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If your organization cannot deploy the GC AI Word Add-in through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, you can install it manually on a Mac using an XML manifest file. This method places the manifest in Word’s local sideload folder (wef), then opens the add-in from Developer Add-ins in Word.
This guide is for Mac users. For Windows, see Manually Installing the Word Add-in via XML Manifest (Windows).
The manifest file is available directly at https://word.getgc.ai/manifest.production.xml (right-click and Save Linked File As… to download) or as a .zip download.
The live manifest URL may be updated at any time as we release new versions of the add-in. Changes to the manifest can cause breaking changes that require you to re-download the file and repeat the installation steps below. For a more stable experience, we recommend using the zip download.

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Before you start

  1. Download the manifest XML (or unzip the zip download) and keep the file somewhere easy to find, such as your Desktop.
  2. Fully quit Microsoft Word. In the Dock, right-click the Word icon and choose Quit. Confirm there is no light under the Word icon (that means Word is still running).

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Steps

  1. Open Terminal. Press Command + Space, type Terminal, and press Return.
  2. Paste this command and press Return. This moves you into Word’s Documents folder (this folder should already exist if Word has been opened on the machine before):
  1. Type open . and press Return. This opens the folder in Finder.
  2. In Finder, look for a folder named wef (all lowercase). If it does not exist, create it. If it already exists (common if you have installed other Word add-ins), open it and continue.
  3. Drag your downloaded manifest XML file into the wef folder. The file should end in .xml. If you used the zip download, unzip it first and copy only the .xml file into wef.
  4. Open Microsoft Word and open a blank document (or any document you already have).
  5. Click Add-ins in the ribbon.
  6. Under Developer Add-ins, select GC AI.
  7. Sign in with your GC AI credentials when prompted.
You should see the GC AI task pane open in Word. You’re ready to draft, review, and redline with GC AI for Word.

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Updating the add-in

When we publish a new manual-install build, replace the old manifest XML in the wef folder with the new file, then fully quit and reopen Word. If the add-in does not appear under Developer Add-ins, confirm the file is inside wef (not a nested folder) and that Word was fully quit before you relaunched it.

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Feedback

If something in this flow is unclear or fails on your machine, tell us through your usual support channel, or use the thumbs-down feedback controls in the add-in.