October 2012

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

1. Licence server (again):    We referred last time (Item 1) to a problem with MacKichan's licence server. Although we announced that the new licence server was up and running, there is one residual issue for our several campus wide Site Licences in obtaining their standalone licences for Staff home use. In the meantime, the workaround is to register those home use licences by Email, rather than by the automated web server.
   We have Emailed MacKichan Software with a full list of our campus wide sites eligible for the British English dictionary, and so when you request (by Email) a licence for your home use serial number, MacKichan Software should automatically pick that up and generate a licence file which correctly makes the dictionary available.
   So the only downside (we understand) is the inconvenience of using the Email rather than the Web licensing. But do please let us know if you’re having problems with this, in order that we can keep steering MacKichan Software in the right direction.



2. Plotting lines:    One of our Scientific WorkPlace users from 6 or 7 years back Emailed us saying:

   "I cannot find the instructions to plot a line parallel with the y axis within defined limits.
   i.e how do I plot a line from (0,3) to (0,5) for example??"

   In response we sent this sample document. Just download the file, open with Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Notebook, and enjoy playing! Of course, plotting points isn't limited to joining just two points: try adding further coordinate pairs to the matrix, and plot the line in the same way.



3. Multiply sign:    Someone trying out a free 30-day demo of Scientific Notebook asked us:

   I'm working from a instructors notes and typing them for a vision impaired person when I want to multiply what symbol do I use in SN? The equation below should read the square root of negative 36 equals the square root of negative 1 times 36 equals the square root of negative 1 times the square root of 36 equals i times 6 equals 6i
       √(-36)=√(-1x36)=(-1)x√(36)=ix6=6i"

   The multiply symbol is on the Symbol Cache (make sure it's showing with View – Toolbars – Symbol Cache). You can see the simple document we sent at https://www.sciword.co.uk/multiplysign.tex .



4. Chapters:    ...and an enquiry via our webpage at http://www.scientific-workplace.com:

   "How do I please make the sections in my document appear under a chapter?
   I tried using \chapter but for the introduction section I got something like 0.1 Introduction and no Chapter 1 appearing. Could you please help me. Thank you ever so much."

   We replied:

   "Thanks for your message. If you’re wanting to have chapters in your document, you should start with a shell that provides chapters – eg. File – New – Standard LaTeX – Standard LaTeX Report. You can then import your existing contents using File – Import Contents."

   There's no substitute for starting with the right Scientific Word or Scientific WorkPlace document in the first place. Why not review our May 2010 mailing Item 2, giving a link to the Gallery of Document Shells?



5. Competition results:     We offered a free v6.0 upgrade in our August mailing (Item 3) for your best story of fantastic service exceeding your expectations. While we intended this to be about other suppliers, we couldn't help feeling the warm glow of satisfaction when we read the following:

   "Here is my story. I originally wrote to you asking for advice about a difficulty with scientific workplace 5.0 with the Jordan form of what appeared to be a simple 3x3 matrix. Well apart from taking the matter up with the software developers once you had established it to be a bug and sending me a solution you, unbeknown to myself, had put my name into a Mid-Summer raffle. Imagine my surprise and joy to hear that I had won first prize, which was a copy of the latest Scientific Workplace 5.5. Now that takes some beating. I still respond with warm feelings on receiving your regular hints and tricks on the use of the software. Long may it continue."

   Thanks a lot – you win the version 6.0 upgrade! And they say lightning never strikes in the same place twice... Lucky Roger!



6. Multiple documents open?    One of our Educational sites with many Floating licences nevertheless had a concern if it was:

   "...correct that each instance opened by one user on a machine takes one license? <snip> I understood that one user on a machine may have several instances open, but that would take only one license."

   We couldn't understand why a user would need several instances of our software open, but on the understanding it might be to enable side-by-side comparisons of documents, we offered the following directions for how to have multiple windows open within our programs:

   "To show different documents open, simply click on Window – Tile Vertically, or Window – Tile Horizontally; as keystrokes, these would be Alt-W – T, or Alt-W – H respectively. The Window menu also allows the selection of any particular window.
       You might want to arrange some Training Courses to help your users get the best from Scientific WorkPlace..."

   Remember we gave notice last time (Item 4) of a significant increase in the cost of Training from the New Year, but promised that Courses booked and paid for in 2012 will qualify for 2012 pricing, even if Training is taken in 2013. Hurry, hurry...  ; - )



7. McAfee Registry Cleaner:    A user reported buying McAfee's Registry Power Cleaner, accepting most of their 'repair an error' suggestions "including unfortunately one about removing invalid fonts". As a result, several fonts installed by our software were removed. In such a situation you'll want to remember the Repair utility referred to in our July 2010 mailing available at https://www.sciword.co.uk/mailings/July2010.htm (Item 2). And for anyone about to try the same Registry Cleaner – forewarned is forearmed!