ClaimMaster preferences


ClaimMaster provides a number of ways to customize the software and store/configure settings for various features. The majority of settings are accessible from the "Preferences" menu.


Getting Started

To configure ClaimMaster's preferences, perform the following steps:


  • In Word 2007 or later, from the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the Preferences, Extra Tools, Help menu, then Preferences menu.



Feature Options

Next, the Preferences dialog will appear. From here you, can set various preferences for ClaimMaster. Below are the available options in the Preferences dialog:


General Settings



    1. Configures section headers for identifying document sections.
    2. Configures claim viewer settings.
    3. Here you can enable docking of the reporting/patent drafting windows and also specify their location when docked (e.g., right/left custom task pane in Word) or floating next to the Word document. If docking is disabled, reporting windows will float on top of the currently open Word document.
      1. Note: you can also disable resizing of form contents, which may be helpful to prevent wrong control sizes getting selected when you have a monitor with high DPI and a large scaling factor set.
    4. If this option is checked, ClaimMaster will minimize Word during processing operations. This is often effective for improving the ClaimMaster's processing speed on slower connections, usually when it is installed on a terminal server or Citrix.
    5. If this option is enabled (by default), then boilerplate entries will be loaded and stored during the initial start of ClaimMaster.  If it's disabled, then ClaimMaster will not load boilerplate entries automatically, which helps in certain environments where users do not have sufficient permissions to modify and save ClaimMaster template, which causes warnings when users quit Word. 
    6. If enabled (default), Microsoft equations will be linearized (if shown in "Professional" format) in the document during claim parsing to avoid parsing issues. They'll be turned back to "Professional" view if their format was changed for parsing.
    7. If enabled, when amendments are converted from Track Changes to regular underline/strike-through formatting, any deleted or inserted leading/trailing spaces for each selected word would be also be included into conversion.
    8. If enabled, ClaimMaster will detect claim # 1 in the claim set when it's placed out of order with the other claims in the set (e.g., at the end of the clam set). By default, detection of such out-of-order claims is disabled to minimize false positives due to incorrect claim detection in more complex documents where some non-claim sections resemble claims.
    9. If the "Track usage" checkbox is enabled, ClaimMaster will keep track of which features are used.  By clicking on "Statistics", you'll be able to review your usage statistics over time.
    10. Sets font size for the reporting windows
    11. Clicking this button will allow you to import ClaimMaster settings from another file.  It will bring up a window where you can point ClaimMaster to another setting file (cm_settings.txt), such as the backed up file from a previous installation/configuration.  For example, you may have previously configured custom OA citation settings and want to re-import them after a reinstall. To import settings, click on the magnifying glass button to select a settings file, then pick one or more settings to import (you can use a filter to quickly select a subset of settings), then click on the "Save" button to import.




Patent Proofreading Settings



    1. Specifies the default format for the results when individual proofreading tools are executed.  By default, reports are opened in the Word task pane, but you can also open them as stand-alone HTML/PDF/Word reports.
    2. If you want to share the HTML report with others, select "Compact format" option for HTML reports, as shown below.  The generated report will be compressed into a single HTML file that can be shared with others.  
    3. Configures claim rules that are used for checking claims for errors.  
    1. Configures document rules that are used for checking document for stylistic issues/patent profanities
    1. Configures default report settings
    2. Configures part-checking rules.
    3. Configures antecedent basis checking preferences
    4. If enabled, ClaimMaster will not report vague claim dependencies, such as "A device for performing all steps as specified in claim 1." Such claim arguable could could be interpreted either as an independent claim or a claim dependent from claim 1.


Patent Drafting Settings



    1. Specifies patent drafting preferences (in Pro+Drafting version).
    2. Specifies auto-Summary templates  (in Pro and Pro+Shells versions)
    3. If this option is checked, ClaimMaster will paste claim summaries and trees directly into the open Word document
    4. Specifies GPT/LLM API settings (in Pro+Drafting version).


Settings for Shells, Templates, and Biblio Data Automation



    1. Configures settings for Word shells
    2. Configures Boilerplate settings
    3. Launches Shell creation wizard
    4. Configures attorney/firm/custom replacement fields
    5. Configures OA Summary settings
    6. Configures Biblio Data settings
    7. Specifies whether to open the Office Action browser/Shell generation tool in the Task Pane
    8. Specifies whether to open Office Actions in PDF format inside Microsoft Word, which will include OCR for the PDF documents in the latest version of Word. If unchecked, PDFs will be OCRed using ClaimMaster's own OCR utility.