Preparing PDF files with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word

The PDF format is a good format for presenting mathematical and technical content on the Internet because the Adobe Acrobat Viewer is nearly universally available, and the format allows software to include in the PDF document all the fonts that are necessary to render mathematics well. Further, the format supports hyperlinking and bookmarks.

Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word support pdfL^AT_EX

In Version 5.5 of Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word you can typeset your file with pdfL^AT_EX to produce a PDF file. You can still typeset with L^AT_EX to produce a DVI file. The Typeset menu has three additional items: Preview PDF, Print PDF, and Compile PDF.

When you use pdfL^AT_EX, you can also use several L^AT_EX packages that previously have not been supported by Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word because they require PostScript printers. These packages, including rotating and the PSNFSS font packages, can be used when you compile with pdfTeX. When the hyperref package is included in your document, the PDF file produced is fully hyperlinked with links in the table of contents and with hierarchical bookmarks that reflect the structure of your L^AT_EX document.

One problem with pdfL^AT_EX has been that it allows only a very few graphics file formats, so to get the benefits of producing a PDF file, you had to forego using most graphics file formats. Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word solve this problem by converting all the graphics embedded in your document to PDF format before calling pdfL^AT_EX.

In the past it was possible to produce PDF files from Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word by printing the DVI file using the Acrobat Distiller print driver. This method, however, does not preserve the hyperlinks in your L^AT_EX document. This is still the only method of producing PDF files with Scientific Notebook.

View a PDF white paper created using pdfL^AT_EX.
View the .tex file used to create the above file.