Organizing subscripts/superscrits in a Chemistry book

[jakubf20695365]

Hi everyone,

I'm designing a Chemistry coursebook, and dealing with a lot of chemical compounds, anions, cations etc. All of them use subscripts and superscrips - for an amount of elements - O2, Na2, Ca(OH)2, H2SO4 - or cations/anions - ClO4-,Ca+2, Li+.

So far, I've been using GREPs to put all digits as subscripts:

(?<=\l|\u)(\d{1,3}), (?<=\))(\d{1,3}) and (?<=\l|\u)(+|2+|3+|4+|-|2-|3-).

But that's not enough when I insert an advanced anions, eg. NH4+, AsO43-, PO43-, SO42-. In these examples, digits become subscripts and minuses and pluses stay on a standard level:

I'd like to prepare one, or few, GREP styles to automate the process. There's a list of most popular anions and cations: http://myweb.astate.edu/mdraganj/cationanion.html, is it better to make a one specific GREP, list all of them as 'exceptions' to the rules? Or is there another way to do it?

Thank you for your time and for a help 🙂

[jakubf20695365]

Sorry, the link might not work. Here's a complete list with a proper format:

[pixxxelschubser · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, you cannot solve this with GREP in all cases.

This is possible, for example:

But there is no general GREP that can differentiate between these cases, for example!

NH4+

Ca2+

 

Sorry.

Finally:

Maybe it is possible if you can rewrite your chemical compounds.

• From NH4+ you make NH41+

Then you set the "1" without fill color with font size 0.1pt and you can identify and edit these cases.

[FRIdNGE]

Of course, you can play your game with Grep styles! …

But here you will have to think first as a chemist and surely not as a grepper!  😉

(^/)  The Jedi

[pixxxelschubser]

Some things are possible and some are not.

But it does not matter. I will first wait and see if the TO will answer.

[FRIdNGE]

A chemist knows how to write NH4+ or CA2+!

(^/)

[pixxxelschubser]

😄

The goal is formatting using Grep. Then the chemist should also think a bit as a grepper in order to achieve his goal.