Computer Issues

• If you're spending time looking for an answer, look smarter rather than harder (applies even more to research)...

General
Turn off "intense graphics" if your computer is slowing down.
Turn off unwanted services, and wipe and reinstall your OS every 2-3 years for best results.
Don't use Microsoft Word (20 kB, crash-prone, long load time) where plain text (0.2 kB, instant load, compatible forever) will do.

Mac Retina compatibility (see also - MacInChem.org)
- Office 2011 supports Retina support from update 14.2.x (go Help > Check for Updates, follow through). Adobe Acrobat from 11.0.07 on. Endnote X7, MacPyMol, Vienna 3.0 all seem fine.
- Mestrenova doesn’t support Retina (at 2018).

ChemDraw on Mac:

ChemDraw 15 is stable, has Retina, but does not have copy-paste editing. ChemDraw 16 crashes a lot but has copy-paste handling (into / out of Office, but not Keynote etc).

As of 2013-2017, ChemDraw on a Mac was/is still nasty and buggy. For discussion of better structure editors check out Chemistry and Computers. Some Issues:

(1) Crashes upon saving.
We have found this issue in some user machine and the workaround for this issue is to reset the launch services database.
To reset the launch services database, open Terminal by going to Applications - Utilities - Terminal in your mac machine and paste the command below:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user ; killall Dock
This may take a while if you have lots of apps (20-30 minutes or more).

(2) Always Autosaves
Is it possible to set a preference in ChemDraw 16 so that when you modify an existing file and close it that it doesn't save it automatically? ChemDraw used to prompt you and ask whether you wanted to save the file if you made changes. This was convenient if you changed something on accident and didn't notice, or only changed a structure to get a MW (but didn't want to modify your actual slide).
The specification of saving was changed to the same as "preview" that is the standard app in mac. You can change the configuration by:
System Preferences > General > check "Ask to keep changes when closing documents"
Ref. Apple official support: communities

(3) If you were looking for other ChemOffice programs on Mac, don't bother: Perkin gave up. "Please note that CambridgeSoft stopped development of Chem3D for the Macintosh nearly 10 years ago, and stopped development of ChemFinder for the Macintosh over a decade ago. In the time since we made those decisions, we have received very few inquiries about updated versions of those products. Since Mac OS X did not exist a number of years ago, neither of those products are Mac OS X native. In fact, starting with our 9.0 release, we no longer provide Chem3D or ChemFinder for the Mac in any form. As a commercial software company, CambridgeSoft must focus on those products that have the largest user base. We have noted and value you suggestion and will continue to stay aware of the changes in our market. In contrast to Chem3D and ChemFinder, ChemDraw *does* have a significant user base, and we continue to enhance and support ChemDraw. The latest release of ChemDraw is Mac OS X native OS X support started with version 7.0), and has many new features compared to the older versions. We would love to be able to release new versions of Chem3D and ChemFinder for the Macintosh, and we will do so if we hear enough demand for them. Based on the resounding lack of demand over the years, however, I'm afraid it's not very likely."