Free Scientific Word

Scientific Word: Now Free for All Versions
We are excited to announce that all versions of Scientific Word, from 4.1 through 6.1, are now available for free!

Installing your free Scientific Word

Choose the version of Scientific Word from this table, and for version 5.5 or earlier, copy the corresponding serial number.

Version	Link to installation program	Serial number
6.1.2 for Windows	sw-6.1.2-windows-installer.exe
5.5 for Windows	sciword550.exe	315-E0600-26256-77424-61390
5.0 for Windows	sciword500b2570.exe	315-E0500-26151-70836-17486
6.1.2 for Mac*	sw-6.1.2-mac-release.tbz

* Be warned that the only Mac version is a 32-bit program and won't run on MacOS versions later than macOS Mojave 10.14..

Then

Click on the link in the row you've selected, and copy the serial number.
When the download is complete, execute the downloaded installation program. When it asks for your serial number, paste the one from the table. Proceed with the installation.
When the installation is complete, run Scientific Word and click on Help in the menu bar. Choose Register... (version 5.5 or earlier) or Activate... (version 6.1).
- For version 5.5 and before, choose By an automated web service and Next. In the activation dialog you can ignore almost everything. The three essential items, the computer ID, the serial number, and the product, are pre-filled. The dialog insists on something in the first name field, and all the other fields can be ignored. If you supply an email name, you will get an email about the result of the activation. It can be useful if there is an error in the activation process, but is otherwise not needed. Press' OK', accept the license agreement, and 'Register Now'. You should then receive notice that your license has been installed. The next time you start Scientific Word, it should have all capabilities activated. These can be seen by checking Menu/System Features on the menu bar (there should be many items rather than just three).
- For version 6, enter your email address if you want, and press OK. The other fields (including the serial number) are not needed and are in fact now ignored by the licensing server. Once you press 'OK' the program will contact the licensing server and install the received licensing. It is not necessary to restart the program. You are set to go.
The license is permanent, it will not expire. When you want to install the program on another computer, just repeat this process.

Documentation

All manuals for Scientific Word are available for download as PDF files.

Title	Download link
Version 6
Creating Documents with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word	Download
Getting Started	Download

Version 5.5
Creating Documents with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word	Download
Getting Started	Download
Typesetting Documents in Scientific Workplace and Scientific Word	Download

The additional manuals for Scientific Notebook and Scientific WorkPlace (not relevant for Scientific Word) are available here for current owners of those programs.

Title	Download
Doing Mathematics with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Notebook, version 5.5	Download
Doing Mathematics with Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Notebook, version 6	Download

Support

Scientific Word does not come with support. The email address support@mackichan.com still exists but no one is paid to respond to it. If you want to try it, you can but results are not guaranteed. Beyond that, you can try posting questions to sites such as stackoverflow.com, and searching such sites. Search also for Scientific WorkPlace, since the math editing there is identical to that of Scientific Word.
Support may be available for a charge at sites such as https://www.sciword.co.uk/support.html. Others interested in providing support can have their names added here by emailing licensemgr@mackichan.com.

About the licensing.mackichan.com site.

When you activate a Scientific Word license on your computer, that license will work indefinitely on that computer (or virtual machine). However, when you move your copy of Scientific Word to another computer, you will need to reactivate the program there. Thus it is important that the licensing server that does this (located at licensing.mackichan.com) continue running indefinitely. The following have been done to make sure that this happens for the foreseeable future.
1. The server runs on an Ubuntu instance in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.
2. The program is a node.js program running under the pm2 process manager so that it is restarted in the case of a crash or a reboot of the instance.
3. There is a backup of the program in the form of an Amazon AMI that contains the program and the essential data so that a new instance can be spun up in minutes. The source of the program is in a Git repository residing on a dormant machine in AWS.
4. The information and private key files necessary to modify the setup are documented and duplicated.
5. The SSL certificate necessary for the https protocol is from LetsEncrypt and auto-renews reliably.

The conditions necessary for this to continue are:
1. The AWS charges are continuing for the server instance, storage charges for backups, dormant instances, and IP connections, and need to be paid.
2. The domain mackichan.com needs to be renewed periodically, and the email address licensemgr@mackichan.com needs to have the privilege of sending email.
3. The DNS connection that connects the URL licensing.mackichan.com to the AWS instance needs to continue.
4. The data linked in the above tables (the programs and manuals) reside on Amazon, which is a recurring charge.
If you would like to contribute a modest amount to continue this infrastructure, and more importantly to continue it when I am no longer able to, you can contribute to Buy me a coffee.