January 2009

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

 

1. New pricing for 2009:    We're wanting to give you notice of our 2009 prices, showing some substantial increases brought about by the declining value of our UK pound sterling against the dollar. Unfortunately we also have to reserve the right to increase prices again if the pound continues to fall; we apologise in advance for the inconvenience and difficulty this will cause for our users.
   Our new price list is now available at https://www.sciword.co.uk/ordering.htm . We invite our regular customers - and those currently trying out the free 30-day demo - to buy at 2008 prices on the Licence Calculator08 for the rest of January (ie. until the end of next week), after which it will be taken down. The new prices shown on the link above will shortly be implemented on the regular Licence Calculator .



2. Buy Licence-only:    In order to offset the new prices as far as possible, we will be enabling the purchase of Scientific Word, WorkPlace and Notebook systems "licence-only". This means you will be able to choose to receive only the distribution CD, with the serial numbers supplied by Email, instead of the usual boxed system with manuals. The documentation is, in any case, available in PDF format in the \manuals folder of the CD.
   When buying multiple systems you could, for example, buy 1 boxed system and the rest licence-only, saving £30 per system for Scientific WorkPlace, £20 for Scientific Word and £15 for Scientific Notebook across all Commercial/Educational/Student pricing and whether new systems or upgrades - and you'd also save the Carriage charge of £10 per system. The choice is yours: boxed systems, or licence-only.



3. Master/Subdocuments and graphics:    One of our long-time users wrote:

       "I am writing a book which has many chapters, so I have a master document with each chapter a separate .tex document. Some of the chapters contain graphics in the form of .wmf or .bmp files, and some of the chapters contain tables and figures. Some of the tables and figures are too large to fit across the page, so they have to be rotated.
   When I compile individual sub-documents to DVI (when possible) or to .pdf everything is fine. Unfortunately because I have tables that have to be rotated I have to compile the master document to pdf. Unfortunately when I do this the graphics no longer display: a blank space is left in the .pdf file where the graphic should appear (the caption appears normally). *But* this happens only when I try to compile the master document. When I compile a sub-document by itself to .pdf the graphic appears as expected.
   Have failed to correctly set a setting in the master document or could there be some other fault?"

   and we responded:

   Good to hear from you again. Have a read at https://www.mackichan.com/index.html?techtalk/613.htm~mainFrame .
   We like to think that one good turn deserves another. Could we ask you to refer us to half a dozen of your friends and fellow academics around the world by clicking the link below, so that they too can benefit from a free 30-day trial of our software? Hope that's not too much to ask... Thanks a lot.
   

   He replied a little later, pleased that it had worked - and the link is still available for those of you who are interested in the details. We were very glad to help one of our users going back to the 1990s.



4. Forms on our website:    Some problems with our Internet Service Provider meant that orders and questions submitted from our website Licence Calculator and other pages have not been arriving with us since Christmas (despite a message you would receive on the website saying the form had been delivered!). Our Email service was not affected, and we're glad to say the forms are now working again. If you placed an order from the Licence Calculator after Christmas, please re-send it; if in doubt, feel free to reply to this Email to double check first. We look forward to hearing from you.