Helper applications are programs designed to allow the browser to recognize and utilize specific file-types. In this case the file types of interest denote coordinate files that, with an appropriate helper program, allow the user to manipulate the molecule of interest. The installation procedure outlined below is for a Macintosh-based browser.

Installation for Mosaic

1. select Preferences from the Options menu.
2. click on Helper applications to bring up this dialog box
3. click on the Add document type... button and set the Document Type to chemistry/x-pdb
4. click on the Set Application... button and use the standard Macintosh dialog box to locate and select RasMol, selecting the Launch Automatically checkbox
5. click on the Add Extension button and set the and set the extension to pdb. Scroll the mime type box to select chemistry/x-pdb.
6. repeat the above steps for mime type chemistry/x-mol2 and extension mol2.

Installation for Netscape

1. select Preferences from the Options menu.
2. scroll to Helper applications and click to bring up this dialog box
3. set the mime type to chemistry
4. set the subtype to x-pdb
5. set the extension to pdb,PDB
6. select the action as launch application
7. then select the browse option to search for and select the RasMol application within the standard Macintosh dialog box.
8. repeat the above steps for mime type chemistry/x-mol2 and extension mol2.

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