Frequently Asked Questions
- General Installation Issues
- ClaimMaster Menu Dissappears (e.g., after crash)
- Vista/Windows 7 Installation
- License Activation
- Parsing of Claims
- Foreign Versions of Windows
- IDS Form Creator
General Installation Issues
If after installation you try to run ClaimMaster and get the following error: "Compile Error in Hidden Module: UserForm1" or if you cannot see the ClamMaster menu in Word's toolbar, then the issues are likely related to the limited administrative privileges on your machine. Most likely, some of the folders where ClaimMaster places its files are write-protected or installation of additional MS Word macros is disabled. Please contact your IT administrator to ensure that ClaimMaster is installed by someone who has full administrative privileges on your computer.
If you cannot see the ClaimMaster menu in the Word toolbar (Word 2000-2003) or add-ins section (Word 2007-2010) after installation, you need to manually place the ClaimMaster.dot file in the Word's startup directory. The file is located in C:\Program Files\ClaimMaster\ directory - see below for further instructions on how to locate the Word's startup directory.
ClaimMaster menu dissappears at some point (e.g., after crash)
Word 2003
To get it back in Word 2003, go to Tools > Templates and Add-ins and make sure ClaimMaster.dot is checked.
If that doesn’t work or you can’t see ClaimMaster.dot on the list of templates and add-ins, try Help > About Microsoft Word then click the Disabled Items button. Select the ClaimMaster item, then click Enable. You may need to close then re-open Word for it to get back on your toolbar and menu bar.
Word 2007
Unrelated Word crashes sometimes trigger disabling of ClaimMaster add-ins in Word 2007. This happens not only for ClaimMaster but also for any other add-ins that you have installed on your compurer. This is not a ClaimMaster problem. You need to clean registry as described in this post. Alternatively, you should be able to manually re-enable ClaimMaster add-in from Word Options->Add-ins menu.
Vista/Windows 7 Installation
If you are an administrator installing on a Vista machine where the user does not have administrative privileges, you will need to perform an additional step after installation. Once the installation process compeles, copy the ClaimMaster.dot file from C:\Program Files\ClaimMaster to the user's Word Startup directory:
In
Word 2003, to locate or change the Word Startup setting, click Options on the Tools menu,
and then click the File
Locations tab.
In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Word Options, click the Advanced tab, and then click File Locations.
The default location for the Startup folder in Word 2003 or in Word 2007 is as follows:
In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Word Options, click the Advanced tab, and then click File Locations.
The default location for the Startup folder in Word 2003 or in Word 2007 is as follows:
C:\Documents
and Settings\Username\Application
Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
Note Username is the
logon name of the user.
Click this link from
Microsoft for more information.The reason this is necessary is because there is no way for the installer in Vista to figure out the name of the originally logged in user - the installer will always get the name of the user with elevated privileges (admin).
License Activation
If you try to activate your trial version with a purchased license id/password and receive the following message: "Activation Failed. Code 4," that means that you are either (1) not connected to the Internet or (2) behind a firewall that blocks certain outgoing connections/ports required to connect to the license server. Please use the steps explained in this document to activate your license manually. If you continue to experience problems, please contact us.
Parsing of Claims
ClaimMaster attempts to automatically extract claims from your document, no matter where they are located. Because document writing styles vary, sometimes automatic detection does not work as well as intended.
However, you can fine-tune ClaimMaster to your internal document structure by having it parse only the text region which contains claims. This will drastically cut down on the number of parsing errors and also improve the parsing speed. In order to adjust ClaimMaster to your document, you need to specify the words that indicate the start and the end of the claims section. For example, “Claims:” and “Abstract.” You can do this using the "ClaimMaster->Help->Configure Claim Section Boundaries..." feature. This utility lets you set the first and the last word in the claims section. When ClaimMaster attempts to find claims in the document, it will first search for the claim section between the specified first and the last delimiters. If it finds the section, it will only parse claims from within that claim section. Please view this flash tutorial on how to specify claim section boundaries.
Notes: this feature uses Word's internal Find function, which is occasionally inconsistent. Therefore, it is recommended that you test the delimiters on your documents using the "Test" button to make sure that the software identifies the correct claim section. If your claim section is the last section in the document (i.e., it does not have a natural end boundary, like "Abstract" or "Remarks"), the software will not pick it up automatically. You will need to add your own artificial boundary, such as "end_of_claims" to make sure that the software properly identifies the section. You might also want to remove delimiters not used in your documents to reduce the likelihood of the software searching in the wrong section.
In addition, if for some reason ClaimMaster still cannot automatically detect claims in your document, you can force it to parse only the selected claim region by selecting/highlighting the region in Word and then pressing "Parse/Re-parse Claims..." button. This method similarly allows you to selectively parse only the chosen claims without going through the entire document.
NOTE: to be recognized, claims must be annotated using the <number><period> format, such as "1. A method of.." If you are missing a period after the claim number, the claim will not parse properly.
Foreign Versions of Windows
If you are using a localized version of Windows (e.g., Japanese) and the software does not appear to properly parse claims, please make sure that your "Primary Editing Language" in Word is set to English, not your local language. In Word 2007, this option is available under "Word Options->Popular->Language Settings->Primary Editing Language."
IDS Form Creator
To view page images in the IDS browser, you will need to:
1. To view EPO documents - make sure that your Adobe Acrobat/Reader is set to "Display PDFs in browser" by enabling the approriate checkbox in Adobe's preferences (by default, it should be on already.) You can get to that option through "Preferences->Internet" in Adobe Acrobat/Reader.
2. To view USPTO documents - register AlternaTIFF, which is a free IE plug-in that the USPTO makes available for viewing patent images from their website. (Tip: you can type in essentially anything into the registration dialog - it
does not check for validity of the typed data)
3. IMPORTANT: if you are using Vista with Internet Explorer 7+, you
must add the following
eight USPTO/EPO web-locations to the “Trusted sites” section in
the “Internet Options->Security” section of the Internet Explorer (see snapshot
below). Otherwise, the program will not work and you will get an error. This
happens because the security settings in Vista do not allow opening of supposedly
“untrusted” sites directly by the application. Thus, to view the images, you must make
the USPTO sites “trusted.” The relevant USPTO/EPO sites are:
the “Internet Options->Security” section of the Internet Explorer (see snapshot
below). Otherwise, the program will not work and you will get an error. This
happens because the security settings in Vista do not allow opening of supposedly
“untrusted” sites directly by the application. Thus, to view the images, you must make
the USPTO sites “trusted.” The relevant USPTO/EPO sites are:
a. http://patft.uspto.gov - PTO
patent data site
b. http://patimg1.uspto.gov – PTO patent images 1 site
c. http://patimg2.uspto.gov – PTO patent images 2 site.
d. http://appft1.uspto.gov - PTO publications data site 1
e. http://appft2.uspto.gov – PTO publications data site 2
f. http://aiw1.uspto.gov – PTO publications images 1 site
g. http://aiw2.uspto.gov – PTO publications images 2 site.
h. http://v3.espacenet.com - EPO patent data site
Make sure that “server verification” box is unchecked.
b. http://patimg1.uspto.gov – PTO patent images 1 site
c. http://patimg2.uspto.gov – PTO patent images 2 site.
d. http://appft1.uspto.gov - PTO publications data site 1
e. http://appft2.uspto.gov – PTO publications data site 2
f. http://aiw1.uspto.gov – PTO publications images 1 site
g. http://aiw2.uspto.gov – PTO publications images 2 site.
h. http://v3.espacenet.com - EPO patent data site
Make sure that “server verification” box is unchecked.
NOTE #2: On the other hand, if you are using Windows 7, having the above websites set as "trusted" actually seems to cause a problem. Therefore, for Windows 7 make sure to NOT have the above websites selected as "trusted."
