Free version of Scientific Word 6.1 for Windows

A version of Scientific Word is available for FREE

Scientific Word is going open source, and a compiled version for Windows is available now. It does not require any activation.

The source code is not yet on GitHub, since traces of non-public source are still being removed. However, a copy of the executable for Windows, version 6.1.2, is now posted on https://github.com/ScientificWord/sciword. The instructions for installing it on Windows are:

  1. Install MiKTeX and the MiKTeX console. These require Windows 8 or later.
  2. Download the SciWord.zip file available here.
  3. Unzip the file. The contents are:
    • A directory, SW, which contains the executable code for Scientific Word and the associated files.
    • A directory, texmf-local, which contains various files needed to typeset some documents created by Scientific Word and WorkPlace, versions 5.5 and earlier.
    • These notes.
  4. Copy the SW directory to C:\Program Files (x86).
  5. Install MiKTeX if it is already installed.
  6. If you expect to edit documents created by versions 5.5 and earlier, then
    • Copy the texmf-local directory to your user directory (C:\Users\your login name>), or some other location you prefer.
    • Start the MiKTeX console and select whether you want to run in Administrator or User mode. User mode should be sufficient unless you put the texmf-local directory in a location that requires administrator permissions.
    • Click on 'Settings' in the sidebar on the left, and on the 'Directories' tab.
    • Click on the '+' button in the toolbar just above the 'Path' window.
    • Browse the file picker to select the 'texmf-local' folder you moved in the first step of this section.
    • Once that is done, click on the Tasks menu bar item, and select "Refresh file name database"
The executable file is sw.exe, which you should find at C:\Program Files (x86)\SW\sw.exe.

The version 6 documentation is free, as always, here.

There currently are no plans to post the Mac version, since it still is restricted to older version of MacOS which support 32-bit programs.

Direct any problems, comments, or suggestions to freesciword@mackichan.com.