BioWord is a powerful biological sequence editor operating in the most convenient of places: inside your usual word-processor (Microsoft Word 2007, 2010 and 2013). Easy to install and embedded into a Microsoft Office Ribbon, BioWord allows instant access to most sequence manipulation and editing needs, such as reverse-complementing, translating or FASTA formatting, and features a full suite of sequence search methods, pair-wise alignment and motif discovery. Check out the BioWord paper for further details.
The BioWord ribbon, with its full suite of sequence manipulation functions.
Consensus logos
BioWord also allows generation of consensus logos to represent multiple sequence alignments (MSA). A cross between sequence logos and consensus sequences, consensus logos provide a textual representation of a MSA (or more frequently a sequence motif) that explicitly depicts conservation using the heights of consensus characters. This allows embedding in text a richer representation of the motif than the basic consensus sequence.
A consensus logo for the LexA-binding motif of several Gram-positive bacteria.
Installation
To install BioWord:
- Download and save the BioWord.dotm file on your desktop
- Right-click on the saved BioWord.dotm file, choose Open
- When the BioBar.dotm file opens, click the Install BioWord button
- Close Microsoft Word
- Delete the BioWord.dotm file from your desktop
The BioWord ribbon should now be accessible whenever you open a Microsoft Word document. Refer to the manual for further installation instructions.
Download
BioWord downloads:
- On-site downloads
- Download BioWord (.dotm self-installable macro-enabled template) remember to right-click and choose Open from contextual menu (do not double-click) or open from within Microsoft Word
- Donwload BioWord tutorial (.doc)
- Download the BioWord user manual (PDF)
- Download the Developer manual (PDF)
- Off-site downloads
- Donwload the latest version of BioWord from the sourceforge repository.
Source code
The source code for BioWord is embeded within the BioWord.dotm template and it is not password protected. You can reach it by clicking Alt+F11 within Microsoft Word to access the embeded Visual Basic for Applications development window.
The most up-to-date version of the code can be found at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bioword/
Citation
If using BioWord for your research, please cite:
Anzaldi, L. J. Muñoz-Fernández, D. & Erill, I. “BioWord: A sequence manipulation suite for Microsoft Word”, (2012) BMC Bioinformatics, 13:124. (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/13/124)