Midsummer's Day 2020

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

1. Just a reminder...    of the Special Offers announced in our 30th Anniversary mailing to celebrate our longevity! Only one week still remaining for the opportunities below – valid for all Commercial and Educational Orders placed during June 2020:
   
   
   1. For anybody on our mailing list: Buy Scientific Word/WorkPlace and you will also receive free access to our v5.5 Training Course videos (for your own use)
   2. For our existing Scientific Word/WorkPlace users: Buy a copy of Scientific Word/WorkPlace for a colleague and both of you will receive free access to our v5.5 Training Course videos, together with Section 2 of our v6.0 Training Course videos
   3. For sites with multiple-user licensing (Floating or Fixed) without Annual Maintenance: Upgrade to the Annual Maintenance scheme – obtaining all these Annual Maintenance benefits together with past copies of our Annual-Maintenance-only mailings – for a first year's payment of 10% (usually only available at the time of initial purchase or upgrade)... and also receive a complimentary Scientific Word/WorkPlace live Two-Day Training Course to be taken at any time in the 12 months following the end of lockdown
   4. For Annual Maintenance sites with multiple-user licensing (Floating or Fixed):
      • Add additional users to your licensing and receive the first year's Annual Maintenance on those additional users free of charge; or
      • Upgrade to Campus-wide licensing and receive the entire first year's Annual Maintenance free of charge... together with a complimentary Scientific Word/WorkPlace live Two-Day Training Course to be taken at any time in the 12 months following the end of lockdown
   5. For Annual Maintenance sites with Campus-wide licensing: Arrange for some Scientific Word/WorkPlace live Two-Day Training Course/s to be taken at any time in the 12 months following the end of lockdown and receive two-for-one (up to 6 courses for the price of 3)
   6. For Support Contracts: Enjoy unlimited two-for-one on our Scientific Word/WorkPlace live One-Day and Two-Day Training Courses to be taken at any time in the 12 months following the end of lockdown.
   
   Any questions? Please Email us here to check details and pricing. Offers only valid during June 2020...




2. Where's the icon?    A user from nearly 25 years ago (version 2.5) had taken on board the importance of following the installation instructions carefully. Having recently bought Scientific WorkPlace v6.0, he Emailed with reference to Step 6:

   I understand that installing v6 and v5.5 both need “Run as Administrator”. I did that with Version 6, and it produced no error messages. But I cannot locate the programme on my computer

   It's a good point. We replied:

   To locate Scientific WorkPlace v6.0 (we’re assuming you’re using Windows 10): if there is not a SWP6.0 program icon already on the desktop, click on Start and scroll down the alphabetical list of programs. Click on Scientific WorkPlace to open the dropdown, and you will see SWP6.0... <snip>
   Why not right-click and pin to the Start menu so as to find it more easily again next time? (And from there you can drag it to the desktop, if you wish.)

   which seemed to do the trick.




3. Import Non-SWP/SW LaTeX:    One of the most frustrating things is importing into Scientific Word/WorkPlace v5.5 a L^aT_eX document created outside Scientific Word/WorkPlace and using external typesetting specifications. There's a technical note about it here, with similar information available from Scientific Word/WorkPlace's online Help – Search – typesetting – typesetting specifications – typesetting specifications from outside sources. But it's non-trivial.
   
   We had an enquiry recently from the IT Support of one of our Annual Maintenance sites who had made a very creditable, though unsuccessful, attempt to help a user bringing in a L^aT_eX file created in Texmaker. His Email had the [filename].tex and [classname].cls files attached.
   As we said, this is non-trivial at the best of times. All the more so on this occasion as it threw up a b*g in the 2009 import filter which had never been found before! Our reply wades through grubby details – but it will help any of you who find yourselves in a similar position:

   Firstly, let’s not get confused between the additional files required for the:
   

   • Typesetting specifications (class file .cls, class options .clo and packages [previously known as style files] .sty) these are all very important – Step One of https://www.mackichan.com/index.html?techtalk/421.htm, and
   • Onscreen appearance when editing the document (confusingly also called style files .cst) these are relatively unimportant – Step Five of https://www.mackichan.com/index.html?techtalk/421.htm

   
   You should proceed as follows (Note that Nos. 1, 2 & 4 are one-time only; No. 3 might need repeating every time the document is exchanged with a co-author using Texmaker):
   

   1. Put the class file [classname].cls in C:\swp55\TCITeX\TeX\LaTeX\contrib\[classname]\  (which folder you will need to create)
   2. Make a copy of the screen appearance file C:\swp55\Styles\article\article.cst and put it in C:\swp55\Styles\[classname]\  (which folder you will need to create) as C:\swp55\Styles\[classname]\article.cst. (This step is optional, as Scientific WorkPlace will easily use another .cst file if this file is not present)
   3. In Scientific WorkPlace, use File – Import Non-SWP/SW LaTeX to import the document [filename].tex; save it as [filename]-mod.tex (for example)

      Apologies, but: at this point there is an anomaly/bug, bearing in mind that L^aT_eX uses \ to denote a command. You will need to open the new file [filename]-mod.tex with WordPad, find the two lines

      \input C:
      \swp55\Test\[filename]-defs.tex  [or similar]

      halfway down the first page, and change to the single line

      \input C:/swp55/Test/[filename]-defs.tex  [or similar]

      MacKichan Software have commented:
      Looks like a bug in the input filter on how \def statements in a document preamble are handled. Probably not noticed before as \def is plain T_eX rather than L^aT_eX so not commonly used in the preamble of L^aT_eX documents.
      Changing the \def statements to \newcommand or \renewcommand as appropriate seems to get rid of the \input statement

   4. You can now open [filename]-mod.tex in Scientific WorkPlace. When compiling, we recommend you don’t just ‘Return’ past the information messages – note what they are telling you: the document requires multirow.sty, and threeparttable.sty. The co-author should have let the user have these packages along with [classname].cls; alternatively you could Google them and download them. But I’ll save you the effort; simply save these two .sty files (attached) in C:\swp55\TCITeX\TeX\LaTeX\contrib\[classname]\  along with [classname].cls.

   
   The document will now compile to produce the PDF attached...

   We drew attention to the fact that, as an Annual Maintenance site, they had complimentary access to the videos of our v5.5 Training Course and suggested the relevant topics they would particularly benefit from watching.