Hi @Sheldon,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I understand how frustrating it can be to encounter issues with Smokeball's communication with Word, especially during critical moments like conferences.

I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience it has caused. It's important to ensure that Smokeball and Word are communicating seamlessly to provide you with the best user experience.

To address this issue, I'd like to offer assistance in troubleshooting this over a remote session. I have created a support ticket and sent you a calendly link so you can book a suitable time for our session.

Yes, not only with Word, but also with Excel. I pretty much have to open a blank Word document and a blank Excel document each morning in order to get them to work w/ Smokeball. I also suggest saving your work as you are in a document if you are working for hours, like it is 1997, bc occasionally a document will crash and a temporary file will not capture the latest work you have done. 

I have run Office 365 repairs many times, reinstalled Office many times, had Smokeball customer service look at it, problem persists. I was told  I need a computer upgrade, not sure that would address the issue.

@Sheldon I do not have this as a regular problem with Word. Occasionally I might have to reboot my PC - every couple of months. I do not find this to be unusual in my experience of using software.

@tz8800 I tend to have more problems with the connection between Excel and SB than I do MS Word. I have also experienced the need to start with a blank document screen to start interacting with SB. If you are on the “back stage” in either program then I don’t believe the item you are opening from SB will start. Therefore if Word or Excel is not already started I always load the program first then exit the back stage by selecting open black document. Then I open the document I need in SB. 

I just had them reinstall my smokeball because I was having glitches like that and it is working fine now *knock on wood*

Excel is KILLING ME! I’ve restarted, updated, etc. and nothing makes it work right.I occassionally have it with Word but the Excel integration is totally frustrating.

I blame the Bill Gates autocrash feature built into Windows.  After decades on a Mac I simply cannot understand how Windows can still be so unreliable.  Using Parallels so I can have Smokeball on my Mac and it is very evident from the graphics and app functionality since now I have them side by side.  I use the Mac apps whenever possible because they just work.