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Document 41 Technical questions and answers archivesVersion: 2.5 - Scientific WorkPlace & Scientific Word
Revised 04/24/96: Q. Why don't all the fonts work when I install Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Word on my Windows 3.1 system? A. UPDATE: In our March 19 update, we said "Windows keeps track of a maximum of 150 fonts at any one time. Version 2.5 of Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word uses 120 fonts. If you install additional fonts or software that uses additional fonts, some fonts may be lost. To recover the SW fonts, reinstall them". It's been called to our attention that the number of TrueType fonts in a Windows 3.1 system is limited by three factors:
In our experience, however, many users have hit a limit at about 150 fonts and fonts added thereafter may be lost. To recover the SW fonts, reinstall them. You may also want to install a font management program.
Q. My Version 2.5 documents won't print on my PostScript printer. Help! A. Probably, your printer has insufficient memory or the Windows print driver settings for printer memory are not correct. Check the memory in the printer and the memory settings in the Windows print driver. If changing the Windows driver settings does not help, you may be able to fix the problem with one of the newer PostScript print drivers from the manufacturer. We have placed a new PostScript driver from Hewlett Packard on our ftp site. In our experience, this new driver manages memory much more efficiently than previous versions and solves most out-of-memory problems.
Q. Some characters print incorrectly when I try to print my SW version 2.5 documents on a PostScript printer or an HP LaserJet printer. What can I do about it?
A. The characters
If you experience these problems, use a replacement driver. The PostScript drivers developed by Adobe Systems can cure the PostScript problems, although some of our testers have reported that, on some printers, these drivers produce horizontal lines that are too thick. These drivers are available directly from Adobe Systems or from our ftp site.
Q. Why do some characters appear in blue when I preview my document? A. The internal Windows font selection scheme automatically switches to the Small fonts when character sizes fall below a certain threshold. When this happens, the TrueTeX previewer displays the characters in blue to alert you that the font that Windows chose is not the font requested. To fix the problem, choose Fonts from the Windows Control Panel and remove the Small fonts.
Q. Characters in the blackboard bold, calligraphic and slant fonts don't seem to be spaced properly on the screen. Will they print correctly? A. Yes. These fonts don't appear as nicely as we'd like in the SW window, but they do print correctly.
Q. Markers and footnotes in my section headings don't work properly. Is there anything I can do about it? A. Yes, there is. Certain public domain styles cannot handle markers, footnotes and \newline commands in section headings. The difficulties are caused by the TeX macros that deal with the generation of a table of contents, headers and footers. If you need to set markers for section headings, we recommend that you put section markers in the text immediately following the headings. If you need to insert a \newline command or a footnote, we recommend that you create a short version of the heading so the table of contents, headers and footers are created correctly.
Q. Why does SW version 2.5 ignores the Number of Points setting for my plots? A. Maple uses a default of 49 points in any given plot. However, due to Maple's adaptive plotting scheme, Maple may plot a larger number of points depending upon the plot expression.
Q. How can I get a Times Roman 12 pt font scheme for use in my document style? A. From time to time, we make new font schemes available. You can download them from out ftp site, install them in your SW directory, then select them in the SW Style Editor.
Revised 04/17/96 Q. I need to find information quickly. Do you have an index on your site? A. Yes, we do. Our Technical Index will help you find the information you need. The index contains answers to technical questions, error messages, and all other technical information available on this site.
Q. I'm trying to run version 2.5 of SW on my Windows 3.1 system. I've installed Win32s v.1.3, but things still aren't working right. What am I doing wrong? A. UPDATE: In our March 19 update we told you, "Probably nothing. Since the release of version 2.5, we've become aware of many problems with Win 32s installations. For example, some users find that SW installation takes an extremely long time or that the installation hangs up at a certain point. Other users have reported problems with the Help system, with the appearance of certain characters and with equation alignment. We think that many of these problems may be traceable to known problems with Win32s v.1.3. Unfortunately, we don't know when fixes and upgrades for Win32s v.1.3 will become available, if ever, especially given the presence of Windows 95 in the PC marketplace and the expectation that development efforts will be focused on this important new operating system. We have observed that some problems that occur under Win32s do not occur under Windows NT or Windows 95, both of which were designed to run 32-bit applications. Therefore, we feel that 32-bit operating systems such as these provide the best environment for running 32-bit applications such as Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word" Version 1.3c of Microsoft Win32s is now available, and we urge you to replace your version of Win32s with this new version.
Q. I can preview my document without a problem, but the printer prints only one or two pages, then it stops. What's happening? A. UPDATE: In our March 19 update, we told you that the driver for your printer is probably sending all the TrueType fonts to the printer, instead of just those required to print your document. We suggested that you contact the printer manufacturer to get an upgrade for the printer driver, and we noted that if an upgrade isn't available, you can try sending the document to the printer a few pages at a time. You further noted that you might also consider purchasing more memory to your printer. A 300-dpi printer needs at least 4 MB; a 600-dpi printer needs at least 8 MB. Now we'd like to add this tip. Before you purchase additional memory, change the Windows setting for the printer's virtual memory to the amount of memory available in your printer for PostScript rendering. We've learned that this sometimes takes care of the problem of printing only a few pages.
Q. When I try to start my Version 2.0 Student Edition in a Win-OS2 window, I get this error: Win32s Error: VMPCD missing. Is this a configuration problem? A. This happens sometimes under the OS/2 Warp program. We suggest you update to the newest Win32s.
Q. In SW, can I create a numbered list that begins with the number 2? A. Yes, but you can't use the LaTeX commands \setcounter{enumi}{2} or \stepcounter{enumi}, as you might expect. See instructions for setting up the list numbering the way you want it.
Q. SW allows the choice of just four standard BiBTeX bibliography styles. Can I add others? A. Yes, you can add a new bibliography style to SW for use with BiBTeX.
Q. In Version 2.01 of SW, BiBTeX database files must be in the bibtex directory. Does my document file have to be in that directory, too? Is this still a restriction in Version 2.5? A. In SW Version 2.01, BiBTeX database files must be in the bibtex directory, but document files can be in a different directory. These restrictions have been removed in Version 2.5.
Q. Why can't I create a bold Greek character in my RevTeX style? A. Inadvertently, we used a construct in SW that is not supported in RevTeX. Here's a way to work around the problem.
Q. What is the relationship between Standard LaTeX Article and Style Editor Article Style? A. These two styles are listed under Article in the File New dialog box. The Standard LaTeX Article style uses the style file article.sty from the standard public domain LaTeX release. The Style Editor Article Style uses the Style Editor file seart.sty. The Style Editor style is a close approximation to the standard article style with the body text at 10 pt. However, it is set to use a Times Roman font scheme, rather than the Computer Modern Roman font scheme used by article.sty. Style Editor styles do not accept the point size options that the standard LaTeX styles accept (11 pt and 12 pt). To change the point size, you should use the Style Editor first to create a copy of the existing style, and then change the point size in the new copy. Although this is more effort, you have greater flexibility because you are not restricted to just 11 pt or 12 pt.
Q. I have Windows 95 and need to connect to my copy of Mathematica. What should I do? A. Mathematica's mathlink does not work with the local protocol under Win32s, Windows 95 or Windows NT. Instead, you must use the TCP/IP protocol or, if you use Windows 95, the file map (fmap) protocol, which is significantly faster than the TCP/IP protocol. If you have Windows 95, we strongly recommend that you use the fmap protocol to connect to Mathematica.
Q. Help! I'm suddenly getting a message saying ERROR: C DRIVE NOT AVAILABLE. Have I lost everything? A. Not at all. We suspect that there's a conflict on your system between two files, share.exe, which is installed by Windows, and vshare.386, which is installed by SW. SW installs vshare.386 in the system.ini file, but sometimes fails to determine whether share.exe is already in the autoexec.bat or the config.sys file. If the file is already there, the SW installation program doesn't remove it, so it's possible that you might have two share programs trying to run at the same time. You need to remove share.exe from your autoexec.bat and config.sys files, then reboot your computer. Q. I tried to install SW version 2.5 on my IBM ThinkPad, but the installation won't work. Why not A. IBM tells us that the BIOS on the IBM ThinkPad can run only 16-bit applications. Since SW is a 32-bit application, it won't work. However, IBM has available a BIOS update that will allow your ThinkPad to install and run a 32-bit application. Obtain and install the BIOS update, then install version 1.30c of Win32s (available from Microsoft), then reinstall SW. This worked well for a user with an IBM ThinkPad 755c.
Q. SW 2.5 is installed on my Win32s system. When I try to open the Help system, the buttons are transparent, the menus are see-through, and the window looks altogether strange. What's happening? A. Microsoft Win32s version 1.30b includes a help.dll file that affects the display of help systems in 32-bit applications like SW. The SW Help system will work correctly if you obtain and install Win32s version 1.30c
Revised 04/10/96: Q. When I preview or print an SW document on my NT system, the right letters don't appear. The system seems to be substituting one letter for another; for example, the letter c prints as d, the letter m prints as n, and so on. What's wrong? A. UPDATE: Service Pack Three, distributed with Windows NT 3.51, isn't compatible with some fonts. Previously we told you to replace the file winsrv.dll with either winsrv.dll from Service Pack Two or winsrv.dll from the original installation disks. Now, however, you can solve the problem two ways. The problem doesn't occur in Windows NT Workstation version 4.0. If you are planning to upgrade your NT system, you'll solve the problem when you install version 4.0. You can also solve the problem by replacing Service Pack Three with Service Pack Four, available from Microsoft.
Q. When I enter Greek subscripts in SW version 2.5, they appear properly on the screen but preview and print as full-size characters on the main line of text, rather than in the subscript position. How can I prevent this? A. The problem of improperly sized Greek subscripts has been corrected in the latest version of tcilatex.tex. To solve the problem, download the file from our ftp site and copy it to \swp25\tex\macros\tci\tcilatex.tex.
Q. In SW version 2.5, the bibliography feature seems to have been disabled for RevTeX styles. How can I create a bibliography for my RevTeX documents? A. Some settings were removed by mistake from the Document Information dialog box for RevTeX styles. We've developed a way for you to work around this RevTeX bibliography problem.
Q. Does the LaTeX Command \thechapter work in a Style Editor style? A. No, this command, which provides the number of the current chapter when the document is typeset, is used only by standard LaTeX styles. There is no command that's exactly equivalent for Style Editor styles. For example, in the Style Editor style called seart.sty, the appendix heading is typeset with this code: \HeadComponents{Appendix \appendixCount .\CurrentHeading } Although you could delve into the internals of the Style Editor to make changes to these macros, it's not necessary. The new Style Editor, which has been completely redesigned for version 2.5 of SW, provides very complete control over the typesetting of headings.
Q. I prefer to write in SW, but my publisher wants articles submitted in Microsoft Word. Can I convert my SW documents to Microsoft Word? A. Not directly or completely. Microsoft Word has a native file format. It also reads and writes a Microsoft file standard called Rich Text Format (RTF), which is intended for exchange and conversion of files between Microsoft Word and other applications. SW includes a conversion from RTF to LaTeX, the format used for all SW files, that also converts equations created using the Word Equation Editor, but it doesn't include a direct conversion from LaTeX to RTF. However, a public-domain converter called latex2rtf is available in the CTAN archives. Our experiments indicate that it doesn't convert mathematics to the Word Equation Editor form. If your SW documents contain a significant amount of mathematics, the converter might not be as effective as you would want.
Q. What is the system registry? A. In Windows 95 and Windows NT, the system registry is a replacement for win.ini, system.ini and the .ini files for individual programs that were used in Windows 3.x. The installation programs and User Setup functions for many applications often work directly with the registry. The system registry is used on Windows 95 and Windows NT, but not on Windows 3.x. Where you used to edit .ini files using an ASCII editor or SYSEDIT, you now use REGEDT32 in Windows NT. SW doesn't use the system registry.
Q. My colleagues in Eastern and Western Europe are experiencing problems with fonts. For example, some of the characters in the Latin Extended-A set do not preview or print correctly, although they do appear correctly on the SW screen. Also, when documents are previewed, certain characters are wrong. Why is this a problem for my colleagues in Europe but not for me? A. The European and U.S. versions of Windows are slightly different, so some problems that occur in one setting don't occur in the other. If you use the Western European code page under Windows NT or Windows 95, and you specify a style that uses the Times Roman, Arial, or Courier TrueType fonts that are part of Windows, some of the characters in the Extended Latin panel don't preview correctly, just as you've experienced. We're working on this limitation and we hope to provide a solution as an upgrade to version 2.5. In the meantime, if you're using the Western European code page, we suggest that you create your SW documents with a style that uses the standard TeX fonts (not Times Roman, Arial, or Courier TrueType fonts). Then, you can successfully enter, and preview, all of the characters in the Western and Eastern European sets. If you're using a non-Western European version of Windows, font problems can occur because the operating system remaps certain TrueType character positions. That is, if you install SW's TrueType fonts on a Windows system that uses a code page different from 1252 (U.S. and Western Europe), the characters at certain positions are changed at the operating system level and probably at the rasterizer level. When SW and TrueTeX call for a particular character, they do so by asking for the glyph at a given position. Since Windows has changed the glyphs, you end up with the wrong one. This affects the TrueTeX system more than SW, although both are affected to some degree. The damage is intensified by the fact that TrueType fonts don't let you access characters in the positions 0--31. TeX uses these positions, so the solution is to place the characters in the font at positions above the ASCII range; that is, in the range of positions 128--255. It is, of course, precisely this range that Windows is changing. The result is that the font is effectively mangled. In any event, despite what you see in the SW screen or on the previewer, SW is actually creating a valid TeX file. If you use a dvi translator that doesn't use TrueType fonts (and is therefore immune to the Windows remapping of character positions), you'll get the results you expect. We're working on a solution to this problem that we hope to provide as an update to version 2.5. It involves using the Unicode subsystem that is a part of Windows 95 and Windows NT, so it will work only on those systems.
Q. I'm using a non-English version of Windows. When I preview my documents, certain characters are wrong. What's happening? A. There are several possible difficulties. If you're using a Western European version of Windows, you're probably creating documents with a Style Editor style that uses the Times Roman scheme. If you're using a non-Western European version of Windows, certain TrueType character positions that are remapped by the operating system. You may also be operating under Windows NT version 3.51 with Service Pack Three installed.
Q. I haven't used my version 2.01 installation of SW for a month or so, but now I can't print files that used to print just fine. This error appears on my screen: Unable to start initex32 &latex2e c:/sw20/docs/boston.tex (e.g.) Error Code 2 What does that mean? A. We think that you've installed another application that uses an older version of Win32s that doesn't work with our software. You can solve the problem two ways. Either uninstall and reinstall Win32s from your SW installation diskettes or use an ascii editor to modify your swp-pro.ini file in your sw20 directory.
Q. I installed SW, but the installation program failed to create a program group. What's happening? A. This seems to happen frequently on systems that are running Norton's desktop or some other replacement for the Windows Program Manager. Try turning off the replacement desktop before you install SW. If that fails, you can create the program group and the icons directly.
Q. The Blackboard Bold and Calligraphic fonts aren't working properly: the top 10% of the Blackboard Bold font and the top 80% of the Calligraphic font are missing on my screen! I'm using SW version 2.0 on my DX4, which has a Xing video card set at 256 colors and 1024 x 768 resolution. I've tried changing resolutions, reinstalling SW, and reinstalling fonts, but nothing seems to help. Can you explain what's happening? A. We don't have a Xing display card at MacKichan Software, Inc. However, since we don't see this problem with any of the cards we use (we use a wide range of cards that are standard in the U.S.), we have to assume that the problem is with the Windows drivers for the card, or with ROM-based software on the card itself. This has been our experience with other display card problems. The TrueTeXTrueType SW fonts were produced from the public domain fonts using a number of steps, ending with Fontographer for Windows, a widely used program. The fact that other fonts may working correctly indicates that the problem has to do with differences between the Fontographer-produced fonts and the fonts that come standard with Windows or are produced some other way. Since other cards do not have these problems, our conjecture is that either your card has been set up specially to handle those common fonts, or that the drivers are sensitive to some difference between the fonts supplied by Microsoft and those produced by Fontographer.
Q. What format does SW use internally? A. Keep in mind that there are two formats to consider. The first is the on-disk file format, which you can see by looking at a saved file with an ASCII editor. The second is the internal format, which you can see by looking at the contents of the clipboard after copying a selection. Current versions of SW use an internal format based loosely on LaTeX.
Q. Does SW store files in standard LaTeX? A. SW stores files in an internal format based on LaTeX, but it is not straight LaTeX, which in any event is hard to define, given the wide assortment of packages that change then syntax and meaning of LaTeX commands. Unlike many software applications, such as WordPerfect, our format is not proprietary. We don't control everything that occurs in each document. The advantage is that our users can use LaTeX directly if they want to do things that the software does not incorporate and their documents are much more portable. As our products develop, we're tending to move away from LaTeX as the internal format. We want to achieve greater flexibility in representing objects in a general form as we move toward accommodating other formats, including HTML.Our goal is to be able to output to many different forms. This goal is not without difficulty, however, Things that are representable in one language or system often aren't in others. We are working to come up with a more general intermediate form and a way to preserve information in the different systems. Since we go through a filtering process, there is no direct correspondence between our internal format and objects, and places in the output LaTeX file until we actually write out through the filter. In some cases, there continues to be no correspondence. For example, in REVTeX output, we sometimes have to insert comments containing the information we want to keep because a macro is not available to preserve that information. Other major difficulties have to do with the same things that give the filter problems now—definitions, redefinitions, switches, and the like. Internally, we work with complete objects. Things like switches go against this in that we have no way of representing them in such a world other than as gray buttons. You can find more information in the technical article Making SW 2.0 Emit 100% Standard LaTeX Articles.
Q. How does Windows set the maximum size for the swap file? A. The size of virtual memory is set by the system at boot time, based on several factors including RAM and free disk space. The system must be able to allocate enough space for the swap file on disk. By default, Windows allows the size of the swap file to be a maximum of four times larger than the available RAM. However, you can modify the swap file default factor in the system.ini file. Note that although modifying the default factor may allow you to run applications that you otherwise couldn't run, it may also slow things down noticeably.
Q. In SW, can I get a mathematical expression that is both bold and italicized? A. Yes, you can. If you insert a TeX field in your document, you can create bold, italicized math.
Q. I've just installed SW. When I print or preview, I get three cryptic lines ending with tex.pool truncated to tex.poo. SW freezes and I have to reboot. What's the matter? A. The installation procedure has probably failed to install Microsoft Win32s. See instructions on how to fix things.
Q. I need to show some programming code in my double-spaced SW document, so I'm using a body verbatim environment. How do I single-space the code? A. You can change the spacing in your document by inserting a TeX field.
Q. Why doesn't BibTeX operate correctly when SW version 2.5 is installed on a Windows NT or Windows 95 system? The citations appear as question marks, even if the bibliography file (.bbl) is created separately using bibtex.exe. A. One of the files used by BibTeX has a file name that's longer than eight characters. Check the name of the database file (.bib) and the BibTeX style file (.bst) for your document and make sure they are eight characters or under in length.
Q. When I use the Blackboard Bold or Calligraphic text tags, the only characters that are correct are the uppercase alphabetics. Why? A. The behavior you see is expected, although it's not desirable. Blackboard Bold and Calligraphic characters exist as uppercase letters only. They are part of the TeX and AMS-TeX symbol fonts. Thus, if you type uppercase letters in Blackboard Bold or Calligraphic, you'll get the characters you expect. However, if you type lowercase letters (which is possible because they haven't been blocked out), you probably won't get what you expect. Instead, you'll get symbols from within the symbol fonts that contain the letters you type. The possibly strange appearance of characters on the screen warns you of the problem. We have considered blocking out lowercase letters in these two symbol fonts, but we have chosen not to do so at this time, due to the disproportionately large programming change required.
Q. I'm trying to use BibTeX to create a bibliography. Whenever I try to insert a citation, I get a message saying that my bibliography file can't be found. What should I do now? A. This problem comes up when users install SW to run mostly from the CD/ROM drive. The solution is to make sure that the BibTeX directory points to the hard drive instead of the CD/ROM drive. You can change the drive by modifying the swp-pro. ini file or, in version 2.5, by opening the Files tab in the Tools/User Setup dialog box and changing the location of the BibTeX directory. Then you should be able to create your citations without difficulty.
Q. When I try to preview a file, I sometimes get this sequence of error messages: GROWSTUB An error has occurred in your application. If you choose Ignore.... If you choose Close....
APPLICATION ERROR GROWSTUB caused a General Protection Fault in module POINTER.DLL at 0001:0FB8 Contrary to the instructions on the screen, the Ignore button does nothing and the Close button causes the message to disappear so that previewing proceeds normally. What's happening? A. This sequence of errors is caused by a conflict between two Microsoft programs, Win32s and POINTER.EXE, which provides for enhanced mouse behavior and enlarged pointers when the mouse is moving. You can avoid this sequence. of errors if you disable POINTER.EXE by removing all references to it from your win.ini file or by installing an updated version of POINTER.DLL. The update is available as a self-extracting archive file called HD1061.EXE from Microsoft's ftp site. The update is also available by anonymous ftp from the MacKichan Software, Inc ftp site.
Q. I've assigned a function key to the Exercise item tag, but the assignment doesn't hold if I close and then reopen the document. Further, the yellow Exercise tag that used to appear next to the exercise is gone and the Exercise item tag is missing from the item tag list. What's happening? A. In SW 2.5, when you assign a function key to an environment such as Exercise, Remark or Example (shown in the list of item tags associated with your document style), the assignment doesn't hold unless the environment is defined in its own section of the .cst file. This is a known problem with SW version 2.5. It slipped past us, but now we know that you can fix it by modifying the .cst file associated with your document.
Revised 04/03/96 Q. I usually write in Spanish. Does version 2.5 support accents on the letter i? A. These accents on the letter i are supported in Times Roman in version 2.5: acute, grave, circumflex, and diaeresis. Other accents, such as tilde and bar, aren't supported in Times Roman, but they are available in Computer Modern.
Q. Scientific WorkPlace version 2.01 has problems with figures when the Babel package is used with a non-English language. Does the same problem exist in version 2.5? A. The Babel package changes the meaning of certain characters for certain non-English languages. For example, the double quote character (") is made active. Unfortunately, SWP 2.01 uses this character within its FRAME command, which is used to include graphics in a LaTeX file. The result is that graphics do not print in some cases and cross references do not work. Version 2.5 of SW solves this problem. In version 2.5, the definition of the FRAME macro has been changed so that, within this environment, the double quote (") character is restored to its standard meaning.
Q. Can I place accented characters in strings when I'm working in the new version 2.5 Style Editor? A. Yes. There are still a few places within the Style Editor where the character set is restricted, but these will be fixed in an interim update. We'll make that update available here. Please keep watching the site.
Q. Can I run SW for Windows under UNIX using WABI? A. Although WABI, or Windows Application Binary Interface, allows many applications to run in a UNIX environment, our users unfortunately haven't been able to run SW successfully with WABI. In particular, they report problems with high memory requirements and decreased performance.
Q. Why do I get the message CANNOT FIND SWP-SEE.DLL when I load SW? A. SW contains several files that contain bitmap images of different screen resolutions. One of these files is swp-see.dll. Apparently, SW can't find it. However, you can easily substitute another bitmap image file for swp-see.dll and SW will work just fine.
A. MacKichan Software, Inc. files are located at this address: ftp.tcisoft.com. We frequently place information on the site for users to download, and users can also use the site to send us files. Learn how to access the site.
Q. I've tried to install SW version 2.5 on my Windows 3.1 system, but the installation hangs up at 81%. What's going on? A. A problem in Win32s is responsible. Fortunately, it's been solved in Win32s v.1.3c. If you obtain and install v. 1.3c, make a few other changes, then try to reinstall SW, the installation should work just fine. Our How Do I . . . files contain complete instructions for replacing Win32s.
Q. When I try to start SW on my Windows 3.1 system, I get an error message that mentions DOS ERROR 21. What's that and what does it mean? A. This error indicates that there is a memory allocation problem. We've been trying to solve this one for a long time, and we've just learned that it's caused by a problem in Win32s. The new version of Win32s, version 1.3c, corrects the situation. If you replace Win32s, SW should work properly on your Windows 3.1 system.
Q. What is tcilatex? Do I have to use it? A. Tcilatex is a collection of latex macros written at TCI Software Research. These macros provide support for such features as
If you can create a standard LaTeX article, book, or report, and your document doesn't require the kind of support tcilatex provides, then you probably don't need to use tcilatex. Use an ASCII editor to comment out the command \input{tcilatex} at the beginning of your SW document file.
Q. Why can't I create Polish character documents in SW version 2.5? A. Using the Eastern European Windows code page, you can use SW to produce Polish character documents correctly and you can also choose the actual LaTeX source file encoding as well. The creation of Polish character documents works best in Windows NT, then in Windows 95, and finally in Windows 3.x with Win32s. Unfortunately, however, although the documents can be created correctly, they don't always print correctly with our TrueTeX compiler. The Eastern European code page remaps characters in the TrueType fonts, which causes a problem for the TrueTeX previewer. Also, when the document is previewed, some of the characters from the unicode Latin Extended-A set are not present in the Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New fonts. This has to do with the 8-bit character nature of current TeX systems. The public-domain compiler called emTeX will print the documents correctly. It uses bitmap fonts that are not accessible by and therefore not remapped by the Windows operating system. However, if you use the Western European code page under Windows NT or Windows 95, and you use a style that uses standard TeX fonts instead of Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier New, you should be able to enter and preview all the characters in the Western and Eastern European sets. And under all code pages, SW produces the correct LaTeX files and you see the right thing on your screen. We're currently working on a Unicode back end that fixes this problem. We'll announce it here as soon as it's available.
Q. I've just installed SW version 2.5 and I keep getting the following message: CANNOT OPEN FILE x:\swp25\tex\winsub.ini. What does this mean? A. Apparently, the installation program was unable to change this instance of x, the letter we use to designate an unknown drive, to the letter designating the drive on which you chose to install SW. You need to make a small change to the truetex.ini file, then things will work properly. Click here for instructions.
Revised 03/19/96 Q. Why does SW Version 2.5 require so much disk space? A. Version 2.5 of Scientific WorkPlace is about 46 MB in actual file size, about one and a half times larger than Version 2.0. Version 2.5 of Scientific Word is about 36 MB in actual file size. Depending on the type of hard disk you have, you may need as much as 95 MB of disk space to store the software. Some large hard disks are formatted with 32-K sectors using the File Allocation Table (FAT) method. On disks of this type, each and every file is stored in a separate sector. SW includes many 2-to-4-K files. Because each is stored in a 32-K sector, large parts of the disk are left unused. For example, if you install a 2-K file in a 32-K sector, 30 K of disk space remains unused. On the other hand, on Windows NT systems using disks formatted with NTFS, the sector size is 512 bytes and minimal disk space goes unused. If space on your FAT drive is limited, you can perform a custom installation, eliminating those SW components you don't plan to use. Here are samples of SW files and the amount of space required on a FAT drive:
Note, however, that when you eliminate a feature from the installation, you diminish the capability of the software.
Q. Can I open a LaTeX file in SW even though the file wasn't created in SW? A. Some existing LaTeX documents can be opened directly by SW if they use standard LaTeX constructs. However, some constructs need modification with an ASCII editor before SW can open them. In general, if LaTeX has a construct that differs from Plain TeX, such as array vs. matrix, use the LaTeX construct if you want to open the file in SW. Statements of the form \newcommand and \def usually cause problems. SW expands these statements, which is generally not what you want. Refer to the Technical Reference (in the extras directory in SW) for more information about LaTeX files. If SW successfully reads, modifies, and saves a LaTeX document, it adds the command \input{tcilatex} to the preamble. In general, rather than opening the LaTeX file directly, it's safer to import the contents of the LaTeX file into an SW file. When you use the Import Contents command, SW tries to interpret the information in the imported file, and places any construct it doesn't understand in a TeX field.
Q. Why don't all the fonts work when I install Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Word on my Windows 3.1 system? A. Windows keeps track of a maximum of 150 fonts at any one time. Version 2.5 of Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word uses 120 fonts. If you install additional fonts or software that uses additional fonts, some fonts may be lost. To recover the SW fonts, reinstall them.
Q. I'm working between SW and LaTeX on a Sun workstation, but some of the commands aren't transferable. Is there a way to make this easier? A. You must make sure that the SW macro file tcilatex.tex is transferred along with the SW document. The best way to do this is to use the SW File Manager to wrap your SW document before transporting it to the Unix system. Wrapping the file creates an .msg file containing all necessary macros to compile an SW document. After the .msg file has been transported to the Unix system, it must be disassembled into the LaTeX system and all macro files must be placed in the appropriate macro directories. The .msg file is an ASCII file; it contains instructions for unpacking the file with an ASCII editor. Then you can compile the file correctly.
Q. I want to use my favorite LaTeX report style with my version 2.01 installation of SW. Can I incorporate it? A. Yes. First you have to put the LaTeX style file in the sw20\tex\macros directory, then use an ASCII editor to modify the report.lat file. See complete instructions.
Q. I'm running an older version of SW on my Windows 95 system. When I try to compile my documents, the compiler never seems to stop running and the LaTeX window never disappears. Why is this happening? A. Users who have version 2.0 and version 2.01 of SW running under Windows 95 have experienced problems compiling their documents. Apparently, Windows 95 does not provide proper interprocess communication to allow SW to know when the TrueTeX compiler has completed its work. The problem exists only with the 32-bit version of the compiler and not with the DOS extended version of TrueTeX. As far as we can tell, the problem is related to a part of Windows called toolhelp.dll. SW uses functions in the .dll to check the termination of the TrueTeX compiler. This process works correctly under Windows NT but not under Windows 95. Why? We're not sure. But we can suggest a way to work around the problem: install and use the DOS extended version of the TrueTeX compiler instead of the Windows version. Version 2.5 of SW uses a different mechanism to run the TrueTeX compiler, so it doesn't have the problem.
Q. What is Win32s? What does it do? Do I have to install it to run Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Word? A. Win32s is software that enables you to run 32-bit applications (like the Windows version of our LaTeX compiler) even if you have a 16-bit operating system such as Windows 3.1 or 3.11. If you want to use the Windows LaTeX compiler with our software on your 16-bit system, then you must install Win32s. If you have a 32-bit system (Windows NT or Windows 95), Win32s is not a factor for your SW installation.
Q. Why don't .eps graphics show on the screen? A. PostScript printers contain an internal interpreter that prints the graphics in .eps files. You can't see the actual Post Script image on the screen. However, some .eps graphics files have thumbnails, which are bitmapped images embedded within the PostScript file. The thumbnails (TIFF or WMF files) are displayed on the screen, but aren't sent to the printer. If you have SW version 2.01, you can see .eps thumbnails on the screen. If you have SW version 2.5, you can see PostScript files with a .ps file extension. If your .eps file doesn't have a thumbnail, you can change its extension to .ps; in some cases, you'll be able to see the image on the screen. But be careful: if you change the extension of an .eps file that does have a thumbnail, your system will crash when you try to display the graphic.
Q. I've just installed version 2.5 on my Windows 3.1 system. Why can't I save my files? A. The installation program was unable to install a new version of the commdlg.dll file. You can easily replace the .dll file with the new version.
Q. The default typesetting style isn't appropriate for my document. Can I change to a different style? A. Certainly. SW is provided with over 100 styles that produce all kinds of beautiful typeset-quality documents: books, articles, reports, letters, and many more. You can change the typesetting style easily.
Q. I need to double-space my version 2.01 document, but the style calls for single spacing. Do I have to change to a different style? A. No, you can insert a TeX command to double-space your document. But remember that Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word are provided with many document styles, including some that use double spacing. Look at the sample documents to see if one of these styles is more appropriate for your document than the single-spaced style you are currently using.
Q. What version of Maple does Scientific WorkPlace use? A. Scientific WorkPlace currently uses a special implementation of the Maple V.3 kernel. It is not full Maple. We plan to develop support for Maple V.4.
Q. I like the editable Cache Bar in version 2.01. Why can't I edit the Common Symbol toolbar in version 2.5? A. We liked it, too, and we hope to be able to reinstate it in future releases. However, several technical difficulties with the Microsoft foundation classes support in version 2.x of the Visual C++ compiler prevented the creation of an editable toolbar in version 2.5 of Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Word. Still, we hope you're aware that we've tried to make using symbols in version 2.5 easier than it was in version 2.01. In particular, you can leave the symbol panels open all the time, and you can let them float on your screen or dock them wherever you want them. You can show or hide any of the toolbars from the View menu. Revised 10/29/02, 11/19/02, 08/21/03 This document was created with Scientific WorkPlace. |
