System Requirements

System requirements

All you need is a recent version of Microsoft Word for Windows or Mac, or Microsoft Word Online in a browser.

• Office 365 is ideal because most versions use moden web browsing technology, and are continually upgraded.

• Some separately purchased versions of Office (i.e., non-Office 365 versions such as Word 2016) may also be fine, as long as they use "WebView2" (Chromium-based) browsing technology for the add-ins, instead of the ancient Internet Explorer or the old Microsoft Edge. It may be possible to separately install WebView2. Please check Microsoft's overview table to make sure you have the right combination of Windows and Word. You may also want to check Microsoft's website for detailed information about specific version numbers.

• Even when WebView2 is installed, you should be careful with Word 2016, because it is missing certain features. ClauseBuddy may work on this version of Word, but some advanced features (mostly related to layout and metadata) will be disabled.

• On a Mac and iPad, essentially any version of Word will work.

Background: The new generation of add-ins for Word and Outlook rely on modern internet technology. Those versions of Word that still use the ancient Internet Explorer browser (or the outdated version of the Microsoft Edge browser) cannot be used for ClauseBuddy.

Not only are those browsers missing important web technologies, but they are also very insecure and extremely slow. For those reasons, Microsoft has phased out the use of this browser for many years already — and even strongly warns users to not use it anymore. Unfortunately, for Word/Outlook add-ins, Microsoft will not upgrade old versions of Word to make use of the new technology.

Blank screen

If you get a blank ClauseBuddy screen in Word, then you unfortunately have an unsupported combination of Windows and/or Word.

• Try to install WebView2 from the Microsoft site. Often, this immediately resolves the problem.

• Upgrade your version of Microsoft Office. As pointed out above, Office 365 works best.

• It very infrequently happens that your corporate security layers (e.g., malware scanners) block items. Check with your IT department.

• Use ClauseBuddy in a browser. Except with ancient browsers like Internet Explorer — which you should not use for many other reasons — this will always work.