PCTeX V6 Beta

Table of contents


How to install the beta version

  • In PCTeX6 enter Ctrl-Alt-Shift D
    • Hold down the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys and type D
  • In the Internal Debugging dialog enter update=beta and then click OK
  • Do Help..Updates..Check for updates now
    • This will load the current beta version
  • Note that if PCTeX6 is restarted and you do Help..Updates..Check for updates now, the release version will be reloaded over the top of the beta version. Also see the next section for another way to uninstall the beta version.

To uninstall the beta version

  • In PCTeX6 enter Ctrl-Alt-Shift D
    • Hold down the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys and type D
  • In the Internal Debugging dialog enter update only and then click OK
  • Do Help..Updates..Check for updates now
    • This will load the current release version

Release Notes

Release: Beta version dated December 26, 2012

26 December 2012 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update-2012-12-28.exe)

  • Further PDF viewer connection fixes, to work with Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 9 & 10

Release: Beta version dated March 3, 2012

3 March 2012 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update-2012-03-03.exe)

  • PDF viewer connection fixes, will work with Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 9 & 10

Release: Beta version dated November 16, 2011

  • Allow forward compatibility ptp files

Release: Beta version dated March 15, 2011

  • Faster package loading when working offline.
  • Fixed Packages..Uninstall button.
  • Fixed bug where NUL written into .log file by TeX gave erroneous messages
  • Fixed bug with TeXSpell default language, so that it can be changed and remembered
  • Fixed bug where ".log" file is added to project

Release: Beta version dated April 16, 2010

  • Eliminated font map warnings in typeset log
  • Fixed problem with displaying text colors
  • PCTeX will work better for non-Admin users in XP, Vista, Win 7
  • Fixed INITeX bug which gave a "bad path?" error
  • Updater will now fetch files from www.pctex.com --- should be much faster

Release: Beta version dated January 2, 2010

  • Changed to version "6.1"
  • Fixed ps: specials bug
  • Editor - Fixed right-click word selection bug
  • Fixed Insert Graphic --- will not ask to copy graphics file if it is in a subdirectory of project directory
  • "LaTeX source files more than ..." (n years old) will not abort INITeX
  • Added projects for LaTeX Quick Start (printed guide)


Release: Beta version dated June 5, 2009

  • Added a word count feature for DVI files --- use Tools..Word Count and see below for a description.
  • Added Insert Reference dialog to allow referring to a LaTeX label.
  • Added \ref{...} hotspot in editor to allow editing labels. Will work with \pageref, \autoref, and \xxxref (anything ending in "ref") as well.
  • Added Insert Cite dialog to allow referring to a bibliographical citation.
  • Added \cite{...} hotspot in editor to allow editing citation keys. Will work with \nocite, \xxxcite (anything ending in "cite") as well.
  • Fixed EPS figures display in DVI mode
  • Fixed minor bug in editor spell check

Word count for DVI files

With a DVI file showing in PCTeX, choose Tools..Word Count to get a rough word count. The word count is not completely accurate but is probably much better than word counts done from TeX source files.

The method used for this first version is simplistic:

  1. Words begin with a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and ligatures (fi, fl, ...), and continue until a word space is found.
  2. A word space is a horizontal or vertical movement that is larger than the usual character or line spacing for the current font. For example, in a 10 point font, a word space is a horizontal movement of more than 10/7 points or a vertical movement of greater than 10 points.
  3. If a hyphen occurs at the end of a line, any letters occurring on the following line are added to the word. The word will show up in the log file as "move-ment", for example.
  4. No provisions are made for math fonts or other specialized fonts.
  5. All characters are considered as if from a font with ASCII codes. Word characters have codes 65..90, 97..122, 48..57 (numbers), and 11..15 (ligatures).

To check what was counted, there is a log file that shows words counted for each page. If your DVI file is abc.dvi, the log file is called "abc.wcl". This file appears in the Workspace under "Other files".

Release: Beta version dated April 7, 2009


  • Fixed bugs where graphics files caused crashes, in DVI display and Insert graphics dialog
  • Will not overwrite wordlist with default dictionary if already migrated to new User Path directory
  • Allow tif, gif, png in DVI mode graphics
  • For graphics files, will prepend Figure or Input path from Settings..TeX Directories
  • Fixed editor to better underline misspelled words that occur after several spaces at the beginning of a line
  • Fixed Include Graphics dialog to allow graphics height and width down to 0.01 in

Release: Beta version dated January 4, 2008

  • Improved DVI viewer text quality
  • Font maps are regenerated each time PCTeX is started
  • The PCTeX Registration key now applies to all users of a machine
    • Before, each new user who logged on to a machine had to enter a code
  • A PDF file created from a DVI file is now added to the project and opened in the PDF viewer. This applies to PDF files created by pressing the PDF button in the DVI view or by choosing File..Export..PDF (from DVI and PostScript).
  • The Package installer will ask "Do you want to install that package?" if the Enable Internet Access check box in the Settings..Packages dialog is unchecked and then later checked again.

Release: Beta version dated October 2

  • Landscape orientation detected from DVI file
    • When opening a file in DVI mode, the page orientation (portrait or landscape) view will be automatically adjusted
    • The print orientation is also set automatically
  • Graphics inclusion will use Figure Files path
    • When including figures or graphics, the Figure Files path in Settings..Directories will be searched
  • Graphics Wizard will use different units, e.g. cm, pt, ...
    • The Graphics Wizard dialog will allow the use of different units when resizing the graphic image
  • Caption & Reference fields in Graphics Wizard are more TeX-friendly
    • The contents of these fields will be checked and adjusted so that there will not be errors when the document is typeset

Release: Beta install image dated June 30

  • This is a complete installation of PCTeX6 including the latest updates. It will use the TeX Live 2007 package archive, released February 2007. Testers, if you are willing, please convert to the TeX Live 2007 archive. Let us know if there are any package conflicts or problems with your existing documents.
  • To see which package archive you are currently using:
    • In PCTeX6 choose Settings..Packages
    • If there is an installed package latex-fonts you have TeX Live 2007, otherwise you have TeX Live 2005
  • If you have PCTeX6 installed with the TeX Live 2005 archive and want to use the later TeX Live 2007 package archive:
    • If you do not have MathTimeProfessional or Ludica fonts:
      • Uninstall PCTeX6
      • Delete all PCTeXv6 directories:
        • In Windows Explorer find the PCTeX6 installation path, by default C:\Program Files\PCTeX\PCTeXv6
        • Highlight the "PCTeXv6" directory name
        • Right-click and choose Delete
      • Download and install the June 30 installation image
    • If you DO have MathTimeProfessional or Ludica fonts:
      • Uninstall PCTeX6
      • Save off the MathTimePro and Lucida packages
        • In Windows Explorer find the PCTeX6 packages path, by default C:\Program Files\PCTeX\PCTeXv6\tpm
        • Select all files named mtp*.zip and luci*.zip
        • Copy them to another directory, for example C:\savefonts\
      • Delete all PCTeXv6 directories:
        • In Windows Explorer find the PCTeX6 installation path, by default C:\Program Files\PCTeX\PCTeXv6
        • Highlight the "PCTeXv6" directory name
        • Right-click and choose Delete
      • Download and install the June 30 installation image
      • Copy the MathTimePro and Lucida packages to PCTeX6
        • Find the saved packages, for example C:\savefonts\*.*
        • Copy these to the PCTeX6 packages path, by default C:\Program Files\PCTeX\PCTeXv6\tpm
        • In PCTeX choose Settings..Packages and Install all MathTimePro and Lucida packages

Release: Beta version dated June 15 2007 21:22

  • Updated package archives to the TeX Live 2007 set
    • The original PCTeX6 released in February 2007 used the TeX Live 2005 package archive
    • For those users who have this version, the archive will not change automatically to TeX Live 2007
    • Rationale: this avoids mixing packages from two archives, with some older packages and some newer. If a user wishes to update to the latest package archive it will be necessary to reinstall.
  • PCTeX will allow multi-language spell checking - over 20 dictionaries are available
  • Use Settings..Default Settings..TeXSpell to set the default language for spell checking
  • Use the Insert..Language wizard to set the spell check language for a document
  • Allows editing the custom dictionary for each language word list
  • Spell custom dictionaries were moved to ispell/ispell_<lang>.dic . For example, CUSTOM.DIC is moved to spell/ispell_american.dic
  • TeXSpell dialog titles show which dictionary is being used, e.g. "american"
  • On Insert..Language will add \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
  • PCTeX will now try to load missing package files either from the internet or from local archives
  • It uses a new strategy to load missing packages, and maintains a local database of packages
  • Added "Enable Net Access" checkbox to Packages dialog to inhibit accessing the internet archives if desired
  • Fixed bug: when reading files from the internet archive, will not hang if net access not available
  • Will find BoundingBox in eps files more successfully - previously eps files with large headers would not load into the Insert Graphic dialog
  • Will find LaTeX preamble more successfully
  • Fixed bug with spellcheck replace - will keep case of original word. For example, replace "Lod" with "load" gives "Load".
  • Fixed bug accessing Adobe Acrobat 8 as PDF reader
  • Fixed bug in source->DVI find - previously this was not consistent
  • Fixed bug with graphics inclusion file names - this was giving false bad file name warnings
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

Release: Beta version dated April 4 2007 18:01

  • Added Settings..Editor option to turn on/off auto-complete LaTeX commands
  • Added Settings..Editor option to turn on/off auto-spellcheck
  • Added full key/val options to Class/Pkg configure. Use the package geometry to test this.
  • Set Settings..TeX Fonts to always typeset Character Table in DVI mode
  • Fixed PDF mode logic to allow re-typesetting if references are unresolved
  • Removed restriction on PS->PDF conversion in PCTeX 6 Regular
  • Added TeX-friendly captions & references in Insert Graphics
    • Before, adding the file "graph_13.eps", for example, would provide the caption "Caption for graph_13". The "_" would cause a typesetting error. Now gives "Caption for graph\_13".
  • Fixed ctrl-] to do match brace (wasn't working)
  • Fixed miscellaneous bugs