I have a number of ChemDraw Mac files that I want to bring over to ChemDraw Windows. How can I add the ChemDraw extension to these Mac files all at once in a batch job, other than manually renaming the files one by one?

I have a number of ChemDraw Mac files that I want to bring over to ChemDraw Windows. How can I add the ChemDraw extension to these Mac files all at once in a batch job, other than manually renaming the files one by one?

Any ChemDraw files created with ChemDraw 3.x or below need to have the .CHM extension. Any ChemDraw files created with 4.x or above need to have the .CDX extension, so ChemDraw Windows can read them.

1. Bring all of your ChemDraw files over to Windows.
2. On your C drive, create two new folders: CHM and CDX
3. Put all your ChemDraw 3.x or less files into CHM.
4. Put all your ChemDraw 4.x or greater files into CDX.
5. Using the MS-DOS command prompt, change the directory to CHM (for example, at the C:\ prompt type "cd CHM" so the path is now "C:\CHM\")
6. Now do a Rename by typing: "Rename *.* *.CHM
7. This will add a .CHM extension to every file in the CHM folder.
8. Using the MS-DOS command prompt, change the directory to CDX (for example, at the C:\ prompt type "cd CDX" so the path is now "C:\CDX\")
9. Now do a Rename by typing: "Rename *.* *.CDX"
10. This will add a .CDX extension to every file in the CDX folder.

Now your files can be opened in ChemDraw.