Combine tbl

Combine tbl is a pared-down version of MELTS_Excel containing only the 'Combine tbl' function, that can work on all versions of Excel, Windows or Mac. After downloading, just double-click to extract the Excel file from the .zip archive.

• You should use 'Combine tbl 2' if possible, and definitely if you are using a Mac with Excel 2016. You can also use it on Windows if you do not want the full MELTS for Excel funtionality.
• You should use 'Combine tbl 1' if you are using a Mac computer with Excel 2011 or if 'Combine tbl 2' does not work. You may also want to use it for older versions of Excel on Windows.

We are grateful to Guil Gualda for allowing us to hack the MELTS_Excel Visual Basic code. Minor differences between the original 'Combine tbl', and these ones are documented in the files (Combine tbl 2 version):

This version of MELTS_Excel contains the "Importing and Generating Output from tbl Files" functionality for processing
output from the rhyoliteMELTS graphical user interface (GUI). See section 3.5 of:

Gualda G.A.R., Ghiorso M.S. (2015) MELTS_Excel: A Microsoft Excel-based MELTS interface for research and teaching of
magma properties and evolution. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 16(1), 315-324

Unlike the full version of MELTS_Excel, which only works on Windows, this version of the "Combine tbl" macro should
also work in Excel for Mac computers. This was made possible, in large part, by Ron de Buin's excellent(!) blog on
Excel Automation. See: https://www.rondebruin.nl/

In general you can follow the published instructions, i.e: To import tbl files, the user should click the "Combine tbl"
button in the "Tools" tab, and select the "melts.out" file located in the desired folder — where the tbl files of
interest are located. The output will be placed in a new workbook, just like when running MELTS_Excel.
Minor differences in this pared down version are noted below:

On Windows, after selecting "melts.out" you will need  to select one of the .tbl files. These will usually be in the
same folder as "melts.out" (which Excel remembers) but if not you can navigate to another folder. Select one .tbl file;
it does not matter which one you choose.

On Mac, the approach is the same except that after selecting "melts.out" the user will then need to navigate to the
folder where the .tbl files are (usually the same as "melts.out") and select all of them. Everything except .tbl files
should be greyed out; hold down the Shift key to select multiple files.

The rhyoliteMELTS GUI can be downloaded for Mac and Linux (including Windows 10's "Windows Subsystem for Linux") at
http://melts.ofm-research.org
alphaMELTS 2 and alphaMELTS for MATLAB/Python can generate GUI-style output files, compatible with this macro, and are
available on request (sign up for GitLab and send us your username to access them).

One limitation is that there must be exactly one liquid present. A version that can process subsolidus or multiple
liquids will be available soon but requires a fix to the GUI code. Updated GUI executables and macro will be available
from https://magmasource.caltech.edu/alphamelts/links.php

Known bug and workaround: if the plots are tiny and no rezisable go to File->Print and choose a different printer e.g.
the built-in "Microsoft Print to PDF" or any with a normal US letter or A4 page size. 

The full MELTS_Excel workbook for Windows can be downloaded from http://melts.ofm-research.org/excel.html - make sure
to get the latest version (Apr 24th, 2018, at the time of writing). Please acknowledge use of any version of the
"Combine tbl" tool by citing the Gualda & Ghiorso (2015) reference given above.

This version of the macro fixes some bugs, including the last .tbl file not importing on Mac, and adds compatibility
with Einari Suikkanen's "easyMelts". It has been tested in Office 365 on Windows 10 and Catalina.
The previous version (July 1st, 2019)  was tested in Excel 2016 on Windows 10 and Mojave. For other combinations of
operating system and Excel version try "Combine tbl 1".

Paula Antoshechkina (psmith@gps.caltech.edu)
July 17th, 2020