Here you can find configuration and troubleshooting information about the primedocs add-ins for Microsoft Office

Move primedocs ribbon

The primedocs ribbon in Microsoft Office is always placed at the first position. If you want to adjust this behavior, the following registry keys must be set in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PrimeSoft AG\PrimeDocs, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\PrimeSoft AG\PrimeDocs or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\PrimeSoft AG\PrimeDocs, depending on the modules used:

"AddinWordRibbonPosition"=""
"AddinOutlookRibbonPosition"=""
"AddinCommonWordRibbonPosition"=""
"AddinCommonPowerPointRibbonPosition"=""
"AddinCommonExcelRibbonPosition"=""

The default setting implicitly applied in primedocs is:

"AddinWordRibbonPosition"="TabHome"

If you want the primedocs ribbon to be at the very end, the value must be left empty (""). If TabInsert is used, the primedocs ribbon will be placed before the specified ribbon. An overview of the available tabs can be found here.

Move primedocs button

The primedocs button in Microsoft Office can be used to bring the client window to the foreground. It is located in the respective Office program in primedocs as well as in the Start ribbon on the far left. At the moment it is not possible to move the button automatically or controlled by primedocs settings or registry adjustments. One option, however, is to use Office's customization options to move the button to the far right:

1. Close Microsoft Office.

2. Rename the file Word.officeUI in %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office.

3. Insert the following file into the directory: Word.officeUI

The same applies to all other Office add-ins. More information about this Office functionality to customize the ribbon can be found at the following websites:

• https://www.ratzblog.com/2011/09/deploying-user-cutomizations-office.html

• https://www.msoutlook.info/question/backup-ribbon-and-qat-customizations

• https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/previous-versions/office/ee704589(v=office.14)

Hide primedocs elements

Via registry keys primedocs ribbon elements can be disabled individually. In the following example for Word this is controlled by these keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\PrimeSoft AG\primedocs]
"AddinWordHiddenRibbonElements"="ElementId1,ElementId2"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PrimeSoft AG\primedocs]
"AddinWordHiddenRibbonElements"="ElementId1,ElementId2"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\PrimeSoft AG\primedocs]
"AddinWordHiddenRibbonElements"="ElementId1,ElementId2"

If multiple keys are defined, the above order is determining whereas only exactly one key is observed at a time. For Word AddinWordHiddenRibbonElements is used, for Outlook AddinOutlookHiddenRibbonElements accordingly. The single elements can be separated by comma or space. A list with all element IDs for Word and Outlook can be found here.

Add-in startup configuration

The primedocs Office addins can be disabled if required. Usually, that is necessary at terminal server environments when not all users should see primedocs. The following chapter contains the necessary settings for disabling the Word AddIn, the same settings with apropriate paths apply to the Outlook Addin, too.

A LoadBehavior with value 3 means: always load add-in. 0 means that the add-in is not loaded.

System-wide add-in deactivation

To disable the add-in, the key must be configured as follows:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\AddIns\PrimeDocs.Word.Addin]    
"LoadBehavior"="0" 

User-based add-in deactivation

Should you want to disable the add-in only for a certain user or group of users, follow these steps:

1. At the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch, keep the default configuration for LoadBehavior at 3. That enables the primedocs add-in for all users.

2. Create a new GPP, which writes the following path and all necessary keys: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\primedocs.Word.Addin (GPP rule 1)

3. Modify the GPP, to create a new 32-bit dword value named LoadBehavior with a value 0. Use GPP filtering so that the rule only applies when the desired user is not member of a defined group. (GPP rule 2)

4. Check that the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PrimeDocs.Word.Addin does not not contain any sub keys or values.

Result:

• Is the user a member of the chosen group which gets filtered, the system-wide configuration applies and the add-in is activated.

• Is the user not a member of the choosen group which gets filtered, the newly created GPP turns active, changes the LoadBehavior entry to 0, thus disabling the add-in when Word gets started.

Outlook add-in configuration

Besides the LoadBehavior registry key, which works similarly to Word, Outlook has further setting options.

Resiliency:

Outlook monitors the loading behavior of add-ins and might disable them automatically. To prevent this, it is recommended to add the "primedocs Outlook Add-in" to the "Managed AddIn" list.

Office 2016:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\AddinList]   
"PrimeDocs.Outlook.Addin"="1"

Further information can be found in the Documentation from Microsoft.

Security settings: "RestrictToList"

If the RestrictToList key is set to 1 in the environment via the Group-Policy, only "Managed Add-Ins" are loaded by Outlook.

To ensure the functionality of primedocs, at least the following setting must be stored in the registry:

Office 2016:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\AddinList]   
"PrimeDocs.Outlook.Addin"="1"
"Microsoft.VbaAddinForOutlook.1"="2"

The Microsoft.VbaAddinForOutlook.1 add-in is a necessary dependency and must therefore not be disabled. With the value 2 the add-in is not loaded, but also not blocked.

Security settings: "AdminSecurityMode"

If the Group-Policy security policies is enabled via the AdminSecurityMode key, the following options have to be selected to fully use primedocs:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\security]
"AdminSecurityMode"=dword:00000003
"PromptOOMAddressBookAccess"=dword:00000003
"PromptOOMAddressInformationAccess"=dword:00000003

primedocs accesses Outlook for generating emails or using the address book for example. This setting does not suppress the access.

Other settings, such as level for macros, have no influence on primedocs.

Trust Center Settings

Via the "Trust Center - File Block Settings", Word or Outlook can prevent programmatic access which is required for primedocs. The following options must not be enabled, otherwise the access from the primedocs AddIn will not work:

• Word 2007 and later Documents and Templates

  • If this option is enabled, no text modules can be inserted and Outlook emails are generated empty.

• Websites

  • If this option is enabled, the signature cannot be changed when changing profiles or recipients, and a blank signature will be inserted.

Troubleshooting

primedocs add-ins in Microsoft Office do not start:

If the primedocs add-ins cannot be started, i.e. if no primedocs ribbon is visible in Office, this may have the following causes:

• The primedocs add-in is not installed:
  If the primedocs add-in does not appear under "File – Options – Add-ins" in the COM Add-ins list, it may not be installed. Check whether the respective add-in was selected during installation.

• Office is installed in the 64-bit option, but the 32-bit primedocs installer was used:
  If a 64-bit Office installation was used, the 64-bit primedocs installer must be used as well. The same applies to the 32-bit Office installation and the 32-bit installer.

• The Outlook add-in is blocked or always disabled:
  Check the security settings for Outlook.

Starting Microsoft Office is severely delayed since installing the primedocs add-in:

If Office starts slowly, it may be because the "Native Image Generator" process (ngen) has not yet run completely. This process is automatically started after installation and is component of the .NET framework.

Execution "Native Image Generator" (ngen):

The ngen.exe process is located at this path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe. Via display the status can be checked. This looks like this:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe display "C:\Program Files (x86)\primedocs\primedocs.exe"
Microsoft (R) CLR Native Image Generator - Version 4.6.1087.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

NGEN Roots:

C:\Program Files (x86)\primedocs\primedocs.exe

NGEN Roots that depend on "c:\Program Files (x86)\primedocs\primedocs.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\primedocs\primedocs.exe

Native Images:

primedocs, Version=2.3.40190.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

If primedocs is shown as "pending", the compilation process should be started again via "update":

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe update

This has a positive effect on the add-in loading behaviour.