FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Look further down for specific Mac-questions.

Can I get support?
Schools can sign a partnership with EDUAP, giving access to support. read more here: WordMat Partnership.
You have the following options to solve problems on your own:

1. Below is an FAQ describing the most common problems

2. WordMats YouTube site also has videos to help. There are videos describing many of the problems in the FAQ in more detail.

3.  WordMat’s GitHub site has an online discussion forum, where you can ask for help or search for answers.

4. On WordMat’s GitHub site you can see if your problems already has been recorded as an issue.

5. On WordMat’s Facebook page you might also find comments that help.

What is WordMat ?
An addon to Word, which creates an extra ribbon menu in Word. The ribbon adds math functionality to Word, which for instance makes Word able to solve equations, plot graphs, number equations and convert to Latex.

Who uses WordMat?
WordMat was originally designed for ‘high school’-level math. It is however very versatile and is also used by primary schools and higher education schools and universities. About 10.000 download WordMat every month.

Is WordMat really free?
Yes, WordMat core is open source released under Gnu General Public License. However WordMat is an aggregate of different components with different licenses. See more here: WordMath-license

WordMat core is open source, but where is the source code?
Can be found on WordMats GitHub site.
WordMat is comprised of the following code
– VBA embedded in the wordmat.dotm file.
– VBA embedded in the embedded Excel-files
– Maxima-lisp code changes made to the maxima installation
– c and c# API to communicate between WordMat and Maxima

How about Mac-computers?
WordMat support Office 2011, 2016 and 2019 for Mac. Support for the 2011 version (1.04) has ended. There are some minor differences between the Windows and Mac version.
Support for Monterey on Intel macs not ready yet. Updates to the MacOs has often been cause of WordMat not working. Generally Don’t update the MacOS until you know it has WordMat support.

Where do I get more information?
Read the Manual, which can be accessed from the help-menu, once installed.

Which versions of Office are supported?
You can use Office 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, o365 but not earlier versions. WordMat does not work with Word online or mobile versions.
Support for Office 2007 has ended. The last version to support Office 2007 is v. 1.10

I think I found a new bug. How do I report the bug?
Please check that the bug hasn’t been described here before you submit an issue. Bugs are reported as an issue on WordMats GitHub site
Before you submit an issue read how to here: Contributing

The installer says Word is not installed
Check Office version supported above.

WordMat ribbon doesn’t appear after installation
It can be caused by a OEM-version of Office. An Office installation which was on the computer when you bought it. Only solution currently is to install Office from office.com.

WordMat reports ‘class not registered’
There can be several issues causing this.
First try to fix or reinstall office. Go to ‘add or remove programs’ Find Office on the list. Could be called ‘Microsoft 365 – da-dk’ or ‘Microsoft 365 App for enterprise – da-dk’.
Right click and choose edit. Then online repair. After the repair has completed WordMat must be reinstalled.
It can also be caused by antivirus disrupting the installation. Completely remove antivirus, and reinstall WordMat.

Error: – compile error …
Try reinstalling. Probably a problem with your Word-installation. Could require a complete reinstall of Office.
On a Mac this error is probably caused by Word 2016 not being updated.

WordMat locks or reports an error.

  • Try to deactivate antivirus. Also try to reinstall with antivirus deactivated. Often Antivirus software must be completely uninstalled.
    You could also try to change the Cas engine to GeoGebra under settings. Often
     the error only relates to Maxima
  • WordMat will not work if the document is on a network drive.This error can be periodic. On a mac using Parallels ”shared folders” must be deactivated. In Word the default drive could be set to a network drive. Check in Word / Settings / Save

WordMat suddenly disappeared from the Ribbon in Word.
Word has deactivated WordMat. You can reactivate it in startmenu / all programs / WordMat / Reactivate WordMat. You can manually activate WordMat from within Word: Files / Settings / Addons / Choose ’Word-Addons’ .Make sure there is a checkmark by WordMat.dotm. Press OK. Another approach: Files / Settings / Addons / Choose ’deactivated elements’. Mark and activate WordMat.dotm.

Error: Can’t create ActiveX component
Reinstall WordMat with antivirus deactivated. Could also be caused by .Net permission problems on your computer.

My Antivirus says WordMat is a trojan horse
Some AntiVirus programs will report a false positive. AVG antivirus has done this in the past for WordMat.

Suddenly WordMat will not calculate anything. It just worked
Try restarting Word. Also under setting advanced you can restart maxima. You might also have an error in a definition in your document, check a clean document. If the error persist it might be a bad setting which is causing the problem like output-units set incorrectly.

WordMat Excel sheet not working as expected
If you save one of the Excel sheets you have to make sure it is saved as an Excel sheet with macros (You will be warned if you try to save it as a regular Excel document, but can easily be overlooked). If you save the Excel sheet as a regular Excel document a lot of the active parts are deleted.

Problems with embedded Excel files
The error ”Serverprogram, source file or object …” appears when double clicking the embedded Excel sheet. The error can be caused by another addon to Excel like Google Cloud Connect. Deactivate the addon in Excel.

I’m asked to activate macros
WordMat will normally not request this. Maybe you have an atypical installation. You can circumvent the problem by lowering the security level, though this is not recommended. Set a checkmark in Excel: Files / Settings / security center / Settings for security center / Settings for macros / Activate all macros.

Equations are not shown correctly in pdf
Try a different program like pdf-creator.

Word will not open the document
Word Files can under certain circumstances be corrupted. Word can try to repair the file. When you open the document from within Word, you can select ‘Open and Repair’ on the bottom. LibreOffice is strangely better at reading the faulty Word files, and if you are using version 4+, it supports the Word equation format. Always make backups in several versions, in several places.

Word locks completely when pressing backspace in an equation
This is a bug in Word. For Word 2016 it has been resolved sinde build 7070.

Word is sluggish
If you have many equations in the document or a slow computer, it can affect speed. There are 3 things you can do
– Remember to insert ”delete definitions” commands in the document. This limits the portion to be searched through to find definitions.
– The speed can be significantly improved if you change to draft view. Find the tab “View” and under document views select Draft. There is also a shortcut to the bottom right of the screen. Under Settings / Advanced can make it possible to start up in draft view
– You can also turn off the display of images from It. It will also make Word faster. Tables also make the document slower to edit.

Compile error on Mac
This is probably because Word isn’t updated to the newest version. Just check for a new update in the menu. Some Mac-computers doesn’t register correctly that a new version has arrived, probably because of an earlier issue with Microsoft Autoupdate. You can manually install the most recent version of Microst AutoUpdate (MAU) here: Update history for Office for Mac