Gaussian 03 Online Manual
Last update: 29 September 2006

Customizing the G03W Interface

G03W allows you to configure to your tastes many aspects of the user interface, including visual aspects and operating procedures.

VISUAL PREFERENCES: You can choose actively to display or not to display the toolbar, Processing Output Area and Status Bar via the View Menu on the main form. These menu items will change the size and shape of the main form, and you can make these choices permanent via the Display Preferences section of the Preferences form. On the display preferences form you can choose to see an hourglass when the a link has control of the CPU, whether or not to have a Motif-like look to Gaussian (raised or lowered 3D controls, gray background), how often to look into the run-time output file and display any new contents, the foreground and background colors to use for the output display area, and the fonts to use for both input and output.

FILES AND MESSAGES: You can choose how you want to be prompted concerning over-writing existing files, and how to save complicated jobs (jobs which are a conglomeration of multiple files) from the Edit Preferences section of the Preferences form. In addition, each time you run, you may or may not want to be prompted for the name of the output file. The control for this is found under the Process Preferences section.

CONTROL OVER EVENTS: You can define what happens when a file is loaded (i.e. do you jump into the internal editor or not), what happens when a file or set of files is dropped on G03W, and how to handle messages, output and errors during batch processing. All these options are controlled from the Process Preferences section.

DEFAULT LOGIC: You can also deal with multiple operating paths by setting the default path information on the main Preferences dialog. The BIN PATH entry tells Gaussian where to find its links. The scratch path entry tells the system where you want temporary files to be created and re-created. The optional output path tells the system where the default should be to create output files. If left blank, the default for GJF files is the directory where the input file was found, for BCF files, the output filename defines where it goes. The input path tells the system where it should look first to find files. If left blank, the system looks in the directory where you last loaded a file from (in the current session).


ASCII Editor

00000001.gif Fill in this edit area with the fully qualified path and filename of the text editor you prefer to you use. This editor will be available from the edit form menus and the View menu, or from the toolbar button. In addition, after a job has successfully run, the editor can be called from the View menu with the output file, or from the toolbar button. During the initial installation, the ASCII Editor is preset to NOTEPAD.EXE if no other editor has been defined.

Find File: 00000000.gif Use this button to quickly locate your preferred editor executable. This function will fill in the edit area with your selection.

Bin Path: This edit area tells G03W where the link executables exist on your system. This information is filled in by the initial installation program and should normally not be altered. WARNING: Having incorrect information will cause all jobs to fail at the first link.

Scratch Path: This edit area tells G03W where the scratch files should be created. If this edit is empty, the system will assume no scratch directory is present, and all temporary files will be created in the same directory as the input file (if there is one) or the current working directory (if there is no input file). It is highly recommended that you have a scratch directory, as this will reduce the impact of multiple Gaussian job runs, (which can take up lots of disk space), by overwriting the same files.

Output Path: This edit area tells Gaussian where you would like all output files to be created. If this is edit is empty, then the output file will be created either where you specify it, or in the same directory that the input file was found in.

Input Path: This edit area tells Gaussian you have a preferred default input path to search for GJF files. If this edit is empty, then the current working directory is used until a file is loaded. After a file is loade, the directory where the loaded file was found, becomes the default.

Display: The display button allows control over the visual elements of the interface. (See Display Preferences ).

Edit: The edit button allows control over the file editing elements of the interface. (See Edit Preferences ).

Process: The process button allows control over the Gaussian Job Step processing elements of the interface. (See Process Preferences ).


Use this command to adjust the visual elements of the G03W interface to your tastes:

Cursor Indication of Processing: This switch toggles whether or not the cursor should be changed to an hourglass while a link has the CPU. (An indicator of both processing and multitasking). (Default OFF).

Motif Look: Toggle whether to use a gray background and add height or depth to on screen controls. (Default ON).

Show ToolBar at Startup: Toggle whether or not to view the toolbar when the program first opens. (Default ON).

Show Output File Area at Startup: Toggle whether or not to view the output of jobs run when the program first opens. (Default ON).

Show Status Bar at Startup: Toggle whether or not to view the Status Bar at the bottom of the window when the program first opens. (Default ON).

Output File Scan Time: Set the time (in seconds) that the front-end should wait to scan the output file for new information, and display it in the output display area. Range 2-3600 seconds. (Default: 15secs).

Use System Colors: Toggle whether or not to use the colors defined in the current Windows system color scheme, for aspects of screen display (edits, list boxes, text, scrollbars,etc...) Note: Motif Look overrides the color control for window backgrounds, whether or not this toggle button is checked. (Default OFF).

Output Background: This button displays the color selection screen to allow the user to set a color for the background of the output display area. Keep in mind that a color should also be selected for the text (see Output Font below) that will allow seeing the text. (Default - Dark Blue R:0 B:64 G:0).

Output Font: This button displays the font selection box for the output display area. Since the information in the output assumes a fixed font (terminal like) display, only fixed width fonts are available in this area. In addition, you may select a text color if the Use System Colors switch (above) is off. Note: to see an example in the Sample window, you must fully select a font, (meaning Name, style and size) and the text color must be anything but white.

Input Font: This button displays the font selection box for the input displays (any edit area on the input forms). Any normal font can be used. Colors may not be set for this text edit area.


Use this command to adjust the file I/O elements of the G03W interface to your tastes:

File OverWrite Warnings: Select whether you want notification that you are about to write over an existing file.

  • The first option provides notification anytime this would occur.
  • The second option provides notification only when a file in memory is being saved to a different filename, and that new filename already exists.
  • The last option never bothers the user with notification, and over-writes any previous files (dangerous).

Multi-Step Job File Saves: When the contents of memory comprises multi-step jobs, whether the user loaded steps from multiple files or not, the steps may be saved in one of three combinations:

  • Save the steps back to their original files (DEFAULT).
  • Save all the steps to a single file.
  • Save each step to an individual file (filename is created with the step number). The first toggle button controls whether the interface queries the user for a choice when this condition exists.


Use this command to adjust the job processing elements of the G03W interface to your tastes:

Query Output Name: Toggles whether or not to ask the user the name and directory of the output file to create. (Default ON).

Show File On Load: Toggles whether or not to display the contents of a file after its loaded. (Default ON).

End Batch Run on Error: Toggles whether to halt batch processing when an error occurs, or to skip to the next job in the batch and keep going. (Default ON). Note: If this feature is active and an error occurs while processing a batch, the batch start entry value is set to the file that caused the error.

Scan Output During Batch: Toggles whether or not to display the output of the currently processing job in the output display area when processing batches of jobs. (Default ON).

Minimize Until End / Error: Toggles whether Gaussian should become an ICON while processing batch jobs. If an error occurs or the end of the batch is reached, and this feature is active, then Gaussian will re-display itself in an open state. (Default OFF).

Prompt Messages: Toggles whether or not ask questions of the user when processing batches, or to assume default behavior. Such questions include file overwrite warnings and non-fatal system errors. (Default OFF).

Run Dropped Files: Toggles whether or not to immediately run a file or list of files dropped on Gaussian by a file manager. (See Drag & Drop in your Windows manual). (Default OFF).