June 2009

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

 

1. Don't buy an Acer computer:    We advised you last time to avoid buying the Acer brand of computer, saying it would not work with Scientific Word, WorkPlace or Notebook. Our friends at MacKichan Software subsequently wrote:

   "The only thing that seems to be in common is that this problem is occurring on Acer computers. In looking at the system information files that have been submitted, I notice that Acer adds what it calls 'Acer Empowering Technology'.
   As a guess, you can try disabling or uninstalling the Acer Empowering Technology programs as they seem to be unique to Acer and would be a possible source of the conflict."

   We've since learned that this suggestion works, and are passing it on for any of you who were stuck with this problem.



2. Dots in Table of Contents:    If you've ever added MakeTOC to the Typeset - Front Matter of a document so as to generate a Table of Contents automatically, you'll know that the default appearance gives rows of dots lining up the section and subsections with their page numbers. In a recent Scientific Word Training Course we were asked if it were possible to remove the dots. To do this, simply add the line

   \makeatletter \renewcommand{\@dotsep}{10000} \makeatother

   to the Typeset - Preamble. Please open the sample tex file tableofcontents.tex , and select either Typeset - Preview or Typeset - PreviewPDF to see the typeset appearance.



3. JabRef instead of BibDB:    For many years we have supplied BibDB on the MacKichan distribution CD as a database utility for editing the BibTeX .bib files of bibliographic references (kept in the subfolders of \TCITeX\BibTeX\bib\ ). This has enabled you to create Scientific Word/WorkPlace bibliographies automatically, based on the citations you insert into your documents from the database(s).
       However, in Scientific Word/WorkPlace version 5.5 BibDB is no longer installed in the 'Typical' SW/SWP installation setup; BibDB is basically an old DOS utility updated for Windows, and has now been largely superseded by the public domain program JabRef. You can read about JabRef on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabref and find out more at the JabRef home page http://jabref.sourceforge.net/ ; to download JabRef (which we recommend), click on "Download latest stable version" (from the JabRef home page) and select JabRef-2.4.2-setup.exe.
       For information on using BibTeX bibliographies in your documents (citing the bibliographic information you've entered using JabRef), please go to our website at http://www.sciworddemon.co.uk/how.htm and select the BibTeX bibliographies link.



4. Free 1/2 hour typesetting consultation - for Annual Maintenance sites:    Er - that's it.
       From time to time we're approached by people who are not our customers, wanting to take advantage of our expert technical support. In referring them back to the dealer who sold the software to them, we nevertheless hold the option open to them, saying:

   "If you wish to consider the possibility of buying our expert Consultancy time, please go to https://www.sciword.co.uk/consult.htm for further details."

   But for those who are our most committed supporters and loyal friends, we'd like to give you a free 1/2 hour typesetting consultation, worth £75 + VAT. Just Email back with your Annual Maintenance serial number to set up the telephone consultation at our expense - as our way of saying Thank You.



5. We're not telepathic!    We like to pack these mailings with the technical tips and information that we think are the most useful for you. But - because we're not telepathic - we're quite prepared to admit we may not always hit the mark. So we welcome any feedback about our company generally, and these bimonthly Emails in particular: why not drop us a line with your comments on what has been most helpful - and what has not? Feel free to suggest other topics you'd like us to cover in future mailings.