MasterWorks Not Compatible with Cloud-based Office 365
ARCOM delivers MasterSpec in Microsoft Word documents that work in the Office 365 environment; however, MasterWorks is not compatible with Office 365. Office 365 capability for MasterWorks is not on ARCOMs current development schedule. We will revisit this issue in approximately one year to evaluate the level of client interest, as there is significant software development effort in rewriting MasterWorks to make it compatible with Office 365. We appreciate your support as we spend valuable development time on projects that benefit a majority of you.
Thanks for posting this. I was planning to convert to Office 365, but this gives me pause. My understanding is that Office applications will still reside on your own PC, but will be updated automatically. I’m not sure whether Arcom’s notice is for any installation of Office 365, or certain configurations. Do you have any idea?
There are two very different products out there labeled “Office 365” - MS needs a specifier or two to straighten out their language! The ARCOM note is addressing the cloud-based software version, which is akin to GoogleDocs software. Office 365 ProPlus is a subscription-based package of Office software with an annual fee and auto update. It resides on your computer. We’ve been running this for over a year; Masterworks is compatible with this version.
I just called ARCOM and they have a BETA release of MasterWorks that runs on MS Word 2016. They have not published the setup file link on their website but will send it if you contact them.
Our November newsletter incorrectly reported information on the status of our Microsoft 365 compatibility.
Correction: Microsoft Word 365 has both a desktop and a cloud environment. MasterWorks current version is now compatible with the desktop environment. The new installer will be available Wednesday, December 9th.
Additional Detail
Office 365 is a subscription version of Microsoft Office products. Office applications such as Word are fully installed on your computer. Therefore, MasterWorks can be installed to your computer as a plugin for MS Word 365.
Office 365 allows you to choose to store your documents locally or online using OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive).
MasterWorks is designed to work with local (or local network) copies of your Word documents and therefore you will need to have local (or local network) copies of your projects and sections for MasterWorks to work properly.
OneDrive allows you to access your files from nearly any device and you can share them with others. MasterWorks is not configured to be compatible with OneDrive at this time.
If you would like to use OneDrive for backup, you may install the OneDrive desktop app. This app creates a folder on your PC that will automatically sync documents between OneDrive and your computer. If your projects are in this folder, they will get syncd with OneDrive.
Office 365 also had an Office on Demand feature which was discontinued in September of 2014 and had a replacement of Office Online (formerly known as Office Web Apps). This is a temporary install of Office created by streaming Word to your computer. Since MasterWorks depends on a full install of Word to work, this feature will not work with MasterWorks.
In short, MasterWorks will work with Office 365 if:
Office (Word) is fully installed on your computer.
The Word files for your project(s) are local (or local network) on your computer.
Matthew Johnson, CSI
Chief Technology Officer
801.521.9162 | support@arcomnet.com
Gee, if this specification consulting gig does not work out for me I guess that I can always get a job working at ARCOM as their Public Relations person!
