Could you please describe the “trick” fix a little better. I found the text “BAS-12345-MS80” under the file properties, details tab, under description->tags. I deleted it, but Spec Agent still pops up. Not seeing “keynotes” anywhere. I am to be counted with those who are angry with another program that pops up and runs automatically without my wanting it or being able to disable it. I’m sure the programmers are all moist about their new baby, but many of us users just want to be able to write specs quickly, typically the day they are due, without having these annoyances to belabor the entire process.
Perhaps Arcom found a way to bypass reliance on the keynote deletion I first reported almost two years ago. We are using another method to defeat spec agent. Wesimply replace the Word startup file with a previous version. then specAgent doesn’t open. Wemay be giving up the latest and greatest inmacor functionality,but don’t care if we can get rid of Sec Agent.
Getting rid of BAS-12345-MS80 is working for me.
David, can you explain “replace the Word startup file?” I changed the name of specagent.dot, but it still opens if the files still has the BAS…stuff in it. If the BAS…is gone, no specagent.
I don’t mind SpecAgent running if I have a fast internet connection, but if I am offline for some reason or another, it makes it impossible to work because the Word file is never completely loaded while it waits for SpecAgent to call home.
Word allows you to activate and deactivate individual add-ins. I disable SpecAgent in Word 2010 by opening the File tab, selecting Options, then selecting Add-Ins. In the pull-down menu, choose Word Add-Ins then click on GO. This opens the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box where I can uncheck SpecAgent and click OK. This prevents SpecAgent from loading until I go back and check the box to reactivate it. Other Masterworks features still work normally.
Unfortunately, when I try this in older versions of Word, unchecking SpecAgent also prevents the Masterworks menu from loading and I lose all of the features of Masterworks.
I have been having an intermittent problem when I make PDF files from Word documents. Our IT guy has determined that SpecAgent is the problem. If I close SpecAgent I can then make a PDF file. But if I leave SpecAgent up, my Word/Adobe will most likely crash.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem.
Since SpecAgent can be accessed from the menu, I wish Arcom would just disable the automatic popup feature.
Can anyone tell me how to get this infernal app to work? I have carefully selected my manufacturers, but there is no way to get them into my spec. Paste button churns for a half second, but nothing happens. No warning popup. Selecting the text to be overwritten does nothing. Can find no way to get the text into a format where I can use cut-and-paste. Worse than useless
When I click on the hyperlink to select manufacturers, I get a Paragraph Builder box that pops up. After selecting manufacturers, I click on “Update Specification” in the lower right corner and a macro runs that adds them to my spec section.
I spent two months in Masterworks hell. I finally spoke with some tech folks at Arcom (Josh is gone) and after a couple of hours on the phone and giving them control of my computer they finally got everything to work.
There has to be a better way to get our work done.
If you have multiple MSWord executables running, Paragraph Builder gets lost. This often happens in the heat of battle, when we specifiers open and close 100 or more files in a day. Check Task Manager to make sure you have only one Winword.exe running. Also: once in a while Word tries to eat your computer. Close all Word windows and open a fresh version that’s only using a couple hundred thousand K and that may make Paragraph Builder happy.
If you are using an old version of Word e.g. 2003 they may not support it since they have gone all Paragraph Builder now and they ended support for non-ribbons versions of Word. If you are still seeing SpecAgent per se, then the Word version is possibly the reason. Arcom may have a workaround to re-enable your paste button, if you contact their support group.