How to group elements in order to use them like one character

Question

I want to create commands that will show some data and will be used as a single character in different places (paragraphs, tables etc.).

Here is an example of how it should be looking:

I achieved it with the following code:

\newcommand{\Helium}{
    \begin{tabular}{|c|}
        {\huge He}\\
        {\small Helium}
    \end{tabular}
}

\newcommand{\Titanium}{
    \begin{tabular}{|c|}
        {\huge Ti}\\
        {\small Titanium}
    \end{tabular}
}

And now it is used as:

Some text \Helium{} and more text \Titanium{} and final text.

1. Is it good to use tables for that (side lines are not needed and are here only to show size of the created element)?
2. Is there any way to reduce padding? Horizontal padding is quite big and when side lines are removed it takes too much space.

Answer 1

Define a helper command that avoids code duplication and ensures uniformity. If you change your mind and want, say \large instead of \Huge, you can just modify one definition.

Be careful with line endings in definition! I protected two of them with % so as they don't produce unwanted spaces in putput.

With \begin{tabular}[t] the chemical symbol is aligned with the text.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\chemicalelement}[2]{% <--- important %
  \begin{tabular}[t]{@{}c@{}}
    \huge #1\\
    \small #2
  \end{tabular}% <--- important %
}
\newcommand{\Helium}{\chemicalelement{He}{Helium}}
\newcommand{\Titanium}{\chemicalelement{Ti}{Titanium}}

\begin{document}

Some text \Helium{} and more text \Titanium{} and final text.

\end{document}