Midsummer's Day 2026 mailing – Scientific Word Ltd.

Numbered paragraphs: A Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 user from Europe asked what we initially took to be a question about structuring sections and subsections:

I would like to number my paragraphs in the body text:

bla bla

more blab

more sub blab

more blab

We replied:

To structure your document with sections and subsections, we will give you access to Module 2-1 of our v5.5 Training Course: watch from the start to 3m20s.
If the problem is that the subparagraphs do not number correctly, please come back to us with a copy of your document (or short extract from your document showing the problem); we will send you the appropriate TeX command to add to the Typeset – Preamble.

It turned out that his requirements were a little different from that: he wanted paragraphs to be numbered externally in the margin. Very little is impossible, and we resolved it with an hour's Consultancy Time (for which we offer an introductory discount from £500/hour to £165/hour. We gave him 3 variations on the solution, demonstrated by ParaNumbering1 (small numbers), ParaNumbering2 (larger numbers) and ParaNumbering3 (larger numbers closer to the text).

We'll make the underlying Scientific WorkPlace .tex documents available (on request) to users on any of our paid Support options or Individual Annual Maintenance.

2030 and beyond: Here are three related support issues.

Ongoing support... We announced in our February 2026 mailing Item 1 that we're committed to providing our Unbeatable Expert Technical Support until at least 2030. One prospective user in the Philippines rather misinterpreted that, and wrote:

I was thinking of purchasing the Scientific Workplace software but, I saw somewhere in your website that you are going to stop supporting in 2030. I was wondering what will happen to the software after that?

We explained that it's:
...a rolling commitment: in a couple of years we’ll probably extend it to 2032 or 2033.

But that is not a guarantee. In the worst case:
1. By then you would probably be sufficiently competent to use Scientific Word/WorkPlace without any support
2. Failing everthing else, Scientific Word/WorkPlace saves its documents in .tex format, so you could continue working with your documents using any LaTeX installation.
We hope this is helpful. Why not try our free 30-day demo (3-step process: download + serial number + installation instructions)?
He replied saying:

Yes, I'd like to try the 30 days trial, please. <snip> incase that I am very satisfied with your product, I will purchase it. But for the meantime, do you have the subscription membership incase that my 30 days has expired?

and we said:

Please note that our earlier Email about Scientific Word/WorkPlace saving its documents in .tex format refers to version 5.5. For the differences between version 5.5 and version 6, please see our August 2022 mailing Item 3; we strongly recommend you use v5.5 unless you need the version 6 New Features.

Yes, after your 30-day trial has expired, we can always supply the low-cost Annual Subscription. Please let us know if/when you would like us to send you further information about how to set that up.

For further information about the low-cost Annual Subscription, please see Item 3 below.

...except for the 'free' version: Unfortunately there is no support provided with the free version of Scientific Word – see our November 2021 mailing Item 9(4). Someone Emailed us in March asking:

I have just got SW5.5 installed on my university laptop <snip> but it seems to have viewer functionality only. No matter how many times I register it via Help->Register->"by automated web service"->OK->OK->Register, the full functionality does not materialize. Each and every time the registration process is successful. But every time I open the software, it tells me that there is a licence verification error [Major error: -96. Minor error: 7. System error: 11001].
Could you please tell me what may be the reason, and how I can amend it.

The user had both a (free) serial number for the regular English version and also a (paid-for) serial number for the German version of Scientific Word v5.5 (see our April 2024 mailing Item 8). We wrote:
To answer your question:
1. 315-E0600-xxxxx-yyyyy-zzzzz: We don’t provide complimentary Tech Support for the ‘free’ version. [How could the economics of that work, for us to give away our 35-year experience of this family of software <snip> free of charge to support free software??]
2. 300-G0600-xxxxx-yyyyy-zzzzz: That’s a German version serial number, which requires the German .exe file; see our April 2024 mailing Item 8. You will see that the solution is to use your German version CD; we have the German version available on our Programs page for Scientific WorkPlace, but not for Scientific Word.
Please let us know that your old German version CD solves the problem. If not, do please come back to us – we have a couple of other possibilities available...
And another Scientific Word v5.5 user wrote:

I installed Sciword version 5.5 on my Windows 11 computer. Everything is working excellently, except the following:
The symbol panel for Greek characters etc. is completely missing.

We replied:

Please see our June 2021 mailing Item 2, and our August 2021 mailing Item 1 to read the Email we sent round to the people contacting us about MacKichan Software in July/August 2021. Do please let us have your Scientific Word paid-for serial number and contact details if you wish to go on our database and qualify for 12 months’ complimentary Tech Support (subject to our Fair Use Policy).
<snip>
PS. If you are using the free version of Scientific Word, we can still resolve your problem for you [as paid-for Technical Support]

Distance no object: Someone with our Individual Annual Maintenance Emailed us from another continent, writing:

Thank you very much for continuing support for Scientific WorkPlace products.
I seem to be having some difficulty downloading Scientifc WorkPlace 5.5 onto my desktop computer.
Do you have Scientific WorkPlace 5.5 on CDs, like Mackichan Software used to have, or, if not on CDs, on flash drives?
If so, could I order a few Scientific WorkPlace 5.5 CDs

Initially we tried to resolve the downloading problem, writing:
...let’s try to fix whatever the download issue is, possibly by:
1. Please try downloading from https://www.sciword.co.uk/scientificworkplace.htm#step1 (first option in the Version 5.5 section) or https://www.sciword.co.uk/download.htm#step1 (first SWP option in the Version 5.5 section).
2. Failing that, go to https://www.sciword.co.uk/programs and download the bottom option: swp-pro550.exe
3. Failing the above, we will offer to log on to your computer remotely to complete the download.
When all of that failed (together with Googling “Microsoft Edge not allowing downloads”), we reassured the user that meeting his requirements would not jeopardise other users, saying:
1. We located a further 10 (approx.) distributions CDs. We also have many backups on external drives and online storage
2. In any case, you are the first user in at least 10 years to request a physical CD, so we do not anticipate a problem.
We have now sent your small parcel of 3 CDs; you might have been notified by Email already. We trust this gets you up and running.
You have not been charged for this Support as you have 12-months’ Individual Annual Maintenance giving complimentary Tech Support until <snip>, subject to our Fair Use Policy. Do please let us know if you have any other questions. All the best.

Annual Subscription: You can read the details of the Scientific WorkPlace low-cost Annual Subscription, whether for v5.5 or v6, here. It's a great licensing option in a variety of circumstances:

The user would like to spread the cost of the software, rather than paying the full amount up front
The need for Scientific WorkPlace is probably only for a few months or a couple of years
etc.

There can be a slight pause when opening Scientific WorkPlace, while the program obtains a licence. One user wrote:

Working fine, so to speak. If there are any problems, I will get back to you.
The only issue is that the booting time is a bit longer compared to the trial version. In the trial version, the homepage would open within 2/3 seconds of clicking on the SWP icon. Now it is taking about 10-12 seconds.

We said:

The Scientific WorkPlace Annual Subscription obtains its licensing each time over the Internet; it will therefore load at a speed comparable with opening a web page, depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

The form of licensing installs without issue in almost all cases; the only real problem we've seen affects users in commerical banks behind a heavy-duty firewall preventing their computer reaching our server.
Apart from that, only one user has had difficulties, running Windows on a Mac with Parallels: for a reason we never found, his machine was not managing to reach our server for a licence. Then he wrote :

Well, interesting news. I was looking at borrowing a PC laptop from a friend, and then sales for lower level laptops as well, and had just installed Wireshark to ty examine what is happening on the network when I run SWP, and suddenly when I launched the program, it works.....
So, I am 'guessing' that SWP had a problem since I was still in the previous trial period? The only thing 'new' that is different when I tried launching SWP today with the new licence file, is that my trial period ended the other day.

We replied:

That's really good news. I'm slightly outside my area of expertise here, but my thoughts are:

I hope the success persists even after rebooting (I expect it will)

I really don't think it's about the 30-day trial. Once the licence file is moved out of c:\swp55\Licenses\ to the Desktop, SWP doesn't know it was on a 30-day trial; I checked that myself

My best guess is that installing Wireshark (which I don't know) reset some network parameters which were blocking SWP from dialling out. If I knew Parallels Desktop better, I might have known how to have you do that without Wireshark coincidentally doing it for you. But like I said, Parallels Desktop is not my area of expertise.

If you have not yet arranged licensing for Scientific WorkPlace, do consider the low-cost Annual Subscription...

TeXstudio: A prospective user wrote:

Scientific WorkPlace: I am contacting you regarding issues with the software.

The program does not open .tex files (created in TeXstudio) when using the "Import TeX" option.

The program is unable to export files to PDF.

We asked:

Which version of Scientific WorkPlace have you installed: v5.5 or v6?

Did you install and Register/Activate by precisely following the relevant installation instructions?

His screenshot in reply looked like version 6, so we checked:

Did you install and Activate by precisely following the relevant installation instructions at https://www.sciword.co.uk/pdfs/v6.0Installation.pdf? Specifically: did you first install TeXLive 2026 at Step 3A?

Please send us as an attachment your licence file license.lic located at C:/Users/[Name]/AppData/Roaming/SWP/Profiles/yvn6w78m.default/license.lic

Please also send us two (2) sample .tex files (created in TeXstudio) that you are trying to import.

and we confirmed that:

[...your source file chapter6.tex] opens correctly in Scientific WorkPlace version 6.

It failed to compile here because you did not send us the package chemfig.sty, which we do not have. As a result, the compiler exits with the message
! LaTeX Error: File `chemfig.sty' not found.
! Emergency stop.

There may well be other problems with your file: the TeX import filter in version 6 is not totally robust. We recommend that you either:

Use Scientific WorkPlace to write your document from the start (and we recommend version 5.5 rather than version 6); or

Use TeXstudio only.

The user then (sensibly) switched to version 5.5, but wrote:

I encountered an issue with exporting documents to PDF. The program appears to be running in Viewer mode, and the export option is not available.
Could you please advise:

Whether full PDF export requires activation of the software?

And if there is any recommended way to enable PDF export using MiKTeX or another LaTeX distribution?

and we replied that:

You can save documents and export to PDF from a full working system, whether a 30-day trial or a permanent licence; that means having about 12 lines saying ‘Available’ at Help – System Features. You cannot save or export to PDF from a Viewer version (2 lines saying ‘Available’ at Help – System Features). So Yes: full PDF export requires activation of the software.
For the avoidance of doubt, you do not Export to PDF from File – Export Document, but from Typeset – Preview PDF. We will temporarily give you access to Module 1-2:Toolbars-Checkout of our Training Course: watch from 5m05s to the end.

If you are a competent computer user you can configure Scientific WorkPlace to use MiKTeX as the compiler from Typeset – Expert Settings – PDF Format Settings – [dropdown] MiKTeX – Add/Modify, and then at Executable filename – Browse pointing it to your MiKTeX compiler (probably something like c:/Users/[Name]/AppData/Local/Programs/MiKTeX/miktex/bin/x64/pdflatex.exe). However, you still need to Activate your Scientific WorkPlace system in order to be able to save the document first.

Producing PDFs: A user with the 12-months’ complimentary Individual Annual Maintenance Emailed:

I have questions regarding the need for the Adobe Acrobat reader as mentioned in Item (1) of the 5.5 installation instructions for SWP Version 5.5.
First, I don't remember Adobe Acrobat Reader being essential when I downloaded SWP 5.5 onto my old computer. What is the purpose of including Adobe Acrobat Reader in the installation process?
Second, I do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader on my laptop. In lieu, I have PDF24 a free, open source suite of PDF tools, including the equivalent of the Acrobat reader. Will there be a compatibility issue if I use PDF24??

We replied:

When you double-click on a PDF from File – Explorer, does it open the PDF in PDF24? If so, you will probably be OK just to install Scientific WorkPlace and let it sort out the details.

If you subsequently have problems when you run Typeset – PreviewPDF in Scientific WorkPlace, please see:

Our Midsummer’s Day 2025 mailing Item 5 to distinguish between:

Scientific WorkPlace is creating the PDF in c:\swp55\docs but just not showing it to you; or whether

SWP is not succeeding in creating the PDF in c:\swp55\docs.

If:

It’s No.i above, then see our May 2022 mailing Item 7 and our December 2025 mailing Item 4

It’s No.ii, see our November 2021 mailing Item 8 (with its link to our November 2010 mailing Item 3).

But you probably won’t have any problem running Typeset – PreviewPDF.

And in due course he replied:

Success! It runs just as it did on my old computer.

German version (again): Please see our April 2024 mailing Item 8. An academic Emailed from Germany:

I'm user of scientific workplace for a long time. Now I got a new notebook and want to instal swp5.5 on the new computer. That is no problem, but the registration was not possible. Can you send me a license key for the serial number 403-G0600-xxxxx-yyyyy-zzzzz?

Our initial 'holding' response said:

We will respond more fully later. But to give you a prompt indication of the issue, please see our April 2024 mailing Item 8 at https://www.sciword.co.uk/mailings/April2024.htm#8 .

followed by:

Did you install (the English version) using swp-pro550.exe (95Mb), available from https://www.sciword.co.uk/download.htm#step1 or https://www.sciword.co.uk/programs?

Did you precisely follow the v5.5 installation instructions (specifically, using right-click – Run as Administrator where indicated at Steps 2, 9, and 12)?

If No, please re-do the installation accordingly

If Yes, please save the file license.lic (attached) in c:\swp55\Licenses\ over-writing any existing file c:\swp55\Licenses\license.lic . There should then be only 3 files in this folder: license.lic, packages.lic and viewer.lic.

Right-click the v5.5 program icon on the desktop and Run-as-Administrator. In Help – System Features, check you have a dozen or so lines saying ‘Available’ (Step 12 of the v5.5 installation instructions).

After a couple more Emails the user said:

Scientific Workplace is running now! I uninstalled Scientific Workplace and Scientific Word. Then I removed manually all SWP entries in the registry (all I could find). Then I installed Scientific Workplace 5.5 again and used not the typical but the manual installation. The registration by using the English serial number finished successfully.
Now I'm happy to use the software again. Thank you very much for your help.

Export of lecture notes: An academic contacted us from Canada, writing:

I have inherited a beautiful book of lecture notes made with Scientific Workplace by a retiring colleague, but since I mostly work online or on my iPad, I would like to have it converted in plain LaTeX. Is such a conversion possible and how much would it cost?

We like to help if we can! We replied:

Presumably you have these documents in electronic format? Yes, we can help you with various options:

If you have a copy of the Scientific WorkPlace program yourself, we can give you instructions for saving these Scientific WorkPlace documents as ‘Portable LaTeX’ – ie. standard LaTeX documents able to be opened by any LaTeX installation.

If you do not have Scientific WorkPlace, we could do this work for you. But our time is quite expensive:

£500/hour for Consultancy Time; reduced to

£300/hour for a 5-hour Support Package (total £1500)

Whether this is viable might depend on how many documents there are – and whether we would encounter any unusual difficulties. To help determine whether this would be useful, we would be willing to convert one such document free of charge.

Separately, if your retiring colleague has a now-redundant (unused) licence/serial number for Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 or v6 – or indeed, if the University has multiple redundant licences/serial numbers – we would be willing to buy them back from you. Please see our Buyback page.

We hope this is helpful and look forward to hearing from you. Tous mes voeux!

But we never heard any more...

MacOS Tahoe v26.4: We received a message via our website asking:

Scientific Notebook: Hi. May I know this Scientific software is up to date for Mac Tahor ver 26.4? Because I have tried to install it and it seems just not popping out for my Mac

to which we replied:

Scientific Word/WorkPlace/Notebook will run on Mac OS up to 10.14. For a full summary of the Mac position, please see our April 2025 mailing Item 8.
<snip>
This family of software is not being developed further, so we do not expect it will ever support MacOS Tahoe version 26.4 except by using an emulator to run Windows.

142857: We saw this online and thought it was interesting.
Unless you have any work you should be doing...