Chromas (PC): To access your sequence files from the file server you will need the software program Chromas. To download the program go to: http://www.technelysium.com.au/chromas.html. A freeware version of the program can be downloaded . The latest version of the program is also available at this site for a fee

To unzip the free version of Chromas, you will need one unzip software, We tested Winzip 8.1 which is a shareware, you can find a evaluation version of Winzip 8.1 from : http://www.winzip.com/download.htm , follow the instruction to install Winzip, then unpack Chromas 1.45.

On the left side of the website in the blue area, click Freeware Version 1.45.
Click Chromas 145-95.zip to download the program. Unzip the program and install it. If you like, create an icon on your desktop for easy program access.

Start the Chromas program by clicking the icon on your desktop. The Chromas program opens a window. On the menu bar, select 'file', then 'open', and select the sequencing results file you wish to open. The file will open to the electropherogram. To view the corresponding nucleotide sequence, first open an appropriate word processing application (Word, WordPerfect, NotePad, etc.) Next, in Chromas select 'edit' on the menu bar, then 'copy sequence'. Here you can choose to copy in either plain text or FASTA format. 'Paste' the copied sequence into the opened word processing application. 'Save' the file with containing the nucleotide sequence.

If you have any questions about Chromas, feel free to contact the Core Facility.

EditView (MAC): To access your sequence files from the CD or the file server (to be implemented later this spring), you will need the software program Edit View 1.0.1 and a conversion utility. Both can be downloaded at no cost from the Applied Biosystems web site.

Go to http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/support/software and look in the gray box on the right. Click on Edit View 1.0.1 to download the program.

To download the conversion program go to http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/support/software/3100/conversion.cfm. Next to the program name you will see the word "MAC" in a blue box. Click on this box to download the conversion program.

Save your sequences from the file server into a new folder "My Sequences" on your hard drive.

Occasionally, the sequence files will be locked and need to be unlocked before they can be converted. (We don't know why or how they become locked, but they can.) To overcome this problem, open the "My Sequences" folder on your hard drive and highlight any one of the sequence files. On the menu bar go to "file", then to "get info" and select "general information." Look in the box on the bottom left corner of the window and make sure the "locked" box is not checked. If the file is locked, click on the "locked" box to uncheck it and unlock the file. If one sequence is locked, then it is likely that all sequence files will locked will have to be unlocked in this manner before conversion.

To start the conversion program, double click the conversion program icon. Double click on the "sample file win to mac" icon. This opens a window in the conversion program asking you where the files to convert are located. Highlight (do not open) the new folder "My Sequences" on your hard drive. Click the "choose" button. This will simultaneously convert all the files in the folder to Mac format.

Double click on the individual sequence file you wish to open and Edit View will open it automatically.

Edit View opens the electropherogram for the file first. In the bottom left corner of this window there are four buttons. The second button from the left is labeled GATC. Clicking this button will switch to a window showing the sequence data in nucleotide format. To toggle back to the electropherogram, click on the far right button. You should be able to print either window. You may also use select all and copy options to paste your nucleotide sequence into other programs. Subsequent sequence data files may be opened by selecting "file" and "open" on the menu bar.

If you have any questions about using the programs, feel free to contact the Core Facility.

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