What is the compatibility of the software?

PC version

Power-user is fully compatible with PowerPoint, Excel and Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365 (32 or 64 bits), in their desktop version (not on mobile apps or Online versions).

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Mac version​

Unfortunately, our product is only available on PC for the moment. We hope to launch a Mac version eventually, but not in the very near future. Ask here to get notified by email when our Mac version is released.

However, you can still benefit from our add-in using:

• Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion to run Windows and Windows applications in a virtual machine on your Mac

• Apple Bootcamp to install Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X
  

You can also still follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter as we frequently release free templates for download that can be used even on Mac.

The installation does not want to run on my PC

• If you are using a Mac, the installation cannot run since Mac computers cannot run .exe files. Unfortunately, Power-user is not available on Mac for the moment.

• If you are using a PC with Windows, your computer is probably missing some components, like Runtime for instance.

  • Try to launch the installation with a right-click on the .exe file, and choosing 'Run as administrator'

  • Give it another try, and make sure you accept if a prompt tells you to download required components.

  • Try installing manually the .NET framework Client Profile and VSTO updated version.

  • Make sure FIPS is not active on your machine. You can find here how to disable it.

  • If none of the above suggestions helped you, please send us an email with details and screenshots on the issue.

After installation, nothing happens in PowerPoint / Excel / Word

If the Power-user tab doesn't show in PowerPoint, Excel or Word, first try to restart your computer. If this doesn't help, then it is usually related to one of these reasons:

• The add-in is disabled or conflicts with other add-ins

• PowerPoint, Excel or Word requires elevated privileges to run Power-user

• Power-user needs to be installed with correct permissions

• Microsoft Office was installed with minimum features

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1) Check if the add-in has been disabled by PowerPoint / Excel / Word

Go in your PowerPoint or Excel options, and click 'Add-Ins'. In the Manage list, select 'Disabled items', and then click Go (see screenshot below). If you find Power-user in the disabled add-ins, click on Enable. If this doesn't fix the problem, try the 'Trust Center', just under the 'Add-ins' section, and loosen a bit the restrictions. If this doesn't help, please send us the log files so we can understand what is going wrong. These files are located in C:\Users\your.name\AppData\Local\Temp\Power-user.

2) Check if the add-in inactive

Go in your PowerPoint or Excel options, and click 'Add-Ins'. In the Manage list, select 'COM Add-ins', and then click Go.

In the Add-ins dialog box:

• Tick the checkbox (see screenshot below).

• If you get an error message,

  • Try installing manually the .NET framework Client Profile and VSTO updated version.

  • There could be 2 another add-in may be conflicting with Power-user. Un-tick temporarily every other add-in and try again to tick the PowerUser checkbox.

  • If you still get an error message, send us an email with a screenshot of the error.

3) If the add-in is active but something is still wrong There could be some user rights restrictions on your computer, in particular is you are using a corporate machine; in that case ou may need the help of your local IT.

• Run PowerPoint / Excel with elevated privileges:

  • Press SHIFT and right-click on the PowerPoint / Excel / Word icon on the task bar

  • Then, choose Troubleshoot program​

  • The, check "This program requires additional permissions" and click Next

  • Click Test the program

  • Check if the Power-user tab is visible in PowerPoint / Excel / Word

  • Close PowerPoint / Excel / Word

  • Click Next and choose "Save these settings for this program"

  • Close the wizard and see

  • Check if the Power-user is there when your restart PowerPoint / Excel / Word

• Install Power-user with elevated privileges:

  • First uninstall Power-user from the Control Panel

  • Add your user account to the local machine Administrator Group by following these instructions

  • Download the latest version of Power-user from this link​

  • Open PowerPoint / Excel / Word and check if the Power-user tab shows

  • Remove user account from Administrator Group

3) If none of these work, make sure your Office installation allows add-ins

When the user performs an installation of Microsoft Office with the minimum features or not all features installed, PowerPoint, Excel and Word can start without add-ins.

In that case, you should go to Control Panel/Programs/Programs and Features. Look for Microsoft Office in your programs and click it. Then click the Change button to open the setup.

Select "Add or Remove Features" and click "Continue". Navigate to Microsoft PowerPoint/.NET Programmability Support to make sure it is enabled. If it is not installed, click the icon and choose "Run from my computer".

Click "Continue", and Microsoft Office will reconfigure to add the feature.

4) Update your Office version with the latest Service Packs

Service Packs are provided by Microsoft and contain updates that can solve a number of bugs with your applications. You can install them from the Microsoft website.

5) Display Alerts via Environment Variable

When an error occurs, normally you get an error message with an indication of the cause of the issue. However if the add-in is not loaded, of course no such message is shown. But you can still enable those error messages by setting a Windows environment variable. This is a way to find the origin of the problem.

Right click the Windows Start button and click "System". From the left menu, click "Advanced system settings". In the "Advanced" tab, click "Environment Variables".

Under "System variables", click "New".

Enter "VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS" for the variable name and set the value to 0. Then click "OK" to close, OK again to close the environment variables and to close the system properties.

Retart PowerPoint and Excel again and send us an email with the error message you see.

Don’t forget to set the environment variable back to value 1 or to delete the variable from the list completely whenever the problem is found and fixed.

6) Check event logs

Go to your Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools. A window will open where you should click "Event Viewer". In the Event Viewer, open "Windows Logs" from the left, and go to "Application folder".

Look for recent entries with the "Error" in the Level column. Click to open the details of the log entry and try to find the error message. Search the error on the web as there may be some publicly known solutions for it.

If none of the above suggestions helped you, please send us an email with the following details:

• Operating system

• Windows version (32 bits or 64 bits). You can get this information in Start / Computer / System Properties

• Microsoft Office version (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365)

• If you are using a private or company computer

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After installation, the Power-user tab appears on the ribbon but only with limited features

Until the trial or full Premium license is activated, Power-user shows in a limited free version. The first time you install Power-user, you should normally get a pop-up window when you restart PowerPoint, Excel or Word inviting you to provide your email. If you don't get that pop-up window, then the problem is probably coming from your proxy or firewall blocking it. Just try to restart PowerPoint, Excel or Word from another Internet connection, such as your phone or home connection.

How can I set Power-user to load automatically every time I open PowerPoint / Excel / Word?

Normally the default setting is that Power-user should load automatically when you open PowerPoint / Excel / Word. However sometimes, it can happen that Office changes that and make it so that you have to manually load it every time.

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To fix this, click Start and then Run. Type "regedit" to access the registry. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Office/PowerPoint/Addins/PowerUser. Double click the Load Behavior and change the value to 3 (3 = Load at startup). Now restart PowerPoint / Excel / Word and the add-in should automatically load.

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How to install Power-user?

1. Download the .exe file from our website (link here) 2. Launch the .exe and follow the step-by-step process

4. Restart PowerPoint, Excel or Word. A popup window will appear as in the screenshot below. Provide your email and activate the license. Please note that activation requires a functioning Internet connexion.

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I have an error message saying the certificate is not trusted

When installing, some computers can display the following error message: To fix this, try the following procedure: 1) Make Power-user a Trusted Publisher:

• Right-click the .exe file
• Click "Properties"
• In the Digital Signatures tab, select Power-user SAS and click Details
• Click "Show certificate" and then "Install a certificate"
• Choose "Current User" and click "Next"
• Choose "Place all certificates in the same folder" and then "Browse"
• Choose "Trusted Publishers", click "OK"
• Click "Next" and then "Finish"

How can I transfer my license to a new computer?

You can transfer your Power-user license to a different computer, at no charge and for an unlimited number of times. To proceed to the transfer, activate your license key on the new machine using the email that is associated to it. A prompt will ask you to confirm that you want to transfer. If you have any difficulty in proceeding to the transfer, you should contact your administator or contact us with your issue and license information.

How can I roll out licenses automatically to users within my company?

Power-user allows you to simply roll out licenses centrally to users within your organization, following the steps below:

• Launch a command line (e.g. PowerShell, CMD, ...)
• Create the download_path and install_path variables, defining where to download and where to install the msi file:
  • set download_path=%temp%\Power-user.msi
  • set install_path=C:\Program Files (x86)\
• Download the "Power-user.msi" file in download_path, with the following command line:
  • curl https://powerusersoftware.com/download/Power-user.msi -o %download_path%
• Install the Power-user .msi file, with the following command line:
  • msiexec /i %download_path% ALLUSERS="2" INSTALLDIR="%install_path%" /q
• Go to the Power-user installation directory, with the following command lines:
  • cd %install_path%
  • cd Power-user
• Activate the Power-user license with the user' email and license key, using the following command line:
  • PowerUserActivator.exe "email_address" "license_key"

How can I customize the installation folder for Power-user?

By default, Power-user is installed in the following folder: C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Power-user If you wish to install Power-user on a custom location, please follow these instructions:

• Download this file
• Open it with the notepad
• Replace the default path specified for the installation "Program Files (x86)" to the location of your choice
• Save and close
• Replace the ".txt" file extension with ".bat"
• Run the file

How can I install Power-user on a Virtual Machine?

To install Power-user on a virtual machine, you can proceed as below: 1) Step 1: install Power-user in Program Files on the admin session of the VM On the admin session of the VM, use the following command lines to download and install the .msi setup: set INSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\
set MSI_TEMP_PATH=%temp%\Power-user.msi
curl https://powerusersoftware.com/download/Power-user.msi -o %MSI_TEMP_PATH%
msiexec /i "%MSI_TEMP_PATH%" ALLUSERS="2" INSTALLDIR="%INSTALLDIR%" /q 2) Step 2: create the registry files for each user Download this file which contains the command lines to create the registry files.

Why should I get Power-user?

• Power-user makes you 50% more efficient with PowerPoint, Excel & Word, saving you a huge amount of time. For someone working just 3h per day on Office, that's 5 weeks of time saved every year.
• With thousands of visual elements such as templates, maps, diagrams, icons etc., Power-user lets you make better and more impacting business documents to convince your clients or management.
• Time is money. You can check here and see how much your company would save in labor.

What is included with the license?

Each Premium Power-user license includes:

1. All features for PowerPoint, Excel and Word (and they are a lot of them).

2. All Power-user content: templates, maps, icons, pictures, diagrams, etc. You are allowed to use them for both personal and commercial purposes, as long as you don't bundle or redistribute them.

3. Technical support: we have a highly reactive support team, we get back to you within 24h.

4. Software upgrades: we improve the software really fast to offer you a great experience, save you more and more time, add new features and quickly save any bug that is reported. Updates are pushed automatically when available and you just need to accept them.

5. Portability: if you need to transfer your license to another computer (for instance because you changed it) we will proceed to the transfer. This service is free of charge.

How are licenses delivered and how long does it take?

Licenses are delivered electronically. When you order, an activation key will be delivered to you via email and will unlock all Power-user features. There are no shipping or transaction cost associated. Licenses ordred online are delivered automatically by email within a few minutes.

What is the policy of Power-user regarding data privacy?

You can read our Data Privacy Policy here.

Do I need Internet to use / install Power-user?

After activation of your license, there is no need to have Internet to use Power-user.

For installation, the normal procedure requires Internet to activate the license. However for companies that do not give access to Internet to their employees, it is still possible to install a Power-user license. Just send us an email and give us your computer's unique ID wich you can find by clicking the blue "Info" button on the ribbon. We will send you back in return a license that doesn't require Internet for the activation.

For companies with a large number of users in this situation, please contact us to discuss it.

What are the solutions for companies with many users?

Power-user offers brand compliance, content management and license management solutions for companies: - Brand compliance: companies can change and update for every user the default template. This ensures the corporate brand is respected and allow users to convert entire presentations in their company's color theme. - Content management: create shared libraries of templates for users within the organization. Create collections of CVs, credentials, references or just your company's official presentation and allow every user to access it directly from any presentation. It also allows you to update the content and every user will automatically have the updated version. You can even create multiple teams with their specific shared templates. - License management: companies receive access to a portal that contains all their licenses. They can add or remove licenses to adjust when employees join, leave or simply change computer. - Roll out script: we provide you with an .msi file and a short script to centrally roll out licenses to users in your organization.