October 2022 mailing – Scientific Word Ltd.

64-bit SW/P on MacBook Pro 2020? If only. A prospective user Emailed us:

I have a MacBook Pro 2020 system is 64 bits and I want to get scientific work place application 64 bits

and also, for good measure:

je veux bien installer scientific workplace sur un Mac 64 bit. il y a t'il une solution pour mon cas

We gave a comprehensive answer. As a result, we hope it will prove useful to others too:

Thanks for your Email – good to hear from you. There are two current versions of Scientific WorkPlace: version 5.5 and version 6:

Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 runs on all versions of Windows; there is not a native Mac version

Scientific WorkPlace v6 runs on all versions of Windows; there is also a 32-bit Mac version (up to Mac OS 10.14 Mojave)

There is not a 64-bit Mac version of Scientific WorkPlace.

To run Scientific WorkPlace you will either need to use an emulator on your 64-bit MacBook Pro, or use a different computer (either a Windows machine, or a 32-bit Mac).

To run Scientific WorkPlace on a 64-bit Mac using an emulator, see our August 2022 mailing Item 4. This mailing item was actually written about running Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 (Windows only) on a Macbook Pro, but is equally true of running Scientific WorkPlace v6 (the Windows version) on the same Windows-emulator. You could also run the 32-bit Mac version of Scientific WorkPlace v6 using a Mac-emulator in the same way.

You can therefore choose whether to use:

Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 (Windows-version only)

Scientific WorkPlace v6 (Windows version)

Scientific WorkPlace v6 (32-bit Mac version)

These will all require an emulator to run on your 64-bit Macbook Pro.

If you have used Scientific WorkPlace before, we recommend using the version with which you are already familiar. If you have not used Scientific WorkPlace before then you may find our August 2022 mailing Item 3 helpful in choosing between v5.5 and v6.
You can try all the above versions of Scientific WorkPlace free of charge using our 30-day demo. We hope this is helpful and look forward to hearing from you.

Please do read the August 2022 mailing, and other pages linked there.

Blurry appearance: An Individual Annual Maintenance user running v5.5 wrote to say:

I received a new computer with intel iris xe graphics. The icons seem to be a bit blurry and also when I move the toolbars around, the cursor is not aligned with the toolbar. You will note that the definition of Scientific Workplace top left of the screen is somewhat more clearer than the rest.
Is there anything I can do in this regard? I am still able to work with SWP and I am really a fan. I just thought I might ask, maybe somebody else also experienced this.

We responded giving various possibilities:

This is not an issue we’ve come across before, but it seems likely to do with high screen resolution and/or hardware acceleration.
We suggest you try changing the DPI settings: right-click on c:\swp55\swp-pro.exe and choose Properties – Compatibility (see screenshot ).

Try changing the various Settings (eg. check “Disable full-screen optimisations”; “Run in 640x480 resolution”) to see if they make a difference. However we’ve never found much joy here.

Failing that, click “Change high DPI settings” and note the dialog comment “A program might look blurry if the DPI for your main display changes after you sign in to Windows etc”

For diagnosis purposes only: click “Open Advanced scaling setting” and turn off “Let Windows try to fix apps so they’re not blurry”. Remember to turn it on again afterwards.

If 1 works, then test unchecking the options “Use this setting to fix scaling problems…”; or (with it checked) test changing “I signed in to Windows” to “I open this program”.

Test unchecking “Override high DPI scaling behaviour”; or (with it checked) test changing the dropdown from “Application” to “System” or “System Enhanced”.

You will need to close and re-open Scientific WorkPlace to see the effect of any changes.

I’m afraid we can’t give any guarantees on this as we don’t properly understand what’s going on. Do please let us know the results of trying these various changes.

The user subsequently reported:

Thank you very much Christopher, it looks much better. Appreciate it.
When I used
3. Test unchecking “Override high DPI scaling behaviour”; or (with it checked) test changing the dropdown from “Application” to “System” or “System Enhanced”.
the definition is much better when I type in SWP. The letters aren't blurred anymore.

It's always going to be the case that, from time to time, new features on new computers will require some adjustments to the settings.

tcilatex.tex: A user with Scientific WorkPlace version 5.5 sent an Email with their .tex file, saying:

I try to send the attached manuscript but the journal sends me to correct the following:
./[DocumentName].tex47! LaTeX Error: File `tcilatex.tex' not found. l.47 \input{tcilatex} ^^M
Could you kindly help me ?

We responded that:

The Preamble of your .tex file (Typeset – Preamble) has the line:
\input{tcilatex}
And so the document needs the file tcilatex.tex in order to compile. In Scientific WorkPlace this file tcilatex.tex can be found in the C:\swp55\TCITeX\TeX\LaTeX\SWmacros\ folder; but the Journal does not have the file tcilatex.tex.

You have two options:

Send the Journal the file tcilatex.tex; this might be sufficient for them. Or

Save your document (.tex file) as a Portable LaTeX .tex file (before wrapping it or however else you submitted your document). The Portable LaTeX format incorporates the contents of tcilatex.tex into the document itself. This is documented in our February 2019 mailing Item 4, including a link to the relevant Training Course video which you should watch from 6m10s to the end.

following which the user invested in the v5.5 videos of our £4000 Two-Day Training Course, which was developed over 20 years of training people to use Scientific Word/WorkPlace through its different versions.
Please watch the promo video in 720HD and Full screen mode; the topics covered are listed here.

v5.5 freezes? Someone who's been on our mailing list for nearly 30 years got in touch:

I am a long time user of SW 5.5 and do not wish to move to SW 6 – for reasons of backward compatibility issues.
But on one of my PC’s, when I use SW 5.5 and try to use the “replace” word option, the program freezes. Any ideas? I have tried to uninstall and reinstall, but to no avail. I think the uninstall command does not erase all the files.

While pointing out that Technical support for version 5.5 ended in 2017 according to our May 2017 mailing Item 8, we nevertheless made the following comments:

Almost all issues with Scientific Word/WorkPlace v5.5 are related to not using right-click – Run as Administrator at Step 2 and Step 12 of the v5.5 installation instructions. Have you tried starting Scientific Word with right-click – Run as Administrator before trying to replace words?
This was documented in our December 2019 mailing Item 4 and December 2020 mailing Item 2.

Failing that, see the link at Step 2 of the v5.5 installation instructions:
Windows 10/11 users: for possible problems, please see here (Item 6)
Depending on the operating system of your computer, it may help to run in Windows 7 (or Windows 10) compatibility.

It might help to consider what is different about your computer with the problem. For example: Is it very old? Or running Windows 11? Or running Windows in an emulator? Did it give any error messages at installation? etc.

We hope these pointers are helpful to others too...

Beamer, subdocuments & ToC: Someone using Beamer with Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 asked us:

Is it possible in Beamer to work with subdocuments and also to create a table of contents. I would like to put all my class notes in a book format?

We replied:

Yes on both counts [see BeamerMaster.pdf].

To create a master document with subdocuments, follow the instructions in our November 2021 mailing Item 5. The only issue to be aware of is that when you create your FirstDocument.tex, your SecondDocument.tex, and also your MasterDocument.tex, you should start with a Beamer shell (eg. File – New – OtherDocuments – Slides-Beamer). <snip>

You include a Table of Contents in the Master document in the usual way: Typeset – Front Matter, and after MakeTitle press Carriage Return, F2 to pop out of Title, and then Select MakeTOC from the Item tag pop-up (the left hand end).

Before you can hope to have separate subdocuments compile as part of a master document, however, each subdocument must compile on its own. Once all your subdocuments compile individually without error, creating the master document is straight-forward following the instructions above.

Support Options: As noted in our June 2021 mailing Item 2 and January 2022 mailing Item 7, we are committed to supporting Scientific Word and Scientific WorkPlace until at least 2026.
The Support Options page includes the details of our increasingly popular Individual Annual Maintenance referred to in Item 2. If you're currently driving Scientific Word/WorkPlace with no such insurance, we recommend you sign-up now before you have a problem – there is a 30-day lead time before your 12-month Annual Maintenance cover becomes active.