Microsoft Office Removal

Many Engage functions depend on Microsoft Office to run. This includes things like mail merge, exporting grid data, generating inbuilt reports, viewing documents saved in the DMS and producing Quick Letters.  

Relying on a third-party product can limit changes that can be made to improve speed and user processes. For this reason we have recently completed a project to remove the dependency on MS Office in Engage. These changes have been included in Engage releases since April 2024. The project will be complete in early August. For more information see our MS Office Removal in Engage FAQs. As a result of this project, users will not be required to pay for an MS Office licence in order to use Engage.

Many of the changes are in the background and will result in speed improvements to the time it takes to run grid exports, mail merges and key reports such as Class Marksheet and Aged Debtors. However, some front-end changes to processes in Engage Client have been made:

• Mail Merge – A new Engage Text Editor will be used to complete this process, although most of the functionality will stay the same. Please find the new guide here.
• Creating Labels – This area has seen a number of changes so we recommend that any customers using labels read the new guide here .
• DMS – Some changes have been made in this area. Please see the updated guide here .

In addition to the changes above, new built-in Text Editor and Spreadsheet Editor options will be added to the Documents menu in Engage Client. These can be used to view and amend text and spreadsheet documents within Engage.