121212 mailing – Scientific Word Ltd.

Installation folders: The winner of our August "Fantastic service" competition subsequently Emailed us:

"I have come across a small problem. I have recently acquired a new laptop and vowed to try and keep it tidy and efficiently organised. Thus I am trying my best to keep the main programmes located in a different partition to my documents and the like. My problem is that I am not quite sure of what folders should/could be moved so that Scientific Workplace may look permanently for my Documents (with figs) in a new partition in E:swp55\Document rather than its original place in C:\swp55\Document. Can you help?"

In our reply we pointed out that we:

"wouldn't recommend installing in anything other than the default folders if you can avoid it: for one thing, there’s a LaTeX problem where folders/file names have spaces, and there have also been users experiencing problems when the LaTeX compilation creates a temporary folder but then find that files it needs are not where it expects.
If you're nevertheless committed to using your E: drive, install from the beginning in E:\swp55 rather than trying to move files manually."

And always keep multiple backups of your documents - just in case.

A0 posters: An enquiry recently from our webpage at http://www.scientific-workplace.com/ asked:

"Can I create a poster using Csientific wok place?"

Although it's not something we've researched thoroughly we referred him to the baposter package at http://www.brian-amberg.de/uni/poster/ .
If any of our users know this package well, we'd be happy to hear from them...

Recovering graphics: One of our Scientific WorkPlace users abroad had a graphics problem that may (or may not!) have been caused by putting graphics inside a display:

"The problem is the figures which were generated as 2D plots in SW. I've tried uploading the file as a portable LaTex file, tried uploading as a rap file - tried adding the figures as supplementary files in the upload - but I just can't get the uploaded (and processed) file on Arxiv to display the figures. It says it processes the rap file OK (but not the portable LaTex) but then there's just a blank space where the figures should be when I view the document."

We experimented with his document, and responded with the following instructions for recovering the graphics:

"Please try the file attached, where you'll see I've gone through and put in a second copy of your graphics. I suspect the issue is caused by centering your graphics by nesting them inside a Display instead of using the Picture Properties dialog. So I tried removing the Display (click to the right and backspace) to yield the graphic left-justified, intending then to centre correctly by means of right-click – Properties – Layout – Placement – Displayed; but this option was greyed out. So I clicked on the View tab to obtain the name of the Plot snapshot <snip> and then on a separate line imported this graphic again using File – Import Picture. This appears in your document centred, and you can then use right-click – Properties – Layout – Placement to change it from Floating to Displayed.
I did this for three such plots, noting that by default the graphics I imported did not show the boundary box; this can be added in from right-click – Properties – Layout – Print Attributes – Picture in Frame."

We've produced a sample document showing the same behaviour: please download the .rap file and unwrap using Tools - Document Manager (providing the wrapped up .rap file rather than just the .tex file means you have the graphic available) and then follow through on our directions above with the document in front of you.
Honesty compels us to admit, however, that with hindsight this was probably not his problem!

Training Courses: We've trailed our 2013 prices well in advance (Item 4) .
There are just 10 days or so to book Courses to qualify for 2012 pricing - even for Training to be taken in 2013.

Co-authoring: If you're writing a paper jointly, you'll want to be able to exchange your document, including the graphics and style files. To do this, wrap up your .tex file using Tools - Document Manager to produce the .rap file (as we did in Item 3 above). This allows your colleague to work on the document and send it back to you - whereas producing a PDF file allows others to read but not work on the document with you.
Thus when someone Emailed to ask:

"I follow the instructions to send a file created as a .tex file as a pdf file. the software reates a RAP file and my correspondent cannot download any diagrams but the text is deciferable.
How do I modify things to create a PDF file?"

we replied:

"Thanks for your Email, though it sounds a little confused:

If you are co-authoring with someone, you will want to send them the .tex file, wrapped up using Tools – Document Manager to create a .rap file. This contains all the graphics, style files etc. that your co-author will need.
If you are sending the typeset finished product to anyone to read, then you will want to send them the PDF (only). In this case, you do not need to wrap it up using the Document Manager. Have you put a PDF on a website but it doesn’t show properly? Please let us have the web address to look at, if so.

So which of these are you wanting to do?"

We hope this will clear up any confusion among our other users too.

A royal baby: The UK is celebrating the announcement of a baby expected by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - a child who will one day be King or Queen. Speculation mounts on likely names for the baby...

Merry Christmas! ...and across the world people remember the birth of Jesus. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

"The people rejoice... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders."

The angel said:

"You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

We wish all our users around the world a very Merry Christmas! We'll only Email you every couple of months – but please just let us know if you no longer wish to remain on our mailing list. More news and tips in the New Year!