August 2017

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

The current version is v6.0.26. Still version 6.0.26! That's really good news – it looks like we've finally got to the end of the b*g fixes; and the number of Technical issues is on the decline too.

1. Windows 10 Creators update:    The technical note here says that:
Customers are reporting problems using Version 5.5 after installing the Windows 10 Creators update. A customer report includes:
• Control sequences (ctrl-g shift-d) would erase random parts of the screen.
• Large parts of the document would not appear. The document text was still in the .tex file and there was no trouble separately compiling the document.
• Some files would have garbled graphics when opened.
• The program would become unresponsive and could only be closed using Task Manager.
We did not see this problem ourselves when we experimented with the Windows 10 Creators update recently, which suggests that Microsoft may have improved their update algorithm.
If you do have the problem then you should install the TrueType fonts (.ttf) supplied with your Scientific Word/WorkPlace v5.5 system; these are mostly located in c:\sw[p]55\TCITeX\fonts\truetype\  with some also in c:\sw[p]55\TCITeX\fonts\truetype\eurosym\ :
1. Go to the first folder specified above
2. Sort the files by type
3. Select all the TrueType fonts (almost all the files)
4. Right-click and select Install
5. Repeat with the other folder

If you experience on-going problems, please remember we are still providing our version 5.5 Unbeatable Expert Technical Support for Premier users, Annual Maintenance sites and Support Contracts.

2. You choose:    Honestly, which would you rather do? Type the LaTeX code:
$\Omega = \sum_{k=1}^{n} \omega_k$
or point-and-click to build the expression:

Yes, that's what we thought!
So don't forget you can still try the free 30-day demo of Scientific Word or Scientific WorkPlace v6.0 – even if you've previously had the 30-day demo for v5.5. Just go here to download the program, obtain a serial number and follow the installation instructions. And it's all free. Well, for 30 days anyway...

3. What do you read?    We'd love to know how you discovered us? Was it a personal recommendation? Your university tutor? A Google search? Something in a journal?
Do feel free to tell us... because having found a good customer like you, we'd certainly love to find more like you.

4. Producing Braille:    Someone who has been on our mailing list for many years recently contacted us about:
...a totally blind student for whom we are trying to produce lecture notes in Braille. Do you by any chance know anything about converting SWP texts to Braille?
This information may be more generally useful, whether the .tex files you're starting with were produced with Scientific Work/WorkPlace v5.5 or exported from v6.0. We replied:
For information on producing Braille output from Scientific Word/WorkPlace/Notebook <snip> please go to https://www.mackichan.com/index.html?products/brailleoutput.html to find out about the Duxbury Braille Translator. We don’t have any experience of this ourselves, but we’re sure the Duxbury people will be happy to help you. Just a caveat – we’ve had this note on the computer from some time ago:
Roger asked me to send you a description of the Notebook to Nemeth filter. It is a WinApp that inputs a .tex file as generated by Scientific Notebook and outputs a Nemeth ASCII Braille file. The output file can be edited using an ASCII file editor. (The contents are somewhat readable by ordinary folks ‑ generally Braille markup is fairly cryptic.) To generate tactile print, the output file is sent to an embosser.
I'm not sure that this software would be of much use in the UK. Nemeth is a US standard for Braille math. I doubt that many blind mathematicians outside of the US use Nemeth.
Is producing Braille a more widespread need in the UK than we thought? We love to help if so.

5. A mathematician?    The solution to the problem in our May 2017 mailing Item 9 was as follows:
 S E N D + M O R E --------------------------- M O N E Y

 9 5 6 7 + 1 0 8 5 --------------------------- 1 0 6 5 2
Congratulations to Tony who was the first to submit a correct answer – and bagged the fastest time of 30 minutes. (He also pointed out that we'd rather assumed from the context that M was non-zero!)
Anyone less able than Tony (or who just had more work to do that day!) – let us know if you'd like the proof.

6. LaTeX isn't for everyone...    but it could be for you. (Obviously only if using a WYSIWYG interface!)
We rather like Andy's Laws of using Microsoft Word:
1. Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the importance of a document
2. Likelihood of a crash is inversely proportional to the time left before its deadline
3. Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the duration since you last saved
4. Likelihood of you throwing your computer out of the window is directly proportional to the number of times Clippy pops up
5. That's enough laws for now...

Of course, your Scientific Word/WorkPlace installation continually saves an automatic backup as at the previous time you saved your document – so even a crash won't mean the loss of your document.

More news and tips coming up in the Autumn months to fine tune your Scientific Word/WorkPlace expertise!
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This software is way too good to keep to yourself! Why not tell your colleagues and co-authors...