Software

This page has information about the software provided by Information Services. For Assistive Technology please refer to the Disability Service or Support for Students of Determination pages for your campus, available through the Health and Wellbeing webpage. 

Microsoft Office

All students and staff have access to Microsoft Office products, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to download onto their own devices for free from the Office365 Portal. For more information, see the Office365 page. 

Microsoft Teams 

For information and guidance please see the Microsoft Teams page.

Other software

Staff and students also have access to a range of other software during their studies. You can access software on campus PCs from home using Keyserver. A list of software on networked PCs is available here. Some software is also available for you to install on your own device. 

If you would like to request software, check if something is available or have any other questions, please contact the IS Helpdesk

Personal devices

Below is a selection of software available on networked campus PCs and for you to download onto your own device for free (unless otherwise stated). Campus and school restrictions may apply. 

Adobe Creative Cloud (for students)
What is it?

You can get help with using Adobe products from the Adobe Help Centre.

How to get it 

Adobe Creative Cloud is available on some campus lab PC's and via Keyserver.

ArcGIS
How to get it

Submit license request through the IS Helpdesk.

Dropbox (staff only)
What is it?

File sharing. More information can be found here.

Dropbox Business is primarily intended to be for research groups but it is also open to other use cases.

How to get it

Contact the IS Helpdesk 

EndNote
What is it?

EndNote 21 is the reference management software provided by Heriot-Watt University, for free, to all staff and students. Reference management software can help you collect and organise your references and ensure consistency with your in-text citations and reference list in Word.  EndNote provides so much more than free citing and referencing tools. 

For further information, installation instructions and training, please see the EndNote Guide.

For help with citing and referencing see the Skills Hub Guide: Citing and referencing 

System requirements

Windows or Mac.

How to get it

EndNote is available on all Information Services supported PCs and for home use for all students and staff members. 

Students and staff: Open EndNote from the start menu.

Staff: If not already installed on your PC you can download it from the Software Center.

Home use: Available from the IS Helpdesk

Labview (Edinburgh EGIS or EPS only)
What is it?

A graphical development environment with functionality for data, acquisition, instrument control, measurement analysis, and data presentation.

System requirements 

Windows, Mac or Linux

How to get it

Submit license request to the IS Helpdesk who will provide installation code and installation instructions.

Maple (UK only)
What is it?

Symbolic algebra package.

System requirements 

Windows, Mac or Linux.

How to get it

Download Maple here

Matlab and SimuLink
What is it?

“MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming while Simulink® which is integrated into MATLAB® provides a graphical editor, customizable block libraries, and solvers for modelling and simulating dynamic systems.”

How to get it

MATLAB is available on all Information Services supported PCs and for home use.

Students: Open MATLAB from the Start menu.

Staff: Install from the Software Center.

Home use: Available from the IS Helpdesk.

Microsoft Azure Dev tools for teaching (EGIS, EPS and MACS)
What is it?

Includes a lot of Microsoft software (including Project and Visio).

Special requirements

Windows only 

How to get it

Visit the Azure for Education website, then Login with your University email (username@hw.ac.uk) and password.

MindGenius
What is it?

Create mindmaps, diagrams and flowcharts to help with studying and planning reports and presentations.

For more information, guides and tutorials, see the MindGenius website.

System requirements 

Windows, Mac (Online version) or iPad. 

How to get it

Available on all Information Services supported PCs and for home use.

Student PCs: Find MindGenius Enterprise in the Start menu.

Staff PCs or Laptops: Install MindGenius from the Software Center.

For home use: Available from the IS Helpdesk

Nvivo (Edinburgh and Dubai only)
What is it?

NVivo is software that supports qualitative and mixed methods research. It’s designed to help you organize, analyze and find insights in unstructured, or qualitative data like: interviews, open-ended survey responses, articles, social media and web content.

NVivo can deeply analyse your data using powerful search, query and visualization tools, help you uncover subtle connections, add your insights and ideas as you work, rigorously justify findings, and effortlessly share your work.

For more information, including user guides, visit the supplier's website.

System requirements 

Windows or Mac.

How to get it

Available on staff PCs and for staff and student home use.

Staff PCs: Install NVivo 14 - July 2023 (release 14.23.2.46) from the Software Center.

Home use: Staff and students can request a copy of NVivo for their own device from the IS Helpdesk.

SPSS Statistics and AMOS
What is it?

SPSS Statistics is used in Research Methods to understand data, analyse trends, forecast and plan.

SPSS Amos is used to create models to show hypothesized relationships among variables.

System requirements 

Windows, Mac or Linux.

How to get it

SPSS is available from all Information Services supported PCs and for home use. 

Students: The latest versions of both SPSS Statistics and SPSS Amos are available in the student PC labs and via Keyserver.

Staff: Install SPSS Statistics 29 and SPSS Amos 29 from the Software Center.

Home use: Available from the IS Helpdesk.