Troubleshooting XpressDox Startup

The XpressDox menu disappears from the Word ribbon

Please note that this post is aimed at users who have had XpressDox installed and the ribbon had disappeared. If you are having trouble installing XpressDox please refer to the Trouble Shooting post called “XpressDox doesn’t want to install on my computer”.

This has happened to various users when, for example, an XpressDox dialog has been open and the computer has crashed, or when an XpressDox dialog (or error message) is open and the user closes Word using the Task Manager.

Whatever the cause, it sometimes happens that XpressDox disappears from Word. Before trying anything, please re-start your computer. Once the computer has been restarted, the ribbon can be restored following these steps:

Check if the Add-in has been disabled

With Word open, press the File menu.

1. Click the Options button – a new interface is presented with a list of options down the left hand side.
2. In the list of options, click Add-Ins.
3. In the details pane, locate the XpressDox entry in either the Inactive Application Add-ins list, or the Disabled Application Add-ins list.

If it’s in the Inactive list:

1. In the Manage box (at the bottom of the form), select COM Add-ins, and then click Go.
2. In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, select the check box next to the disabled add-in.
3. Click OK.

If it’s in the Disabled list:

1. In the Manage box, select Disabled Items, and then click Go.
2. Select the add-in and click Enable.
3. Click Close.

After this you may have to close and re-open Word in order to see the XpressDox ribbon again.

Re-install XpressDox

If the above has not been successful, the next thing to try is to reinstall XpressDox. Please install the most recent version which you can find here. Don’t worry, you won’t need a new license key for this.

Run an Office repair

The next thing to try is an Office repair. Once done, re-install XpressDox.

Note that once you re-install the latest version of XpressDox on your computer there will be an icon on your desktop called XpressDox Trouble Shooter which, when run, provides helpful information such as the bitness of Word and the bitness of XpressDox installed on the machine.

Uninstall and re-install Office

If XpressDox was once displaying in Word and is no longer, and you have tried all the above steps, it is now time to try and complete uninstall and re-install of Office.

Uninstall XpressDox, uninstall Office, then re-install Office and then re-install XpressDox.

Multiple versions of Office

We have found this to be a very common problem with the add-in not enabling. If you have multiple versions of Office, then add-ins do not know into which version they should be loading. They remain disabled until such time there is only one version of Office installed. Multiple versions of Office is quite common with new PC’s which come pre-loaded with a starter edition of Office.

Remember that XpressDox only works with a locally installed version of Office, not the online version.

Check for conflicting add-ins

Do you have other add-ins installed on your PC? If so, they might be clashing with XpressDox. Uninstall them if you don’t need them. Or disable them one by one and try to re-enable XpressDox.