Summary:

Upon attempting to start ShoWorks, you receive an error message:

followed by

Cause:

The machine running ShoWorks has an incompatible bit-version of Microsoft Office installed. This may occur on a machine that has never had ShoWorks sucessfully running on it, or on a machine that has recently updated/installed Microsoft Office with the incorrect bit-version.

ShoWorks is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Office from 2010 through 2019 as long as they are the 32-bit (not 64-bit) versions. For a comprehensive list of ShoWorks versions and their compatibilities with Microsoft Office, see http://fairsoftware.com/articledetail.aspx?AID=117019

See Minimum Requiements here: http://fairsoftware.com/commonquestions.aspx

See why Microsoft recommends against the 64-bit version of Office in most cases here: http://tinyurl.com/msoffice64bit

Note: Do not confuse Microsoft "Office" (must be 32-bit) with Microsoft "Windows" (must be 64-bit). Office is a suite of productivity applications like Word, Excel, Access and Windows is your operating system.

Solution:

1. Verifiy your version of Microsoft Office version by following the steps here: http://tinyurl.com/msoffice64bitcheck (you must have the 32-bit version and NOT the 64-bit version). If you are running 64-bit Office, proceed to the next step.
2. Uninstall all Microsoft Office applications.
3. Install Microsoft Office in the correct bit version (32-bit).
4. Activate Microsoft Office. See https://tinyurl.com/swactivateoffice
5. Install ShoWorks.