Clicker makes it possible to import data from a printed chart or graph into an Excel spreadsheet, using the method described by C. Aymard and R. B. Shirts, J. Chem. Educ., 2000, 77, 1230-1232. It assumes that you are using Windows and that you have already used a scanner to convert your printed graph into a bitmap (*.bmp), JPeg (*.jpg) or gif (*.gif) file. If Excel (97 or 2000) is available, Clicker will start it, transfer data to it and use it to calculate the coordinates of each data point. You can then use Excel to do whatever calculations you want on your data. Alternatively, the data can be saved in a text file for later import to virtually any spreadsheet program. However, only the pixel data are saved in the text file, not the calculated actual coordinates.

Note: On some computers Clicker gives an error message when it tries to start Excel. If that happens, try reinstalling Excel using the default settings.

Clicker was written in Visual Basic 6.0 by Dr. Emerson F. Heald, Professor of Chemistry, Thiel College, Greenville, PA 16125. Email: eheald@thiel.edu

How to Get Clicker

You can get the latest (3 May 2001) version of Clicker by downloading ClickerV18.zip (78 kb). Two additional files, msvbvm60.dll and comdlg32.ocx, must be present in your Windows\System directory. They are available in Msvbvm60.zip (687 kb)and Comdlg32.zip (61 kb), respectively.