KCM toolbox for Word is blank after applying Microsoft Word updates

Issue

After applying the July 9, 2019 update for Microsoft Word, the KCM toolbox for Word is always blank. The KCM toolbox for Word does not display any field sets and formatting functions.

Cause

Microsoft has introduced breaking changes in the July 9, 2019 office update. These changes are not compatible with the version of the JavaScript API for Office that is used by the KCM toolbox for Word add-in in version 5.3 and earlier. As a result the KCM toolbox for Word does not display field sets and formatting functions anymore.

The following Office builds are affected:

Monthly channel
- Version 1907 (Build 11901.20120)
- Version 1906 (Build 11727.20244)
Semi-Annual Channel/Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)
- Version 1902 (Build 11328.20368)
- Version 1808 (Build 10730.20360)
- Version 1803 (Build 9126.2428)

Solution

This issue has been resolved in KCM 5.3.1. After applying service pack 1 to your KCM 5.3 installation, you must redeploy the KCM Toolbox web application.

As a workaround you can upgrade the JavaScript API for Office or you can downgrade Microsoft Office to a version before the affected version.

Upgrade the JavaScript API for Office

Download the latest JavaScript API for Office from: https://github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/archive/release.zip
Extract the zip archive.
Go to <extracted location>\office-js-release\dist
Copy from this location the files
* o15apptofilemappingtable.js
* office.js
* word-15.01.js
* word-15.02.js
* word-15.js
* wordios-15.js
* word-win32-16.00.js
* word-win32-16.01.js
to
<deployed KCM toolbox>\scripts\office\1.1 on the webserver that hosts the KCM toolbox. You overwrite the files.
For Java based webservers (e.g. Tomcat) it is required to restart the webserver before changes take effect.

Downgrade Microsoft Office

Another option is to downgrade Microsoft Word to a version before the affected version.

See this article on the Microsoft Website for instructions on how to downgrade Microsoft Word.

Level of Complexity

Moderate

Applies to

Product	Version	Build	Environment	Hardware
Kofax Communications Manager	5.1.1.2 to 5.3	n/a	n/a	n/a