FAQs and Help

What is here?

Visitors to the site have contacted me with various technical queries. I’m always happy to send you a reply but, before you contact me, you might like to see if your problem has been tackled before.

I can’t download any of the worksheets

Check you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed (it should be version 5 or better). Some of the worksheets in the Activities section are quite large. Remember that the file size for every pdf is given in its link (a 25K file might take about 5 seconds on a 56K modem, but a 250K file would take at least 45 seconds).

You might have not allowed enough time for the file to completely download. Try this alternative method for your downloads (which gives you a progress bar to see how much has downloaded):

In Explorer, right-click on the link and select Save Target As ...
In Navigator, right-click on the link and select Save Link As ...
In Opera, right-click on the link and select Save link document as ...

You will then have to load the pdf file from Acrobat separately.

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I’ve downloaded the worksheets but all I can see is weird symbols

Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed? If you do, check that the installation is not corrupted. Check to see if the problem occurs with other pdf files (I suggest you look on Creative Chemistry for other pdf files, or Help Files and Manuals for software on your computer which may be pdf files). Try re-installing Acrobat Reader.

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I’ve downloaded the worksheets but I can’t see any letter C!

This is a known problem with pdf files under some circumstances, especially if you have version 3 of Acrobat Reader. To prevent this problem ocurring with other sites as well, I suggest you upgrade to the latest version of Acrobat Reader (currently version 8).

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I can’t get the games to work

The games should work just fine with Microsoft Explorer 5 and above, Netscape Navigator 4 and above, and Opera 4 and above. However, you must have Java and Javascript enabled in your browser to play the games. However, Netscape 6 and 7 users may have difficulty playing some of the games. Some of the games have a lot of files to download before they start up the first time - make sure you have allowed sufficient time for the Java applets to start before giving up. The second and subsequent loading of each game should be faster if you have allowed your browser to cache the files.

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I can’t get the molecules to work

Unlike many systems for viewing molecules in 3D, no plug-in is needed to view the molecules. However, you must have Java enabled in your browser. There are a lot of files to download before the molecules start up the first time - make sure you have allowed sufficient time for the Java applet to start before giving up. The second and subsequent loading of the molecules should be faster if you have allowed your browser to cache the files.

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I’ve used the Search facility, but I get no results or too many results

There may, of course, be no page on the site containing your key word. However, do check your spelling carefully - you’re unlikely to get a response to a word like chemestery! Avoid looking for a phrase with common words like a, the, to, and so on. Don’t be wildly ambitious. For example, is there a diagram of a fractionating column with the names of each fraction? will yield a lot of unexpected results.

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Why don’t you charge for the worksheets?

Are you saying you want to pay?! The web site is a hobby, really, but if you find my work useful it would be nice to hear from you .
 

You may want to buy one or more of my books. Please go to my Book Shop to see what's there - I've been very busy swotting away!

If you have enjoyed the crosswords, you might want to buy the software (electronic download price from £29.00 or $59.00) which can produce straightforward printable crosswords as well as the interactive ones on the site: if you buy and download it using this link, I will get a proportion of the cost to help me pay for the Creative Chemistry web site.

Is there going to be a Physics or Biology section to Creative Chemistry?

Maybe. The Biofiles have started.

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