Savvy Support: New Computer, Old Word Error

After merging a letter or pleading template in MerusCase, users can quickly get their updated document back in to the case using our SaveToMerus feature in Microsoft Word. This kind of one-click convenience saves users a lot of time and effort, but some initial configuration is required to take advantage of it: once a merged Word document is downloaded from a browser to a user's computer, uploading it back to the case in MerusCase requires a special type of connection that has to be allowed through the user's firewall. 

For most MerusCase users, configuring SaveToMerus for the first time means adjusting the settings in Windows Firewall, which has these kinds of FTP (file transfer protocol) connections from programs blocked by default. This setup generally only has to be performed once per computer, but without it, Windows Firewall will block Word from connecting with any servers on the web, including MerusCase's servers. 

                                                                   

                                                         Windows Firewall status indicator in Windows 7 and Windows 8                        

We received an email last week from a user who indicated their SaveToMerus had suddenly stopped working, with the QuickSave button triggering an error message when pressed. We've had many of these sorts of calls before, so we asked a few questions to narrow things down ("Are you having any internet connection trouble? Have you checked your firewall settings?"), but this user wasn't too familiar with their system configuration.

"I don't know where to find anything now," this user bemoaned. The word "now" caught my attention, and a few more questions revealed that their workstation had recently been replaced by their firm's IT department: they were having difficulty getting around due to the new Start interface in Windows 8, making their workstation a brand-new computer which hadn't yet had Word added to the list of programs allowed by Windows Firewall.

I gave them a link to our help article on allowing Word through Windows Firewall and verbally walked them through each step of the process. After they'd added Word to the list of allowed programs, I asked them to test-save a few documents to confirm the fix, and I got a sigh of relief as a reply.

                                   Written by Paul Bertucci, Migration Coordinator and Technical Support Engineer at MerusCase