Plug-in's and Helper Applications used at this site

• Electronic Documents
  • Acrobat (*.pdf) Adobe Acrobat is the most common electronic document format on the WWW. The freely distributed acrobat reader will let you view and print at any PDF files. The Plug-in loads the PDF file in a Netscape browser window. This is a very efficient way to produce and distribute complex documents.

  • Replica (*.rpl). This is an electronic document format that creates a file containing all the information sent to the printer. This file is viewed with the Replica a Viewer (which is free). This is very similar to the Acrobat PDF file. To use the Replica documents, you must have a copy of the Replica Viewer for Windows (568k) or for the Macintosh (924k).

• Video and Multimedia Files There are several different video file formats that are widely used on the Internet. These include:
  • Quicktime (*.qt, *.mov). This is probably the most common video file format, a plug-in is available. Download the latest version from Apple.

  • MPEG (*.mpg, *.mpe, *.mpeg). This is another very common file type and there are many viewers including VMPEG (32 bit windows application). A MPEG extension is available from Apple for the Macintosh version of quicktime.

  • FLC (*.fli, *.flc). This video format from Autodesk is less common. Use the AAWIN viewer for flc (*.fli) animations.

  • Shockwave (*.spl, *.dir, *.dxr, *.dcr) Download the Shockwave plugin from Macromedia to view interactive multimedia files.

• Chemistry and Science
  • Protein Databank (*.pdb) files. These are molecular coordinate files used for displaying 3D images. The files may be viewed with RasMol or with the Chime plug-in from MDLI.

  • Mathcad (*.mcd). These are interactive mathematics documents created with Mathsoft's Mathcad. The files may be viewed using Mathcad 5.0, 6.0, or Mathcad Explorer (freely distributed).

  • JCAMP (*.JDX). This file format is used for spectroscopic data. They may be viewed using the JCAMP viewer configured as a helper application. A 32 bit version with a plug-in is now available. Alternatively they may be viewed with SpecViewer, a freely distributed program for viewing spectral data. It is available from ACD Labs at http://www.acdlabs.com/products/spec_lab/exp_spectra/nmr/

  • Spreadsheet (Lotus 123, *.wk4) and (Excel, *.xls). These files are used for graphing data. Configure the spreadsheet as a helper application.

  • NUTS (*.fid, *.2d, *.spc). NMR data files for Acorn's NUTS NMR data processing program. A demo version is available. Configure this as a helper application to view 1-D NMR data files.

    Alternatively you may use MestRE-C or SpecViewer. MestRE-C is a Windows 95 freeware application for processing NMR data in a variety of formats. Download the program from http://qobrue.usc.es/jsgroup/MestRe-C/MestRe-C.html or from Ohio Supercomputer FTP Site. SpecViewer is a freely distributed program for viewing spectral data. It is available from ACD Labs at http://www.acdlabs.com/products/spec_lab/exp_spectra/nmr/

• Other Useful Programs
  • Compressed Files (*.zip). Files are frequently compressed so that they may be downloaded faster or to fit on a diskette. WinZip is a Windows compression utility that allows you to compress and uncompress files from the WWW. Alternatively you may use the dos program unzip.

• Where to Find More. If you do not find a helper application that you need listed here check:
  • Yahoo for an indexed listing of information on the Web.
  • Altavista for searching the web by keyword.
  • Netscape for listings of available plug-in's

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  This page is maintained by
  Scott Van Bramer
  Department of Chemistry
  Widener University
  Chester, PA 19013

  Please send any comments, corrections, or suggestions to svanbram@science.widener.edu.

  This page has been accessed times since 1/5 /96 .
  Last Updated 1/5/96