Introduction
Everything started out in 1997 when I did a Student Research Project at the University. At that time I was
using a WYSIWYG (what you see, is what you get) program which was very slow when switching between
pages, even though I had a fast computer at that time.
Also, that year I made an internship in a big German company. This company used Microsoft Visual C++.
Coming from Borland's Pascal, I became interested into learning C++.
A year before I used LaTeX in an University office where I had a student job, writing formulas and papers for some Assistant Professors. I never thought I would ever use LaTeX again.
As said, I bought myself a new and fast computer with Windows95 to write my paper but got stuck with the WYSIWYG program. At my dormitory there was a friend who wrote his Diploma Thesis with LaTeX, using emTeX under DOS. I gave it another try with LaTeX. At that time, there were a few editors available for Windows. Some free, some not, some bloated, some too simple and some to complicated for novice users.
Well, I still needed to write my Student Research Project, had a too slow WYSIWYG program, saw the benefits of LaTeX, but didn't find a suitable editor. Therefore, I combined all of this: Write a beautiful paper and learn C++. The idea of WinShell was born.
In the same year I also wrote my Diploma Thesis. I spent most of the time at the University in the labs. Other students became interested into my first WinShell application. It was the first editor which changed the keyboard strokes. Writing Umlaute (äüö) that time into a LaTeX document wasn't that easy as today. I gave WinShell to other students and friends.
In 1998 I became a PhD Student at the University, got a little web space on my account, set up the first internet page for WinShell and released the first version.
2008-12-15, WinShell 3.3 » back to top
The new major feature is the BibTeX front-end where BibTeX entries can easily be created and edited.
Also, there is a streamline of the original full toolbar and a pdfLaTeX optimized toolbar which can be choosen during installation.
WinShell 3.3 also supports SyncTeX and Sumatra PDF for forward/inverse search.
From this version on there is no more Win9x/NT support, but Linux support via wine.
The readme: Readme_33.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_33.txt
2008-01-22, WinShell's 10th anniversary » back to top
Since 10 year I am developing WinShell. I learned a lot in this time and made a lot of friendships with users all over the world.
I want to thank all the users of WinShell for their support, contributions, feedback and criticism.
As one can see, over the time WinShell keept its efficiency, its easiness and intuitive handling.
As for the future, I want to continue it like that.
best regards, Ingo
2007-07-29, WinShell 3.21 » back to top
WinShell is portable, e.g. use WinShell on an USB flash drive.
Supported languages: Brazilian-Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Mexican-Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The readme: Readme_321.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_321.txt
2007-06-07, WinShell 3.2 » back to top
The built-in spell checker is based on Hunspell. Also, high resolution toolbar and menu images are included.
The Output Window has an additional tab to have a comprehensive view on tasks, written in a TeX document.
Supported languages: Brazilian-Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Mexican-Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The readme: Readme_32.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_32.txt
2006-05-25, wsW2LTX 1.1 » back to top
Some updates for wsW2LTX 1.0.
2005-10-11, wsW2LTX 1.0 » back to top
The wsW2LTX library is an application programming interface (API) designed to translate a MS Word document to LaTeX. The library is based on libwv and on several other -- mostly Unix based -- libraries. It is independent from MS Word, meaning no MS Word has to be installed.
2005-05-25, WinShell 3.1 » back to top
A lot of redesign of the user interface is introduced, also UTF support, search in files and improvement or error findings.
The Output Window includes a tab for the output and the .log file. The output is scanned an displayed in an easy to
understand format.
Supported languages: Brazilian-Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Mexican-Spanish, Polish, Spanish-Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The readme: Readme_31.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_31.txt
2005-10-11, WinShell 3.0 » back to top
A new and easier method to generate GUI translations is introduced: simply translate a text file.
Supported languages: Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.
The readme: Readme_30.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_30.txt
2005-02-27, WinShell 2.6 » back to top
New to this version: An integrated spell checker based on Aspell, list of figures and list of tables in the Project Window,
bibliography support and support for forward and inverse search.
Supported languages: Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.
The readme: Readme_26.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_26.txt
2004-09-15, WinShell 2.51 » back to top
Users can make their own language. Japanese is available, but not in the release.
Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.
The readme: Readme_251.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_251.txt
2004-04-04, WinShell 2.5 » back to top
WinShell uses the Scintilla library as editor from now on.
The new WinShell icon and a tabbed document view are introduced.
The readme: Readme_25.txt
The bugfixes: BugfixesFeatures_25.txt
2003-02-02, WinShell 2.22 » back to top
Spell checking with Ispell is available.
The readme: Readme_222.txt
2002-05-15, WinShell 2.21 » back to top
The readme: Readme_221.txt
2002-04-25, WinShell 2.2 » back to top
More general options are added.
Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.
The readme: Readme_22.txt
2002-03-18, WinShell 2.1 » back to top
The output of the different programs is redirected to the Log Window.
Errors can be easier tracked, WinShell opens the file at the specific error line,
pdfLaTeX is added to the Tool Bar and a Table Wizard is included.
Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The readme: Readme_21.txt
1999-05-07, WinShell 2.0 » back to top
WinShell 2.0 has a complete re-design of the Log Window and introduces the projects and the Project Window. The Project Window
shows the files and the table of contents, by parsing the .toc file. WinShell switches to one single executable and has .dll
files for the languages.
Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The readme: Readme_20.txt
1998-12-02, WinShell 1.3 » back to top
WinShell 1.3 adapts the settings of WinShell 1.2 into Windows conform folders. Also, the differentiation between
Main-TeX-Document and current TeX-Document is introduced. Menu items have icons.
The readme: Readme_13.txt
1998-07-29, WinShell 1.21 » back to top
Some bug fixes for WinShell 1.2.
The readme: Readme_121.txt
1998-07-01, WinShell 1.2 » back to top
WinShell 1.2 has syntax highlighting, macros, user defined program calls and customizable toolbars
(due to these major changes, this should have gotten a new major version 2.0).
The readme: Readme_12.txt
1998-03-25, WinShell 1.1 » back to top
WinShell 1.1 introduces the Log Window which shows the .log file after the LaTeX run. The readme: Readme_11.txt
1998-01-22, WinShell 1.0 » back to top
The first version has a German and an English user interface, program calls for LaTeX, BibTeX, dvips, a .dvi and a .ps viewer.
It contains six different toolbars for LaTeX symbols. The user has to define the main LaTeX document and can select the font
for the editor. For German users it has a Umlaute options to define the Umlaute for the key-strokes.
The readme: Readme_10.txt