Contract Tools Won’t Start Due to an Error

  • What happens: When you open Word, an alert message about Contract Tools appears. The Contract Tools ribbon tab (see The Contract Tools Ribbon Tab) fails to appear, or appears with most buttons disabled. The Contract Tools pane (see The Contract Tools Pane) fails to appear.

  • What this means: It’s possible that a Contract Tools prerequisite is missing; see Prerequisites for Installing Contract Tools for a list of prerequisites. It’s also possible that the file in which Contract Tools preferences are saved is damaged.

  • What you should do: Make sure that Contract Tools’ prerequisites are installed. A simple way to do this is to uninstall and reinstall Contract Tools; see Uninstalling Contract Tools and Installing Contract Tools to learn how. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you can make Word create a new, undamaged Contract Tools preferences file with default preferences.

To make Word create a new Contract Tools preferences file:

  1. Quit Word.

  2. Open File Explorer and go to C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft_Corporation. If you can’t see the AppData folder, choose View > Show > Hidden items in File Explorer.

  3. In the Microsoft_Corporation folder, there should be a subfolder with a name that begins with PaperSoftwareContractTool_. Move this subfolder to the Recycle Bin. (This subfolder is created and managed by Word. It contains subfolders named with Word version numbers, and each of these subfolders contains a file named user.config. These files contain the preferences you set in the Preferences view.)

  4. Open a document in Word to start Contract Tools.

If Contract Tools still won’t start, email support@papersoftware.com.

If no alert messages appear when you open Word but Contract Tools still fails to start, see Contract Tools Won’t Start. If the Contract Tools pane doesn’t appear even though the Contract Tools ribbon tab appears as expected, see The Contract Tools Pane Won’t Appear.