The main properties and methods of describing dipolar and spinor atomic systems, composed of bosonic atoms or molecules, are reviewed. The general approach for the correct treatment of Bose-condensed atomic systems with nonlocal interaction potentials is explained. The approach is applied to Bose-condensed systems with dipolar interaction potentials. The properties of systems with spinor interaction potentials are described. Trapped atoms and atoms in optical lattices are considered. Effective spin Hamiltonians for atoms in optical lattices are derived. The possibility of spintronics with cold atom is emphasized. The present review differs from the previous review articles by concentrating on a thorough presentation of basic theoretical points, helping the reader to better follow mathematical details and to make clearer physical conclusions.Cold atomic and molecular bosonic systems have recently been the objects of intensive research, both experimental and theoretical. First, the attention has been concentrated on dilute systems, composed of particles characterized by local interaction potentials, independent of spins, whose properties are well described by the s-wave scattering length. There are several books [1-4] and review articles [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] covering different aspects of such bosonic systems with spin-independent local interaction potentials.In the present review, bosonic atoms or molecules are treated interacting through nonlocal interaction potentials, such as dipolar potential, and interacting through spinor forces that are local but depending on the effective spins related to hyperfine states. Although there exist reviews devoted to dipolar [20][21][22][23][24][25] and spinor [26,27] systems (see also [3,28]) the present paper differs from them in the following aspects. First, our aim here is not a brief enumeration of particular cases, numerical calculations, and different experiments, but the attention here is concentrated on the principal theoretical points allowing for the correct treatment of dipolar and spinor systems. Second, more attention is payed to the derivation of effective spin Hamiltonians for atoms and molecules in optical lattices. Third, the possibility of spintronics with cold atoms and molecules, interacting through dipolar and spinor forces, is discussed.The exposition of the material is organized so that the main mathematical points be clear to the reader. More technical details can be found in the tutorials [29,30]. Throughout the paper, the system of units is employed where the Boltzmann and Planck constants are set to one, k B = 1 and = 1.As is evident, the equation for the vacuum coherent field (2.40) differs form the equation (2.34) for the condensate function that is a coherent field, but, generally, not the vacuum coherent field. Equation (2.40) is a particular case of (2.34), where there are no uncondensed particles, so that ρ 1 , σ 1 , as well as ξ, are zero.One often confuses equation (2.40) for the vacuum coherent field with me...