Install & setup

What you need

• Windows 10 version 2004 or later, including Windows 11, on an x64 PC.
• Microsoft Word; Microsoft 365 or Office 2016 and later, installed on the same machine. Writespect automates your own copy of Word and has no hosted document service of its own.
• An MCP-capable AI assistant on the same machine. See Connecting your AI assistant.

Writespect does not require an account, an API key, or an internet connection of its own.

Installing

Run the installer and follow the prompts. It installs Writespect, registers it with the AI assistants it finds on your machine, and starts the tray app.

If you are upgrading, close Writespect from the tray first so the running version isn’t holding its own files open.

The system tray

Writespect lives in the system tray (the icons beside the clock; you may need to click the arrow to show hidden icons). The icon is a white W on a blue square inside an orange frame:

• Blue; running and ready.
• Grey; stopped.

Right-click the icon for the menu:

• Check connection…; a plain-language status window: is Writespect running, is Word running, which assistants are connected. Start here whenever something seems wrong.
• Connect; register Writespect with an assistant that wasn’t picked up automatically, or re-register one whose configuration was changed.
• Preferences; tracked-changes behaviour, snapshot retention, and startup. See App settings.
• Open logs folder; the diagnostic log, for support.
• Start / Stop / Restart; the local server.
• Quit; closes Writespect. Your assistant loses its Word tools until you start it again.

Does it start automatically?

By default Writespect starts with Windows, so the tools are there when your assistant looks for them. You can turn that off in Preferences.

Uninstalling

Uninstall from Windows Settings → Apps as normal. Snapshots and logs live in your local application data folder and are not removed automatically; see Tracked changes & review for where they are and how to clear them.