Valentine's Day 2025 mailing – Scientific Word Ltd.

Mouse wheel: Way back in 2014, a professor at one of our London sites reported a problem using Scientific Word v5.5 with his mouse:

The scroll wheel on my mouse does not work in Scientific Word (it works in all other programs). What shall I do to make it working?

We tried the obvious things: the age of the computer, the version of Windows etc. before asking him to:

...go into Start – [Control Panel] – Devices and Printers and right-click on the mouse... click on Mouse setting – wheel and change the Vertical Scrolling setting, for example to One screen at a time. Does this make any change in Scientific Word?
<snip>
There’s just a slight possibility the problem may go away after you’ve rebooted and installed any automatic Windows updates. Or has the problem persisted through several reboots already?

but to no avail. Finally we said:

Presumably it’s a USB plug-in mouse. It is possible to try it with a colleague’s computer to see if it works with Scientific Word there? These are general suggestions, because this is not a known problem.

Eventually he replied:

It is very embarrassing but the problem was in the mouse itself. I changed the mouse and it is working now.
Many, many thanks for your attempts to solve the problem.

If you've waded through the details above, you'll understand why, when a professor at an American university reported the same symptoms a few months ago:

One that is really annoying is that the cursor does not respond to the mouse wheel. Is there a way to fix this so that it parallels how other programs respond?

we were pretty robust in insisting it would be the mouse needing replacing, saying:

Is your mouse working correctly with other programs? The mouse wheel is supposed to scroll as normal in Scientific Word/WorkPlace v5.5: I’ve just tried it on a couple of machines to make absolutely sure. The last (only other) time someone reported that, in 2014, it turned out to be the mouse!

But we were wrong. A little later he reported:

OK. Found the problem. In Settings, Mouse, needed to set "Roll the mouse wheel to scroll multiple lines".

And when we hazarded a guess that:

...in that case, the mouse wasn’t scrolling with other programs either – or was it?

he assured us it had been. That's one we got very wrong!

v5.5 backup: A user who is relatively new on our database – currently enjoying the introductory 12 months' complimentary Tech Support – wrote:

I thought I was finally in business, so I re-established SW5.5 on my home computer. following your instructions. Then wrote an important paragraph to start a paper. I looked for a place to save it, and all the save options were turned off. Why? Then I was told the viewer version doesn't permit saving.
<snip>
I gather I've lost my important paragraph on <snip>. Is there anyway at your end to recover it? I didn't think to make a hard copy.

We replied:

First: there will be a backup file of the previous time you saved your document at c:\sw55\docs\[Name].bak. Make a copy of this with a different name because it will be overwritten next time you save the document.

Second: did you follow through to Register your licence? If you did, then

Help – System Features will have about a dozen lines saying "Available" , and

You will be able to save documents with File – Save, or Ctrl–S.

If you didn't, then you should Register now from Help – Register – Web option. See the screenshot at https://www.sciword.co.uk/images/v5-5Register1.png.

but had to tell him that:

If you had not in fact succeeded in Registering then there will probably be no backup file *.bak in c:\sw55\docs\ .
We do not have access to the work on your computer.

Whether you consider that last point a good thing or a bad thing will, I suppose, depend on the relative weight you attach to convenience/security vs privacy. But your only protection is to keep multiple backups.
Of everything.

Previewing slides: A user with our Individual Annual Maintenance 'insurance' against occasionally needing Tech Support was having a problem producing slides. He wrote:

The issue I have is that Scientific Word 5.5 is not previewing Slides files. It used to do it before.

to which we responded:

The issue you describe could be related to your Scientific Word installation, or to the document/s in question.

Please send us a sample document that refuses to preview

Are you trying to use Typeset – Preview, or Typeset – PreviewPDF? Please see our 22222 mailing Item 6.

which resolved the initial issue. The substantive point then was:

How can eliminate the Date in the attached slides beamer file?

This is one of those questions that you wouldn't guess unless you happened to know it:

A little counter-intuitively, the way to remove the date is to add the Date field to the Typeset – Front Matter (having first popped out of the Author Field with the green arrow, or with F2). Adding in the Date field says “I will manually take responsibility for the date” – and then leaving it blank. <snip>
This is covered in Module 5-3 of the Training Course videos we sent you; it’s only 5 minutes long. The topics of the Course are listed here.

which solved the problem.

Surd in denominator: A Scientific WorkPlace user asked:

In this below matrix multiplication what can I do to make the overall scaling factor displayed as ¹⁄_(√2) instead of ¹⁄₂√2

We said we didn't think this was possible:

...since standard form is not to leave a surd in the denominator. You can test this by starting simply with ¹⁄_(√2): any Computation function such as Evaluate, Simplify or Factor will re-write it as ¹⁄₂√2 and so, of course, that is what happens in a larger matrix computation.

Our final recommendation was:

I would leave the MuPAD engine to write the output in the standard notation if I were you.

Exceptionally, if you wanted to have $\sqrt{2}$ in the denominator, you could start by doing a global Replace of $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ by Z. Then after doing your computation, replace Z by $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$.

When you have a professional tool like Scientific Word/WorkPlace handling the layout and appearance of your document, we think it's better to leave it to do its job in the way it knows is best.

Installation issues: Here are various issues relating to the Installation of Scientific Word/WorkPlace v5.5:

'Migrating': A user in Europe said:

I happened to "migrate" my entire Windows system to a fresh new pc. This means that instead of re-installing one-by-one every application on the new machine, a migration process transfers at once operating system (Win11) + windows registry + all applications and data. Very powerful process.
However, what happens with Scientific Workplace is that on the new machine our application "notices" that it is working on a different pc, yet it still considers that it has a valid authorization. So, it keeps working properly, but occasionally it asks to confirm/refresh the authorization. It also kind of "hesitates" before compilation, but after a while it proceeds successfully. So, I can survive with this, but if you can tell me a solution I would appreciate.

A key info is that I already tried to uninstall / re-install the application. Yet, both uninstall and re-install stop about at 90% of their way, probably because they "notice" the anomaly. In the end, there is not obvious solution.

The user uninstalled and then re-installed Scientific WorkPlace (both in Safe mode), and we logged on to his machine remotely using Quick Assist (see our December 2024 mailing Item 4). Between us we got Scientific WorkPlace to behave correctly in most respects; but it would not respond to double-clicking a .tex file in File Explorer to open SWP.
We had the user install Scientific Word, and that would correctly respond to double-clicking a .tex file; but not the migrated Scientific WorkPlace. Rather lamely we could only conclude that:

...the process of transferring [SWP] from your previous machine must have corrupted something. .

We recommend performing a fresh installation on any new machine (see 5B below).

Correct re-installation: Someone else wrote:

I purchased a license a while ago, but after I updated my computer, I cannot install it. So any help would be appreciated.

We gave a comprehensive reply:
1. To decide which version of Scientific WorkPlace to run, please see our August 2022 mailing Item 3
2. It is better not to be exchanging documents between v5.5 and v6: see our Leap Year's Day 2020 mailing Item 4
3. To install Scientific WorkPlace v5.5 on Windows, please precisely follow our v5.5 installation instructions . For the v5.5 installation checklist, please see our January 2024 mailing Item 8
4. To install Scientific WorkPlace v6 on Windows, please precisely follow our v6 installation instructions pp1-3
5. You can install Scientific WorkPlace v6 on a Mac up to OS 10.14 Mojave following the v6 installation instructions pp4-6
6. For information about running on a Mac on a later OS, please see our August 2022 mailing Item 4 and April 2024 mailing Item 6.
If you are going to install v5.5 and v6 on the same Windows machine, be sure to install and Register v5.5 before installing and Activating v6: the licence server is not happy issuing a v5.5 licence for a machine which has already Activated v6.
And the user replied:

Thanks a lot for your help, Christopher. I successfully activated swp on my new PC.

Need to Register: Another user wrote:

I have a problem with the save icon

We replied:

We’re sorry that you’ve had problems with Saving documents. Did you “Register” according to Steps 4 – 8 of the v5.5 installation instructions? Step 4 says:
NOTE: If you do not Register you will only have the non-functioning Viewer version.

While another user said:

...the serial number <snip> does not get accepted by the system.
<snip>
And so, I'm getting this message "Viewer Version does not allow saving files..."

We said:

When you say “the serial number does not get accepted by the system”, what do you mean? Please send us a screenshot.
It is normal for the installation to say “the version number in your serial number does not match the installed system”: see the v5.5 installation instructions Step 6.

Dictionary installation: Another European user wrote:

I am not able to install [SWP v5.5] in a new PC with Windows 11. I also had the english dictionaire.

We responded:

Your problem is almost certainly that documented in our February 2014 mailing Item 2.

He followed up saying:

I managed to install it. There is still one problem though: I am not able to install the dictionaires. It keeps telling me that I need to "elevate" something. Possibly, this is because the dictionaires came with version 4.0, and later I could also use them with version 5.5. Is there any way to overcome this?

to which we replied:

In Scientific WorkPlace – Help – System Features, does the Dictionary line at the bottom say "Licensed but not Installed"?

If so, you need to install the dictionary by following the v5.5 installation instructions Steps 9 – 12.
The point about 'elevated permission' is that you need to do this as Administrator by following the instructions to right-click – Run as Administrator (Steps 9 and 12).

\includegraphics: A fairly new user Emailed during our Holiday Closure period in December, saying:

A few months ago, my company purchased a permanent SWP license from you. I find myself now with an issue compiling latex files. Basically, my latex code contains an \includegraphics with a JPG file that is in the same directory as the .tex document. However, when I compile from SWP, an error occurs : !pdfTeX error : pdflatex.exe (file image.jpg): cannot find image file -> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong? Many thanks.

We said:

I'm assuming you're using Scientific WorkPlace version 5.5.

The solution to your problem is probably to be found in our February 2011 mailing Item 3 and November 2010 mailing Item 2: ignore reference to the fancyhdr package, which is for putting a logo in the header.

To add the graphicx package to your document, click on Typeset – Options & Packages – Package Options – Add – graphicx.

We trust this gets you up and running; perhaps you'll be kind enough to let us know.

We didn't hear back, so we assume that solved the problem!

.sty files: Someone trying Scientific WorkPlace Emailed us with a screenshot of the LaTeX compiler paused at:

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

and asking:

A quick question Dr, where does .sty files are stored in your package, as it is complaining .sty files are missing when I compile with my real project.

We answered:

For the location of style files (.sty files; also known as packages) please see our July 2011 mailing Item 3 (second part): they go in C:\swp55\TCITeX\TeX\LaTeX\contrib\[classname]\ .

Maths in red: After more than 30 years of working with Scientific Word/WorkPlace, here's a question we were recently asked for the first time:

Why is it that when writing maths, the font is red and there does not seem to be a way of choosing another colour?
<snip>
...the on-screen text appears in red font, not the PDF. I am using version 5.5 in Windows.

We replied:

Short answer: Tag – Appearance – Tags – Body Text – Math – Modify – Math Properties Specified – Math color – [dropdown] select the colour you want (including black, if you wish) – OK – OK. This gives you a temporary change; if you want it to be permanent then after the first ‘OK’ click on Save. Warning: this will overwrite this setting for all documents.

For a thorough understanding of Tags, please see our May 2021 mailing Item 4.

The Help function (Help – Search – Math/Text – Math/Text) has several short pieces about the differences between maths and text; once you're familiar with the differences it makes sense to be able to distinguish them easily on screen.

Valentine's Day:

Roses are #FF0000
When written in hex;
And maths looks quite different
When written in T_eX. 🤦🤦

Happy Valentine's Day $\sum_{n=1}^{9}n^{3}$ !
(If the L^aT_eX above doesn't make much sense to you, try copying it into Scientific Word/WorkPlace's Insert – Typeset Object – TeX Field, then closing and re-opening the document. And with Scientific WorkPlace you can then do the computation from Compute – Evaluate...)