Repairing Mac file resource forks
MacVector sequence and data files contain a resource fork and a data fork. When a file is transferred between a Mac and a zip disk, a network drive, or a PC-format diskette, the resource fork may become damaged or lost. As a result, the mac operating system will be unable to determine the file type or the application that was used to create it. When this occurs, your mac becomes confused and displays a blank or generic icon for those files with damaged or missing resource forks.
You can protect your files by packaging them into a Stuffit archive before performing the transfer. The archive can be opened with Stuffit Expander which is freely available here:
http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/
If your files are already damaged, you may be able to repair them using TypeShuffler, a shareware application that can be used to repair damaged or missing resource forks. It's available here:
http://www.bubblepop.com/typeshuffler/
After installing TypeShuffler, just drag and drop the desired file(s) on top of the application icon, then choose the desired file type and file creator. If you "prime" TypeShuffler in advance by dragging a bona fide MacVector file on top of it, all of the relevant file types will populate the appropriate TypeShuffler menus which will make it much easier to specify file type and file creator using files that lack a resource fork. TypeShuffler is easiest to use if you create an alias on the dock or desktop so files can be dragged onto it.
Note: Two items are specified in the resource fork: creator and type. The creator for all MacVector sequence files must be set to "MVTR". The file type for individual sequence files should be set to "NUCL" or "PROT" for nucleic acid and protein sequence files, respectively. The file type for multiple sequence alignment files should be set to "MSAN" or "MSAP" for nucleic acid and protein alignments, respectively.
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