It is easy to copy any molecular view from FirstGlance in Jmol, and then paste it into a presentation or document (such as into MS Powerpoint, MS Word, or the free presentation or document editing programs Open Office Impress or Writer).
- Use High Quality! If you are saving the snapshot from
FirstGlance in Jmol version 1.4 or higher (check the version number
below the molecular view), set Jmol to render in high quality by depressing
the Quality button (near the Spin button).
(There is no Quality button in version 1.0.)
- MS Windows:
Alt-PrtSc (hold
down the Alt key, then press the Print Screen key) copies the
active window to the clipboard.
You can then paste the image into another application (such as Powerpoint).
- Cropping an image pasted into MS Powerpoint or MS
Word: After you paste the image into an MS Powerpoint slide or MS
Word document, click on the pasted image. A "Picture" toolbar
will appear. It includes a cropping tool: click on
to activate cropping. Edge markers will appear
on your pasted image. Drag these to delimit the new cropped
image. Click the cropping tool again to de-activate it. Now you
can resize the image (with the corner handles) and drag it to the
desired position.
- To avoid the need for cropping, it is convenient to "lasso" the desired graphic with the mouse when saving it. MS Windows XP does not provide any built-in method to lasso the desired portion of the screen (instead of copying the entire active window, and then cropping the image), but an inexpensive program called PrintKey is excellent for this.
- Cropping an image pasted into MS Powerpoint or MS
Word: After you paste the image into an MS Powerpoint slide or MS
Word document, click on the pasted image. A "Picture" toolbar
will appear. It includes a cropping tool: click on
- Mac OSX:
- Clipboard:
Hold down Command (Apple) plus Shift plus Control (yes, 3 keys all at once!),
and then press the "4" key. Now,
use your mouse to click and drag a rectangle around what you want
to save. When you release the mouse, the image will be saved
to the OS X Clipboard. Now you can paste it into a Powerpoint slide.
- Saving an Image File: Hold down Command (Apple) plus Shift (just 2 keys), and then press the "4" key. Now, use your mouse to click and drag a rectangle around what you want to save. When you release the mouse, the image will be saved directly to a disk file (in Portable Network Graphics or .png format) on your desktop. This file can be displayed in a web browser, inserted into a Powerpoint slide, etc.
- Clipboard:
Hold down Command (Apple) plus Shift plus Control (yes, 3 keys all at once!),
and then press the "4" key. Now,
use your mouse to click and drag a rectangle around what you want
to save. When you release the mouse, the image will be saved
to the OS X Clipboard. Now you can paste it into a Powerpoint slide.
Polyview-3D can make publication quality static views -- see below.
Powerpoint-ready animation made with Polyview-3D. |
This is by far the easiest and best way to put a rotating molecular view in a Powerpoint® slide. However, it is not taking the view from FirstGlance in Jmol -- you generate the view by filling out a simple form (with great flexibility for rendering, coloring, hiding) at Polyview-3D. You can also make static views here, and even animations of morphs.
Once Polyview-3D has generated your image (large, smoothly-animated images may take up to an hour to make), you simply drag and drop it into your Powerpoint® slide!
Polyview-3D can also make static or rotating views colored from ConSurf results! Here's how:
- At your ConSurf results page, download the PDB file with ConSurf conservation grades in the temperature field.
- At Polyview-3D, under Source of Structural Data, use the Browse button to upload your ConSurf PDB file.
- Under Chain Color and Rendering, enter the one-character chain name, and change the color scheme to Conservation. (You will probably also want to set the rendering to spacefill.)
- Under Advanced Structure Annotation, check Functional regions from ConSurf.
- Click Preview.
- You may use the Image Settings (for example to make a larger image) and the Animation Settings (for example to make the molecule rock back and forth in a Powerpoint slide).
- Click Submit to see your result.
Running FirstGlance during your presentation is a powerful method for including rotatable, molecular views in a presentation. If most of your presentation is in Powerpoint, you would need to pop the FirstGlance window in front to show rotating molecular views, then pop Powerpoint back in front afterwards. This method requires a reliable Internet connection when projecting your presentation. (In contrast to FirstGlance, you can run Protein Explorer off-line using a downloaded copy.)
ConSurf, Pepitope, or Selecton results: Consider downloading your ConSurf/Pepitope/Selecton result so you can guarantee that you have it, even it it gets removed from the server before your presentation. With this method, you can show a ConSurf/Pepitope/Selecton result exactly as it was first shown to you by the server. You will need an Internet connection to show the saved file in FirstGlance. (You can show ConSurf but not Pepitope or Selecton files off-line using a downloaded installation of Protein Explorer).
One big advantage of creating molecular scenes in Proteopedia is that they are immediately online for everyone to see and share. Normal pages in Proteopedia can be edited by anyone (as they can be in Wikipedia). However, you can make protected pages in Proteopedia that only you can change. See Help:Protected Pages.
Another big advantage of creating molecular scenes in Proteopedia is that they are truly interactive -- they can be rotated and zoomed.
ConSurf results can be displayed in Proteopedia as well. Use the coloring script provided on your ConSurf job results page. Copy it into the Jmol console, and execute it, in the same manner as described for state scripts from FirstGlance.
If you prefer to create molecular scenes from scratch within Proteopedia, you can use its built-in Scene Authoring Tools. These are so easy that college students have used them successfully without any training.