MDL Chime is the browser plugin that displays macromolecular structure, and is required for operation of Protein Explorer.

Manual installation is needed only for Netscape 7 (or Mozilla or Firefox) on Windows only. The MDL Chime installer works automatically in Windows with Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer, and with Netscape 4 in Mac/OS X. See Protein Explorer-Compatible Browsers.

1. Printing this page now will be useful because you'll have to close the browser during the installation.

2. Download and install Netscape 7 (or Mozilla or Firefox), available from www.netscape.com (or www.mozilla.org or www.getfirefox.com).

3. Download the MDL Chime installer, and install Chime in Internet Explorer. Here are step by step instructions.

4. Copy the file npchime.dll
   from c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins
   to c:\Program Files\Netscape\Netscape\plugins
   (or c:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\plugins
   or c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins).

   (The other three "chime" files in the plugins directory are unnecessary: chime.html is the Chime release notes; chime26.isu and ChimeShim.dll are obsolete.)

5. Close all browser windows. This is necessary since browsers load plugins only when starting.

6. Start Netscape 7 (or Mozilla or Firefox). Open the Help menu, and display About Plugins. If MDL Chime is not listed, the file npchime.dll was not copied into the correct directory -- re-copy it and try again.

7. Return to proteinexplorer.org (or your downloaded copy of Protein Explorer) and Protein Explorer should now work.

   (Curiously, clicking on a PDB file on a server, such as ATP, loads Chime but fails to display the molecule or the MDL frank in Netscape 7. The molecule is displayed correctly in Mozilla and Firefox. See issues with Gecko browsers.)