Frequently Asked Questions about MacClade 4

This page contains some commonly asked questions about MacClade, or questions that illustrate particular techniques in using MacClade.

A: It may be possible to run MacClade on Windows via an emulator, but Windows is not a supported platform. We have no experience with any currently available emulator.

A: First, make sure MacClade is on your hard disk, not on the CD; MacClade won't start up from the CD. If MacClade is on your hard disk, the likely cause of this is a conflict between MacClade and a system extension, as discussed in the Installing MacClade section of the Getting Started chapter in the MacClade manual. The simplest way to deal with this is to restart your computer, holding down the Shift key during start up. This will cause the computer to start with system extensions disabled. Then, install MacClade, and start MacClade up. Personalize your copy at this point by typing in your name and institution. Once this is completed, and you have successfully started MacClade once, you can then restart your computer. You will not need to hold down the Shift key.

A: The two programs have different strengths. MacClade is a more mature program than Mesquite, and much faster at what it does. It is much better at parsimony calculations than Mesquite, and has several features in the tree window (including Trace All Changes) not present in Mesquite. Mesquite, in contrast now has many features not present in MacClade. One consequence of this is that Mesquite is harder to use than MacClade.

A: Yes. Make sure you have the MacOS X version installed.

A: All graphics programs we have tested read PICT files incorrectly. One option is to save the files as PostScript files; see the MacClade manual on your CD for details, in the chapter on printing and saving graphics files.