How to start up RasMol?

After you have downloaded RasMol, double click the icon RasWin.exe and the RasMol window should look like this:

Open a .pdb file          

All the 3D structural information of a molecule is stored in a file with extension ".pdf". To open a file, you have to click 'File' on the toolbar and then choose 'Open':

All the ".pdb" files can be downloaded from the Internet, which will be discussed in another chapter. One thing to remind you is that: The current ".pdb" file must be closed (Choose 'Close' from 'File' in the toolbar) before a new one can be opened, i.e. only one molecule can be viewed at one time.