August 2013

From: Dr Christopher Mabb, Scientific Word Ltd.
To: Our Scientific Word/WorkPlace/Notebook Technical Typesetting list

1. Simultaneous equations:    Someone from India asked us how to solve the simultaneous equations:

   "A.4p-3q=12  B.3q+2p-30=0"

   which got us thinking... no, not about how to solve two simple equations! With Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Notebook it's extremely easy, of course: simply open a Display (Insert - Display or Ctrl-D), type the first equation, touch Carriage Return to make it a multiline Display, and enter the second equation. Then Compute - Solve - Exact returns the solution!
   And you probably knew that different lines of a multiline Display could be numbered separately... but did you know that, by clicking on Advanced - Enable subequation numbering, the whole display could have a master equation number, with chosen lines given a sub-number? Please see our simultaneous equations document, and Typeset - PreviewPDF to see the effect. (Note that automatic cross-referencing applies to Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word, not to Scientific Notebook.)



2. Transferring between computers:    A retired professor who's been on our mailing list for over 20 years had the hard disk on his computer die, and asked our advice about transferring his Scientific Word v5.5 documents to another machine. It's a good question, because the registration is machine-specific and so it doesn't work simply to copy across the whole c:\sw55 folder to your new computer, for example. We replied:

   "You can download Scientific Word from our v5.5 demodisk web page at www.sciword.co.uk/demo.htm and select the program you require: Scientific Word is 73Mb. This is the full working program when unlocked (registered) using your v5.5 serial number:

   300-E0600-<snip>

   and installation instructions are available at https://www.sciword.co.uk/!v5.5%20Installation.pdf .
       Once you have a fresh installation of Scientific Word on your new computer you can copy your documents across from your laptop or backup drive (the contents of the c:\sw55\docs folder)."

   That's it!



3. Accents on characters:    It's a funny thing. We don't recall seeing this question for a decade or more, and then - likes buses - three of them come along together. So today we replied:

   "Your question about entering an arrow or bar above a character is interesting – it's not come up for years, and you're the third person in about a month to ask it. Type the character, then right-click on it (or select magnifying glass for Properties) and then select the accent above that you want. If the accent you require is not there, more generally you can add anything to an expression as a Decoration (preset) or a Label (enter your own) using Insert – Decoration or Insert – Label. You can change the default Maths mode to text mode inside these input boxes. You can read up lots more using Help – Search – Decoration and Help – Search – Label."

   Please see a sample .tex file here, which you should save to your \docs folder and then open in Scientific Word/WorkPlace/Notebook. See also our July 2011 mailing, Item 2.



4. Numinsec:     Someone who was trying-before-buying asked us:

   "On the version of SW I have on trial, I am using the style "LaTex
   article" <snip> I should like a version of "LaTex
   article" that numbers equations section by section (1.1, 1.2 followed by
   2.1, 2.2   etc) instead of consecutively from beginning to  end."

   Initially we gave a slightly cumbersome response:

   "...the adjustments you mention are easy to add in manually: just click on Typeset – Preamble and add the line:

   \renewcommand{\theequation}{\thesection.\arabic{equation}}

   You will also want to reset the equation counter to zero at the start of every new section containing equations <snip> You reset the equation counter with the TeX Field:

   \setcounter{equation}{0} "

   before remembering that all this is done for you by the numinsec (ie. number in section) package, which you can simply add to your document using Typeset – Options and Packages – Package Options – Add – numinsec – OK – OK. Please see the sample document, click on Typeset - PreviewPDF and check the equation numbering on page 2. Now remove the numinsec package, recompile, and check it again.
   Note that this is similar to (but different from) our 11111 mailing Item 6.



5. Version 6.0:    Another month, another beta version... But frustratingly, still no release date we can give you yet. We know some of you are holding fire on buying new hardware, waiting to be able to use Scientific Word, WorkPlace or Notebook on a Mac or with Linux.
   We can't offer you advice about buying hardware - all we can promise is that we will play fair with you, so that you don't lose out in getting version 6.0 to run on your computer. That means if you buy v5.5 for Windows now, but you really want the Mac or Linux version 6.0, we will deem one to be the other regardless of MacKichan's eventual pricing structure.
   And we apologise. Again.



6. Past mailings:    We've previously given you the link where past mailings can be found (and subjects searched) at https://www.sciword.co.uk/mailings. But we thought we'd provide an easier route for you, and have now added it to the navigation panels on our website (click the 'More Options' link at the bottom left if the Past Mailings link isn't showing).



7. Website:    Partly in preparation for a new release, we've given our website a lick of paint and a reorganisation. Each product page - Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word and Scientific Notebook - is now a one-stop shop where you can download the 30-day demo and obtain the corresponding serial number. We think that's a great reason for you to recommend our software to your academic friends and colleagues! As one of our new web pages says:

   "Wouldn't you want your friends to have told you about this software already? But you found it first! So...
   Why not tell them?"