FAQs
We present a selection of questions we often hear. If you can’t find an answer to your question here, please let us know.
Plain Language Queries
Q. What is a hidden verb and should I always rephrase it?
Product Evaluation Queries
Q. I would like to evaluate VisibleThread, how do I start?
Q. Is the evaluation fully functional or restricted?
Q. How does VisibleThread figure out issues in documents?
Q. For the on-premise offering, what technical considerations are there for deployment?
Add-in Queries
Q. What versions of MS Word does VisibleThread support?
Q. What versions of MS Excel does VisibleThread support?
Q. I am working on non-VisibleThread documents, can I hide VisibleThread in MS Word?
Best Practices
Q. What kinds of Best Practices ship out of the box?
Q. Can I customize Best Practices?
Q. Our organization already have Word document templates, can we use them?
Q. Can I mix and match Best Practices in the same document set?
Q. Q. What is a hidden verb and should I always rephrase it?
A. a hidden verb is a verb converted into a noun. It often needs an extra verb to make sense. For example, in the sentence :
“Please make an application for a personal loan”
the noun “an application” is really hiding the verb “to apply”. This could be re-phrased as :
“Please apply for a personal loan”.
Here are some more examples :
- “Our document will be compliant with XYZ regulations” -> “Our document will comply with XYZ regulations”
- “Appendix A provides a summary of the performance requirements” -> “Appendix A summarises the performance requirements”
- “The Delivery Manager takes the lead in collaboration with the customer” -> “The Delivery Manager leads collaboration with the customer”
The following website gives a more detailed explanation of hidden verbs and shows examples of how to “uncover” them : http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/wordsuggestions/hiddenverbs.cfm
It should be pointed out – Sometimes it makes sense to say it with hidden verbs. But generally it’s best to reduce occurrences of passive language and hidden verbs.
To yield the best results, you should address plain language issues in this order :
- long sentences
- passive language
- hidden verbs
For the full low down on plain language, here is the Federal plain language guidelines document:
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/bigdoc/fullbigdoc.pdf
Q. I would like to evaluate VisibleThread, how do I start?
A. You can evaluate a fully functional copy of VisibleThread, available as a software service (SaaS) by signing up for our .
The free evaluation provides you with your own sandbox, along with full administrative user privileges allowing you to add colleagues as users, etc. We encourage you to upload documents and see the results. Once you’ve signed up, the dashboard will allow you download the MS Word Add-in to edit documents. We recommend that you try the Add-in. Back To Top
Q. Is the evaluation fully functional or restricted in any way?
A. No, the evaluation is fully functional and has no restrictions.
Q. How does VisibleThread figure out issues in documents?
A. VisibleThread scans content automatically as soon as documents are uploaded. This scan identifies document aspects, such as noun frequency (used in the discovery area) and quality. VisibleThread also discovers how the content compares against structural Best Practice. (see FAQ on what is a Best Practice?).
Q. For the on-premise offering, what technical considerations are there for deployment?
A. The VisibleThread on-premise offering is delivered as an “appliance.” This means all dependent software is in it’s own VM (Virtual Machine) and runs with minimal configuration. Contact our support team for more information.
Q. What versions of MS Word does VisibleThread support?
A. VisibleThread supports the following versions of MS-Word:
- Word 2010
- Word 2007
- Word 2003 (SP 3)
The VisibleThread “add-in” feature has run successfully on other minor versions of Word within these families without any reported problems. For instance, VisibleThread has run without problems on all versions of Word 2003 (plain Word 2003, and with service packs 1, 2, and 3 installed). However, the above versions are officially certified by VisibleThread. If you run into difficulty running the add-in feature on these two versions please contact our support team.
Q. What versions of MS Excel does VisibleThread support?
A. VisibleThread supports the following versions of MS-Excel:
- Excel 2010
- Excel 2007
The VisibleThread “add-in” feature has run successfully on other minor versions of Excel within these families without any reported problems. If you run into difficulty running the add-in feature on these two versions please contact our support team.
Q. I am working on non-VisibleThread documents, can I hide VisibleThread in MS Word?
A. The VisibleThread Add-in can be easily be hidden.
For MS Word 2007 users, click the VisibleThread ribbon and hit the VisibleThread toggle button, for MS Word 2003, click the VisibleThread toggle button on the VisibleThread menu bar.
Additionally, when you open docs in MS Word with the VisibleThread Add-in installed, the add-in checks the VisibleThread server to ascertain status for documents. This can take a small amount of time depending on network connection speed etc. although in general, it is not noticeable. When you are working exclusively with non-VisibleThread docs, then you can completely avoid any delay by ‘Signing out’ of the add-in first and then making the add-in hidden.
Signing out ensures that the add-in is not checking the VisbleThread server each time you open a non-VisibleThread document. Once signed out then follow the instructions to make it hidden as outlined above.
Q. I get an error installing the prerequisites for the VisibleThread Add-in, the installer directs me to an install log. What’s happening?
A. The prerequisite installer downloads required components from the Microsoft website and installs them on your system. On occasion, these files may not be downloaded. If this is the case the install.log file that is referred to in the error message will contain a message similar to this one:
Error: Setup has detected that the file ‘C:\DOCUME~1\XXX\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD3858.tmp\VSTOR30\VSTOR30.exe’ has changed since it was initially published
If this is the case you need to delete the offending file (in the example above it would be the VSTOR30\VSTOR30.exe file) and re-run the installation process. This should download the file again and install it.
A. Best Practices in VisibleThread are ways to specify which content is expected to produce a quality IT document. For example, if you expect to see certain sections mentioned or completed in a document like “Security,” this should be specified as part of a Best Practice. Best practices come in two forms: “structure” and “quality” Best Practices.
Structure Best Practices verify that particular structural components are present within the document(s).
If you’re defining a transaction oriented system, such as an online tax system or a billing system, then the absence of performance and security “non-functional” requirements exposes high levels of risk at an early stage in your project. To avoid this, you should create a Structure Best Practice with headings like “security,” “performance,” etc. This ensures that specified content is present in your IT documentation.
Quality Best Practices focus on categorized language sets that, if found, indicate potential problem areas in the document(s). For example, the terms “appropriate” and “high” in the following sentence is impossible to measure and test for: “We must deliver appropriate levels of up time, given high user volumes.” This kind of ambiguous language can increase the risk of poorly-architected IT systems, plus heightens the probability of late stage architectural rework.
Q. What types of Best Practices ship out of the box?
A. VisibleThread ships with two default practices, one for structure and one for quality. The structure default practice covers:
- Project Drivers
- Performance
- Functional and data
- Security
- Usability
The quality default practice covers:
- Incompleteness (e.g. ‘?’, ‘TBD’, ‘TO DO’…)
- Ambiguity (e.g. ‘appropriate’, ‘many’, ‘high’…)
- Optionality (e.g. ‘maybe’, ‘possibly’, ‘perhaps’…)
- Imprecise (e.g. ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘enough’…)
Both structure and quality default practices can be modified to suit your organization’s requirements, or used to form the basis of a new Best Practice.
Q. Can I customize Best Practices?
A. Yes, you can customize Best Practices in four ways:
- Create a new Best Practice by duplicating an existing Best Practice
- Modify an existing practice by making your changes and saving
- Create a new Best Practice from scratch
- Create a new Best Practice based on an existing document, for instance an ISO specification
To create a new Best Practice based on an existing document, follow the steps outlined in “Q. Our organization already has Word document templates, can we use them?”
Q. Our organization already has Word document templates, can we use them?
A. Many organizations will have a collection of word templates that they use for vision statements, functional requirements, use cases etc. VisibleThread is explicitly designed to support these templates.
To use existing templates, follow these steps:
- In the dashboard, create a doc set, let’s call it “reference docs,” add one of your template documents to it.
- Once added, launch Microsoft Word so that structural analysis is conducted on the doc.
- Revert back to the dashboard, select the document and click the “Create new Best Practice from current document” button in the 2nd pane, on the right hand side.
Q. Can I mix-and-match Best Practices in the same document set?
A. Yes. A document set can include different types of document side-by-side, and specific Best Practices can be applied to given documents.
