure: The image was not described. I would like to edit these questions such that the image or even the question itself has some text describing what's in the ...
Melanie Shebel's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
77 views

Lack of intimation of possible software

This was a question and answer that was posted on Chem SE today. The answer was concise. However the lack of formatting hurts. The main issue stems from the fact that new users aren't intimated to the ...
Safdar Faisal's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
6k views

What is the standard LaTeX depiction of G "naught"?

A user today wrote $G^0$ (G^0) to indicate standard Gibbs energy. I quickly edited it to $G^\circ$ (G^\circ) instead as that's ...
Gaurang Tandon's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
92 views

Chemistry equation shortcut?

Is it so necessary that every equation is enclosed by a whole bunch of $\ce{ }$? Could we have something shorter to make posts more readable in raw format? If we ...
Tomáš Zato's user avatar
  • 2,518
-9 votes
1 answer
135 views

Asking questions with eye-catching highlight

Recently I asked a question which included all of the researched data and added with reference. In the clutter, I wished to point out my question so that it's easy to answer. But, it seemed that the ...
user avatar