February 2017

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

1. Version 6.0.24:    The changes in v6.0.24 are:
   • Pressing Backspace inside expanding brackets now puts in and deletes input boxes correctly
   • Improved import of captions associated with graphics
   • Fixed a problem where certain deletions in a superscript resulted in invalid-markup
   • Fixed a problem where the Document Format dialog was not showing the selected TeX engine correctly
   • Fixed a problem where negative exponents in an expression were not being sent to the computational engine
   • Fixed a problem with cursor position when deleting numbers
   • Fixed a problem where input boxes were being added when not needed
   • Fixed a problem where exponents inside expanding brackets were not being sent to the computational engine
   • Changed document markup to use <imagecaption> instead of <caption> to avoid a conflict with xhtml constructs
   • Enabled captions above in tables
   • Fixed an import problem that caused a dialog containing "The file resource://app/res/shells/-Standard_LaTeX/Standard_LaTeX_Article.sci cannot be found" to appear
   • Avoided losing alignment points for certain multi-line displays



2. Version 6.0.23:    The changes in v6.0.23 are:
   • Fixed a problem where some font names were not getting initialized correctly when opening the Document Format dialog
   • Fixed a problem importing when the filecontents environment was used
   • Fixed a problem where expanding parentheses could become normal parentheses
   • Fixed a problem importing where the spacing environment from the setspace package was not handled properly
   • Fixed a problem where pressing the Tab key would clear the normal view window
   • Removed the Ok button from the "Run external installers" dialog during installation



3. Version 6.0.22:    The changes in v6.0.22 are:
   • When using OS X, changed method of running xelatex to eliminate use of Applescript
   • Added LuaLaTeX as a TeX implementation option in the Document Format dialog
   • Added alwaysraised to the dialog properties for some dialogs that tend to get hidden
   • Added a checkbox for using the Hyperref package in the Document Format dialog
   • Introduced a new tag (nbspace) to handle non-breaking spaces correctly
   • Added generating a \newline before displayed graphics and plots
   • Moving by drag and drop now works correctly, instead of only copying
   • Added Thai and Vietnamese to list of polyglossia languages
   • Fixed problems with columns, column separation, and landscape/portrait in the Document Format dialog
   • Fixed a problem where the plot intervals could not be changed
   • Fixed an invalid-markup problem when a radical is in a superscript position and the radicand and then the radical is deleted using Backspace
   • Fixed a problem adding certain new expressions to a plot
   • Corrected ordering problems when using copy/paste of math expressions inside expanding brackets



4. Master/subdocuments:    In a recent v6.0 Training Course a question arose about creating large documents as master documents and subdocuments to save processing time (ie. so you don't need to compile the whole book when you're just editing one of the chapters). To show how to do it, Barry MacKichan has produced this demonstration video.
       Note: you need to have first closed and re-opened the document before following these steps. Please see our sample book document booksubdocuments.sci, in which Chapter 2 and Appendix A have, as it were, been commented out (as described in the video): the headings remain, to ensure the numbering is correct, but the text is omitted. The PDF is here.



5. Still not upgraded?    One of our early users from 1993 was in touch last month with a confession:

   I hope I don't shock you, but I have not, so far
   upgraded to version 6. There never seemed to be time!
   (I also like 5.5.) Before I do upgrade, I was just wondering two things
   1) can existing swp documents (produced on
   version 5.5) be opened/edited without problems in
   version 6 or is some conversion necessary?
   2) can versions 5.5 and 6 both be installed and
   used on the same computer?

   These are good questions we expect anyone who's not yet made the switch to v6.0 might be asking. We replied:

   <snip> The answers are No and Yes.
   Yes, you can run both versions on the same computer – I have both versions of both Scientific Word and Scientific WorkPlace running on the same machine. But No, depending on the complexity of your v5.5 .tex documents, I can’t promise it will be without problem when opening in v6.0 (to open in v6.0, click on File – ImportTeX rather than File – Open). They are then saved in the v6.0 .sci format which is a container file; you can easily export the .tex file it contains using File – ExportTeX.
   But the benefits of the v6.0 New Features well outweigh any initial complications of upgrading.

   If you experience problems importing a v5.5 document into v6.0, do please let us have the .tex file and import error message, so that the developers can improve the import filter accordingly. And please don't forget (Item 7): v5.5 Tech. Support will be ending for standard users from the second anniversary of the release of v6.0 - ie. in June this year. (Hint: Be sure to get any outstanding v5.5 issues resolved now!)



6. Version 5.5 matrices:    A user in the UK found an 'anomaly' in the mature-and-polished v5.5 everyone thought was b*g-free. He wrote:

   According to "help", I am supposed to be able to set column alignment of matrices.
   Using "insert matrix " comand I can see the column alignment option, but it is inactive (pale colour) and can't be selected.

   Quite true! The online Help suggests it should be possible simply to align columns of matrices as you would with a table – but it doesn't behave like that in practice.
   If you're interested to read more, feel free to download our description of the problem and workaround here (the .tex file is here)...



7. Coming soon:    Everybody seems to be on Facebook these days; so we thought it was time to join in! There's not much to see right now – but in a few days' time, maybe you'll like our page...



8. English:    We came across this limerick in The Times recently, and again felt sorry for our many academic users around the world for whom English is not their first language...

   There was an old woman of Slough
   Who once had a terrible cough;
   She sounded quite rough
   But battled on through
   I'm sure she'll get over it though.

   If you don't live in the UK you wouldn't be expected to know... but the place name Slough – home to Mars, BlackBerry, McAfee, Computer Associates, PictureTel and Compusys and O2 – rhymes with how, now and cow.