A tree automatic structure is a structure whose domain can be encoded by a
regular tree language such that each relation is recognisable by a finite
automaton processing tuples of trees synchronously. Words can be regarded as
specific simple trees and a structure is word automatic if it is encodable
using only these trees. The question naturally arises whether a given tree
automatic structure is already word automatic. We prove that this problem is
decidable for tree automatic scattered linear orderings. Moreover, we show that
in case of a positive answer a word automatic presentation is computable from
the tree automatic presentation.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure