June 2023 mailing – Scientific Word Ltd.

Getting Started: Someone trying out the free 30-day demo of Scientific Word Emailed us:

I’ve discovered your software through a YouTube video and I thought it was really great, faster than typing on LateX. Though, I haven’t really had enough time to test it for now…

We responded:

You may find these ‘Learning Scientific Word’ instructions helpful, depending whether you are trying version 5.5 or version 6 (see Help – About):

Version 5.5: https://www.sciword.co.uk/SWeasystart55.htm

Version 6: https://www.sciword.co.uk/SWeasystart60.htm

Those links will probably be useful to anyone trying Scientific Word v5.5 or v6 to produce their professionally typeset documents. The equivalent pages for getting started with Scientific WorkPlace are at:

Version 5.5: https://www.sciword.co.uk/SWPeasystart55.htm

Version 6: https://www.sciword.co.uk/SWPeasystart60.htm

You will also find our 12321 mailing Item 4 (v5.5) and March 2023 mailing Item 4 (v6) helpful.

Bibliographies: When a user asks for help with their bibliographies, we need to clarify firstly whether they're using v5.5 or v6, and secondly:

Which of the two forms of bibliography:

Manual, and

Automatically generated from BibTeX

are you familiar with / have you been using?

Someone Emailed in January saying:

Happy new year,
I am a beginner user of Scientific Word, could you please help me about how to reference a scientific publication through this package

to which we replied:

Please see our May 2017 mailing Item 4 for some guidance on creating automatically-generated bibliographies from a BibTeX database.

We cover bibliographies for citing (referring to) scientific publications in Section 6 of our Training Course videos; please see the list of topics here. We will temporarily give you complimentary access to Section 6-1.ManualBibliography (manually-generated bibliographies), which we have made available at https://www.sciword.co.uk/temp/6-1.ManualBibliography.mp4 .

The videos of our full £4000 Two Day Training Course v5.5 are available to buy: please see the promo sampler on our Training page (watch in HD for best results) – and the v5.5 video course costs just £197 + VAT per person, with Educational discount to £147 + VAT.

Do please see the May 2017 mailing Item 4 referred to, and read the BibT_eX page linked there.

Google Drive: Another version 5.5 user Emailed from the southern hemisphere:

I am currently working with other colleagues and thought that it might be a good idea to share all our material on Google Drive. I checked <snip> on my laptop and it worked. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on the Google Drive

with the compiler giving the error message:

cd G:/My Drive/[folder]/ <snip>
! I can't find file 'G:/My'.

We said our:

...initial reaction is that I wouldn’t be confident of Scientific WorkPlace working with OneDrive or Google drive anyway: see, for example, our November 2021 mailing Item 2 (that’s about version 6, but the principle is the same) and November 2018 mailing Item 2. But it’s worth trying to see if it can be made to work.
As you indicate, the first reason it would fail is the space in “My Drive”: LaTeX does not handle spaces well (indeed, it’s only in recent versions of Scientific WorkPlace, probably v5.0, that Scientific WorkPlace enabled file names to have spaces in them). Is it possible to rename “My Drive” to “MyDrive”?

Renaming the Google Drive was not possible for the user (Error 0x80070522: A required privilege is not held by the client), and we ended up saying:

If you have an alternative way forward (as you do: send a wrap file to your colleague) then you’re probably best to take it. Pages such as this one indicate you’re better not to tinker with Error 0x80070522.
If you still want to pursue the Google Drive method then you should consult your IT Support team (though even if you succeed in renaming “My Drive” to “MyDrive” we can’t guarantee that the subdocument would work).

We were sorry not to be able to get the department up and running with Google Drive.

Line numbering: using the lineno package; we covered the basics of this in our November 2010 mailing Item 5.

A version 5.0 user asked us recently:

I wanted to add line numbers and used the default
\linenumbers
it worked, for text only, as it says in the manual.
I then followed the manual to include the numbering of math lines by using
\usepackage[mathlines]{linenomath}
this could not be compiled
Any comments are most welcome.

When compiling, the user was getting the error message:

! LaTeX Error: File 'linenomath.sty' not found

and we said:

To the best of my knowledge there is no linenomath package (no file called linenomath.sty) and that’s why the compiler chokes when you ask for it in your list of Packages. Rather, linenomath is an environment of the lineno package (lineno.sty) which you’re already using.

The user subsequently noted that:

In the pdf files, the numbering is quite erratic, some math lines are numbered, some are not, some ordinary text is not numbered.
Why is it that in the pdf files not ALL lines have a number.

and we replied:

To see why not all the lines are numbered, open the document you first sent (linenumbertest1.tex) and turn View – Invisibles ON. Compare it with the PDF and you will see that, simply using the command \linenumbers as you did, only those lines which end in a Carriage Return are numbered

which elicited a grateful reply:

Thank you very much for that splendid explanation. It resolved my questions about the line numbering. Today, I practiced and I feel good about the final version...

Fortunately, the increased capabilities of version 5.5, including a later version of the lineno package, makes it simpler now: please see the sample documents below.

Both show the document with the lineno package added (Typeset – Options and Packages – Package Options – Add – lineno) and the command \linenumbers included in the Typeset – Preamble
For the Package Options – lineno – Modify, the first (tex, pdf) has specified only the Left/right number position – Left; in the second (tex, pdf) we have also chosen Math numbering in linenomath – Yes in order to number the displayed maths as well.

Note that the package can be set to number either every line or every 5 lines, from Package Options – lineno – Modify – Lines to number.

Lambdabar: A couple of months ago a v5.5 user in America, taking advantage of the 12 months' complimentary Individual Annual Maintenance, Emailed to ask:

I can't get lambdabar to function in typesetting. I worked through a series of steps from a LinkedIn article titled Using REVTeX on Windows, and I got stuck on step 10 or 11.
Is there a way that most people use to get that font? Or a work-around?

We replied:

Here are two ways to create a lambdabar symbol:

See lambdabarA.tex using the ulem package to strikethrough a lambda in a TeX Field. See the online Help – Search – strikethroughs – strikethroughs – adding strikethroughs and underlines [PDF here]

See lambdabarB.tex using the revsymb package and the TeX Field $\lambdabar$ ; if you don’t Encapsulate the TeX Field then next time you load the document Scientific Word interprets the LaTeX and shows the character. This is documented at https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/96479/how-can-i-type-lambda-bar (about [a little over] half way down the page). [PDF here]

To add a package to a document, click on Typeset – Options and Packages – Package Options – Add.

It’s worth spending time learning to use the power of Scientific WorkPlace v5.5: see the recommendations for the best ways to do so in our 12321 mailing Item 4.

Trouble with PDFs: A fairly recent user said:

I have a version of Scientific Word 5.5, and mostly love it. However, there is one "little" issue.

During the time I had a 30 day trial copy of Scientific Word, I was having trouble generating PDF versions of the completed documents. You gave me some good guidance on how to fix that.

Since I purchased the license, I had not tried any new PDF output, until today.
I seem to be having the same problem as before, and I can't find your instructions on how to fix such things.

Can you guide me once again?

We replied:

Can you confirm you have about 12 lines (more than 2) saying “Available” at Help – System Features?

We don’t have a record of responding to a Tech support request from you about generating PDFs; but all the relevant information is contained in our:

April 2020 mailing Item 8

November 2021 mailing Item 8: this is probably the issue, caused by a Windows update

May 2022 mailing Item 7

The first point to determine is whether Scientific Word v5.5 is generating the PDF but not showing it in Acrobat; or not generating the PDF at all:

Does the compiler run OK when you click on Typeset – Preview PDF, or does it give you an error message?

Is there a PDF in c:\sw55\docs\ with the same name as your document .tex file?

We didn't hear back from him, so we assume the solution was to be found in the links above (probably No.2).

v6 import filter: From time to time we hear of users who struggle to open L^aT_eX files with Scientific Word/WorkPlace v6:

I opened a file in version 6 and saved it by Export to TEX File. Then I tried to open it using Import TEX and I got the same error note. Maybe this is a problem with my installation? How can I check that version 6 can open TEX files?

We responded:

The v6.0 Import filter is not totally robust: please see our February 2017 mailing (Item 5) final paragraph – although the import filter is not currently being developed further – the Leap Year’s Day 2020 mailing Item 4, and April 2020 mailing Item 4. So in principle it should work perfectly but in practice it may well not do; this arises from the fact that the v6 file format is not .tex but .sci.

We’re happy to test a particular v6 computation here on a v6 installation if you would like to send us a .sci file with instructions what you are trying to do.

This is why we ask prospective users to try the free 30-day demo for at least 14 days before we sell them a licence: it's always best to make sure you're fully satisfied with the software before you part with any money!
And if your main purpose is to produce L^aT_eX output, you might well be happier with version 5.5: please see our August 2022 mailing Item 3.

v6 style files: One of our University licence administrators (using v5.5) recently contacted us saying:

I have tried to install SWP 6 (free version) on my laptop to test. Although I copied texmf-local directory to your user directory as per your guidance https://www.mackichan.com/techtalk/v60/FreeSW.htm

I still cant open SWP 5.5 edited documents.

Also when I test templates many of them give errors. Is that normal for 6.1?

For example running template “American Economic Review” pdf print preview gives the following error even though MikTex is installed and needs no further updates form:
! LaTeX Error: File `sw55aer.sty' not found.

! Emergency stop.
<read *>

*** (cannot \read from terminal in nonstop modes)
Any help is much appreciated. Thank you

Everything we know about the ‘free’ version is in our November 2021 mailing Item 9. We said:

We haven’t tried the ‘free’ version at all – we don’t even know whether it works.

Why not install the free 30-day demo of Scientific WorkPlace v6.1 from our download page, carefully installing according to the v6 installation instructions? At Step 3A(iv), installing Full Scheme would avoid the possibility of particular .sty files not being found (the error message).

But even with the full version, the transition from v5.5 to v6 is not entirely smooth – see our Leap Year’s Day 2020 mailing Item 4; you import a v5.5 document into v6 using File – Import TeX rather than using File – Open.

So there are two separate possible problems:

Not having all the style files (packages) you need: the solution for this is to install the Full Scheme at Step 3A(iv) of the v6 installation instructions
Converting v5.5 .tex files to v6 .sci files (as in Item 7 above).

The University's immediate requirement was for students to be able to open a file that their supervisors had written in SWP 5.5.

For a one-off need, they'd be best to use the free 30-day demo of the same version as the supervisor (SWP v5.5)
For an ongoing requirement, they would really want to buy their own permanent licence, for which we offer generous Student discounts; pricing for this is shown on our Licence Calculator.