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September 2008

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

 

    As the academic year starts again, we're circulating the following technical information to help you get the very best from your MacKichan Software program:

     

  1. Graphics:    We've had a few enquiries recently from people who have had difficulties with EPS graphics; this is as yet an unresolved issue but there are effective workarounds. One user wrote:
        "Hello, I have been using SWP fot a while and am having trouble with the conversion from postscript to pdf. When generating pdf's from eps graphics various lines in the pdf appear hugely wider than in the eps original, making the pdf document useless. I have not been able to find a fix to this problem, so any advice you can offer me would be greatly appreciated."
    and we responded:
    1. Do you have Acrobat Distiller, that would allow you to generate a PDF directly from the DVI Preview?
    2. Alternatively, if you are creating the graphic yourself, output it into a different format - Scientific WorkPlace accepts dozens of different formats.
    3. Or you could open the EPS graphic in some other program (eg. Word) and then copy it to the clipboard and import into Scientific WorkPlace using Edit - Paste Special. There's a slight loss of quality, but it's a workable solution if the two options above don't help.
    This last option is a particularly useful workaround, which many of our users could benefit from exploring.


  2. LaTeX:    From time to time we're asked about the relationship between Scientific Word or Scientific WorkPlace and LaTeX. Just this week someone asked how to convert an article written in SWP to LaTeX. We said:
        "Thanks for your question. The native file format of Scientific WorkPlace is already LaTeX; however it does sometimes require proprietary (though public domain) style files. To save it in a totally portable format, click on File - SaveAs - Files of type - Portable LaTeX; you can do this from the free 30-day demo."
    The resulting file is then in a format to be read by anyone (on any platform) with a LaTeX installation. For those wanting further information about LaTeX, please go to https://www.sciword.co.uk/LaTeXbrochure.pdf for a very interesting double-sided information sheet (544k).


  3. Pricing:    We promised last time not to increase our prices from the levels they have been at since 2004, until the beginning of October. Even with this week's significant falls in the pound against the dollar, we intend to keep our word! Current pricing is as on our Licence Calculator at www.sciword.co.uk/pricing.htm , showing that Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word and Scientific Notebook cost £660.00, £495.00 and £150.00 respectively, with 33% Educational discount (where appropriate) to £440.00, £330.00 and £100.00; to all prices please add Carriage and VAT. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

     That's all for now. Please remember that, as UK distributors since 1990, supplying only the MacKichan range of products, all systems come with our matchless technical support included free of charge. So why not forward this Email to your friends and fellow mathematicians and scientists around the world, or else click the link below so they can benefit from a free 30-day trial of our software? We'll never rent or sell their contact details to anyone else - please see our Anti-Spam policy at https://www.sciword.co.uk/antispam.htm .
    We only Email the Scientific Word family every couple of months. But as always, if you no longer wish to remain on our mailing list so as to receive information of updates and new developments, a simple Email or postal reply to this effect will suffice.

 

Cheers,

Christopher
--
Christopher Mabb, Scientific Word Ltd., UK
Tel: +44 (0)845 766 0340; Fax: +44 (0)845 603 9443
Email: christopher@sciword.co.uk
Web: https://www.sciword.co.uk