Installing the task-pane add-in

• Download the manifest: manifest.xml. Don't edit it — Word rejects manifests with even small mistakes.
• Check your Word version: the add-in needs Word 2016 or later on Windows/Mac (Microsoft 365 recommended), or Word on the web. On Windows it also needs Microsoft Edge WebView2, which Microsoft 365 installs automatically.
• Already have an older StyleSweep add-in installed? Remove it first — see Removing & updating below. Two versions side by side confuse Word.
• Considered the macro instead? On desktop Word the VBA plugin is more capable and much easier to install. The add-in's main purpose is Word on the web and machines where macros are blocked.

1. Open any document at word.cloud.microsoft (or office.com).
2. On the Home tab, click Add-ins (older layouts: Insert → Add-ins).
3. Click More Add-ins, then the My Add-ins tab.
4. Click Upload My Add-in (top-right of the dialog), browse to manifest.xml, and click Upload.
5. A StyleSweep button appears on the Home tab. Click it to open the pane.

Desktop Word on Windows won't take a manifest file directly; it reads them from a network folder you've told it to trust. The trick is sharing a folder on your own machine so it has a network path. One-time setup, about five minutes.

Step 1 — Create and share a folder

1. Create a folder for the manifest, e.g. C:\WordAddins, and copy manifest.xml into it.
2. Right-click the folder → Properties → Sharing tab → Share…
3. Your own user name is already in the list; click Share, then Done.
4. Back on the Sharing tab, note the Network Path, e.g.:

Step 2 — Tell Word to trust it

1. In Word: File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings… → Trusted Add-in Catalogs.
2. Paste the network path into Catalog Url and click Add catalog.
3. Tick the Show in Menu box next to the new entry.
4. Click OK twice, then close Word completely and reopen it (this step is required).

Step 3 — Add the add-in

1. Home → Add-ins → More Add-ins (older Word: Insert → My Add-ins).
2. Open the Shared Folder tab.
3. Select StyleSweep and click Add.
4. The StyleSweep button appears on the Home tab; click it to open the pane.

1. Quit Word.
2. In Finder, press ⌘+⇧+G (Go to Folder) and paste:

3. If the wef folder doesn't exist, go to the Documents folder one level up and create a folder named exactly wef.
4. Copy manifest.xml into it.
5. Start Word. Go to Insert → Add-ins → My Add-ins and click the small dropdown arrow next to "My Add-ins" — StyleSweep appears under Developer Add-ins. Click it.
6. The StyleSweep button appears on the ribbon; click it to open the pane.

If you administer Microsoft 365, skip sideloading entirely and use Centralized Deployment: in the Microsoft 365 admin center go to Settings → Integrated apps → Upload custom apps, upload manifest.xml, and assign it to users or groups. The add-in then appears in everyone's Word automatically (web and desktop), and you can remove or update it centrally. This also works when sideloading is disabled for end users.

Word on the web

1. Home → Add-ins → More Add-ins → My Add-ins.
2. Find StyleSweep, click the … menu in the corner of its tile, choose Remove.

Word for Windows

1. Remove the tile: My Add-ins → Shared Folder tab → the add-in disappears from Word once its manifest is gone, so:
2. Delete manifest.xml (and any older StyleSweep manifests) from your shared folder (e.g. C:\WordAddins).
3. If you want to remove the whole mechanism, also delete the catalog entry under File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings → Trusted Add-in Catalogs.
4. If a ghost of the old version lingers, clear Word's add-in cache: close all Office apps and delete the contents of:

(paste that into File Explorer's address bar; deleting the contents is safe — Word rebuilds the cache).

Word for Mac

1. Quit Word and delete the StyleSweep manifest.xml from the wef folder (path in the Mac section above).
2. If an old version lingers, also clear the cache by deleting the contents of:

3. Restart Word.