Most of the instructions should be the same for Windows versions of RasMol. Where I am aware of differences between Mac and PC versions of the program, I added notes in parentheses for PC users. For faster display operation on Macs and PCs, get the 8-bit version, and use it with your monitor set to 256 colors. Most of the changes between versions 2.6b2 and 2.7.1 do no affect the operations described in this tutorial. The name RasMol comes from ras ter display of mol ecules.
Raster is a type of computer display especially useful for showing solid surfaces.
It may not be a coincidence that the letters Ras are also the initials of RasMol's creator, Roger A. Sayle of Glaxo Corporation and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Sayle began developing this program as part of this graduate work in computer science, and continues to expand it with support from Glaxo. Thanks to Roger A. Sayle and Glaxo for giving this powerful tool to the world structural biology community. In this tutorial, instructions for giving commands or using menus will appear in a consistent format. This instruction means press the key labeled return on the computer keyboard.