View Microsoft Word Documents from Author

In some of our older client libraries, we have historically provided a feature that will create a Word document from the model. Unfortunately, it is not working as consistently as we'd like it to. We are currently investigating options on making the existing functionality work more consistently or whether there are alternative technical approaches we could use.

How do I know there is a problem? 

If you have requested a Word document from Author then the normal process is that the request is sent to a server to produce a PDF and it is then converted to the Word document. You will then be sent an email with the Word document attached to it.

You might receive an email telling you that there was a problem with generating the document and to retry. Please try again, but if it fails again then please let us know and we'll investigate and get the document produced as quickly as possible.

In some cases the problem causes the status email to not be generated. If you have not received an email within 10-15 minutes of you initiating the request, then please let us know. In this instance trying again will not resolve the issue.

Is there a workaround?

If you have a version of Microsoft Word 2013, 2016, 2019 or Office 365 then Word can do the conversion for you (in fact that is what the server is currently doing on your behalf). Go into Author and select View PDF to generate the PDF of your model and save to your local drive. In MS Word select File...Open and select the PDF you have just saved. You can find more information on Microsoft's Office how to guide which is titled Edit a PDF. 

Generating Word Documents would be really useful in my library...can I have it installed?

The simple answer is no. With Microsoft Word now providing the ability to convert a PDF to Word, we have made the decision that in the future this functionality will be removed from the product. We are continuing to provide support for libraries that are actively using the functionality and have to use a version of Microsoft Office prior to 2013.