It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that chemists are creatures of habit. I should know: I am one.

And, in the same way that many people have a favourite food, pair of shoes, or season of the year, chemists almost always have a favourite chemical drawing tool. I’m not ashamed to admit that mine was decided while working in a lab years ago, and despite being a competitor’s product, I know this is probably not going to change. Old habits die hard.

Here at IDBS, we also have a preferred chemical drawing tool, from our strategic cheminformatics partner, ChemAxon. We’ve embedded ChemAxon’s Marvin JS in our E‑WorkBook Chemistry module, providing the ability to draw and edit chemical molecules and reactions. Since this avoids the need for additional drawing packages, workflows are streamlined for end users by saving on button clicks and application load times, and the total cost of ownership is reduced for IT managers by saving on the associated licensing fees.

However, IDBS are also realistic about chemists’ expectations. You wouldn’t expect to have to change out of your favourite shoes, so why should we expect you to change your favourite chemical drawing tool?

With v10.2.2 of the E-WorkBook Chemistry module, you don’t have to stop using your preferred structure editor, be it ChemDraw, BioviaDraw, or Marvin Sketch. We offer hotlinking to these tools out of the box, should you wish. Alternatively, you can just use the embedded Marvin JS editor: it’s your choice.

Simple solutions like the ability to continue using your preferred chemical structure editor often dramatically increase an ELN’s usability, and while you might think this to be an expectation of all chemistry ELNs, we know that not all technology is created equal – and neither are tastes. It’s all about personal preference!

To find our more information about our Chemistry module, you can watch our on-demand webinar here.