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The add-in puts a Legalancer panel inside Microsoft Word for walking the findings of the agency’s automatic QA pass without leaving the document. Day to day it’s the agency’s tool — the review runs on their copy of your transcript, and your case manager is the one working through it. You only need the add-in if a case manager sends you a reviewed document and asks you to work the findings yourself, so there’s nothing to install ahead of time. When that day comes, installing is a one-time job; this page covers getting it in, finding it, and un-sticking it. For actually working the findings, see Transcript Review.

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Check the ribbon first

If you work under the agency’s Microsoft 365 account, the add-in may already be deployed for you. Open Word, look at the right side of the Home tab for a group named Legalancer with a button also labelled Legalancer. If it’s there, you’re done — skip to opening the panel.

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Install it

1

Open Word's add-in store

On the Home tab, choose Add-ins, then More Add-ins. Older desktop builds have it under Insert → Get Add-ins; on iPad it’s Insert → Add-ins.
2

Add Legalancer

Search for Legalancer and click Add. The panel usually opens by itself once, right after installing — that’s expected.
3

Confirm it took

Look for the Legalancer button in the Legalancer group on the Home tab. It stays there for every document from now on, on every machine where you use Word signed in with the same account.
If Legalancer doesn’t come up in the store search, your Word is probably too old for add-ins (see the requirements below) or your organization restricts add-in installs. Ask your case manager on the job thread — they can send install instructions for your setup.

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Where it lives in Word

The Legalancer button sits in a group of the same name at the right end of the Home tab; hovering it reads “Opens the Legalancer review panel for this document.” Click it and the Legalancer panel opens as a sidebar on the right side of the document. Two things worth knowing:
  • A reviewed transcript announces itself with a comment on the first line telling you the panel has notes. Open the panel from the ribbon and the comment goes away.
  • On some setups the panel opens on its own when you open a reviewed document. If yours doesn’t, the ribbon button is always the way in.
  • Open the panel on a document that was never reviewed and it says No embedded review. Nothing is wrong — that file simply has no review saved in it.
On iPad there is no ribbon button: open the panel from Insert → Add-ins each time.

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What your Word needs to be

Word has to be reasonably current: Microsoft 365 desktop updated since August 2022, Word on the web, a current Word for Mac, or Office 2024. The older one-time-purchase versions — 2021, 2019, 2016 — can’t run add-ins like this one. If that’s what you have, Word on the web (free with the account your agency work runs through) is the fastest way to a version that works. There’s nothing to keep up to date yourself. Store add-ins update on their own; you never reinstall.

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If the button isn’t there

Work down this list — it’s ordered by how often each one is the answer:
  1. The document opened in Protected View. Word disables add-ins until you click Enable Editing on the yellow bar at the top. Do that first, always.
  2. You’re on a machine or account where the add-in was never added. Install steps above; it follows your Microsoft account, not the computer.
  3. Word was open during the install. The ribbon is built when Word starts — close Word fully and reopen it.
  4. You’re on iPad. No ribbon buttons there; use Insert → Add-ins.
  5. Your Word is one of the older one-time-purchase versions. See the requirements above.
Two messages inside the panel are worth recognising. “Word needs an update” is the requirements problem above under another name. “No embedded review” means the file you opened isn’t the reviewed copy — usually your own upload rather than the one the case manager sent — so go back to the thread or email and open that one. If the panel opens but shows an error, close the panel, save the document, and reopen both — and if it sticks, raise it on the job thread with a screenshot so staff can see exactly what you see.