Note: A valid SSL certificate for your VT Writer server is required for the Add-In to function!

See our article on SSL certificates here: https://support.visiblethread.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000767023-How-to-add-an-SSL-Cert-to-the-VT-Writer-Server

Note: This article applies to VT Writer version 3.3.1.1 and later

 

The VT Writer word add-in is an add-in developed for Microsoft Word. The add-in works as a web client for the VT Writer application deployed on-premise. 

 

When enabled, a task pane appears in Microsoft Word. Users can use the add-in to send documents for analysis directly to the VT Writer on-premise service, and view the results of document analysis.

For many users this removes the need to access the VT Writer application using a web browser.

 

This article is a guide for IT administrators, outlining how to make the VT Writer word add-in available for end users in your organization.

The VT Writer word add-in was developed using the Microsoft Office add-ins platform.

For more information on the Office Add-ins platform see here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/overview/office-add-ins

 

The VT Writer word add-in is included as part of your VT Writer on-premise installation, however further configuration is required to make the add-in available to end users in Microsoft Word.

There are 3 options for making the VT Writer word add-in available to end users in your organization:

• For organizations using Office 365 you can deploy the add-in in the Office 365 admin centre - this is the preferred approach
• For organizations using an on-premise Sharepoint server, you can publish the add-in to the Sharepoint app catalog. This option does not support Word users on Apple Mac.
• For organizations where Office 365 and Sharepoint are not an option, you can use a local Windows Network Share to host the manifest file and then point your individual Word installations to that file

Add-in manifest file

In all cases, deploying the VT Writer add-in will require supplying the add-in manifest file. The manifest file can be retrieved from your on-premise VT Writer application at

https://<vt writer url>/add-in/manifest

 

Deploying the add-in using the Office 365 admin centre

To deploy the add-in using the Office 365 admin centre, first download the add-in manifest (see above) and follow the guide here:

Deploy add-ins in the admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Key points to note:

- When prompted to "Deploy from the Store" or "Deploy a custom add-in", choose "Deploy custom add-in", and upload the manifest file from above.

 

 

- You can choose to make the add-in available to all users, groups of users or individual users. 

 

 

Deploying the add-in using an on-premise Sharepoint Server

An app catalog is a dedicated site collection in a SharePoint web application or SharePoint Online tenancy that hosts document libraries for Office and SharePoint Add-ins. To make Office Add-ins accessible to users within their organization, administrators can upload Office Add-in manifest files to the app catalog for their organization. When an administrator registers an app catalog as a trusted catalog, users can insert the add-in from the insertion UI in an Office client application.

For more details see:

Publish task pane and content add-ins to a SharePoint app catalog - Office Add-ins | Microsoft Learn

 

Deploying the add-in using a local Windows Network Share

Create a network share that your VT Writer users have Read access to (Note: The file needs to be available when a user loads Word and the add-in starts. If the file is installed behind a firewall, the add-in may be unavailable if a user is not on your corporate network or VPN.). Download the manifest.xml file from your VT Writer server (https://<vt writer url>/add-in/manifest) and place it in the new share. Once this is complete, end-users will be able to add this as a Trusted Add-In Catalog.

 

Open up the Word Add-In Catalog options via File->Options->Trust Center -> Trusted Add-In Catalogs, then select Add catalog and enter your new File Share's UNC path (here we use \\localhost\writer as an example, where the manifest.xml file's path is \\localhost\writer\manifest.xml):

 

This will allow Word to see the Add-In manifest and use it for adding the Add-In: