Office Routing Plus Features

Office Routing Plus™ (ORP) is an international leader in sequential workflow. Our products run as add-ins inside of either Excel, Word, or Outlook. Our Excel and Word add-in allows you to route MS Office 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 Word documents and 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Office 365 Excel Spreadsheets. Our Outlook add-in allows you to route any type of document and multiple documents can be routed for review in one routing process. Originally developed as a fix to the Missing Routing Slip problem, ORP has developed into an enterprise solution that covers your workflow and document approval needs.

FEATURES COMMON TO BOTH ORP STANDARD AND ORP ENTERPRISE
• Expect all the routing features found in Microsoft Office 2000, 2002/XP, 2003 plus more.
• Setup routing slips and route to next recipient right from within Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Works in Mixed Office Environment. Our ORP plug-in installs on and routes documents across Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, Office 365, and 2019. Microsoft Excel and Word Documents can be routed back and forth between users on any combination of the above versions of Microsoft Office (Note: ORP will need to be installed even on 2000/2002/2003 machines and routing from these machines will need to be performed by ORP instead of the built in routing that existed on 2000/2002/2003 machines).
• Reject document feature allows downstream recipients to reject a document with a comment and this goes back to the initiator with the document and a rejected status in the routing slip.
• ORP can be configured to automatically delete the message that was routed to you from your Outlook inbox when you route this document to the next recipient (the deleted message will show in your deleted folder in Outlook. Note this feature is enabled by default but users may turn this off if they'd like by using the configuration button).
• For many users, the old built-in Microsoft Office 2003 routing would throw a Microsoft Outlook security prompt every time a document was routed. These annoying prompts will not show in Office Routing Plus.
• Linkable to Microsoft Outlook Global Address List or Outlook Address Book. This feature allows you to choose to route recipients that are displayed in your organization's Microsoft Active Directory store.
• Supports email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, or any other email program you use. Runs on emails services like Microsoft Exchange and Gmail.
• The ability to setup routing slips and route to next recipient right from within Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Create a list of recipients and save this list of for one-click retrieval of the current document (or any other documents) later. Also supports routing templates.
• ORP displays a message when Microsoft Excel or Word is closed indicating the document has an attached routing slip if the document has not already been routed to the next recipient.
• Routing slips work with Microsoft Office 2003 on Microsoft Windows 7 (many users who upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 but stay on Microsoft Office 2003 find that Microsoft Office routing no longer works; Office Routing Plus fixes this problem).
• Initiators can track the status of each routing document by status tracking messages that clearly show the status of the routing slip each time someone downstream routes a document. Optionally, initiators can have the updated document attached to this status email.
• New to version 4.0 - any user can receive status messages and any user can be enrolled to recieve the updated file at each step or only when the document has completed routing.
• User comments stay with the routing slip
• Retains the "return when done" option from the 2003 Microsoft Office routing mechanism, which sends the finalized document (with any changes) back to the routing initiator. Office Routing Plus also allows the routing initiator to optionally receive the updated document after each user routes it, rather than just at the end of the routing life cycle.
• Handles the out of office situation. Allows document to skip over the person who is out without compromising the integrity of the route path.
• Reset and Delete Routing Slip options. Deleting a routing slip from an Office document in the native Office routing tool was very complicated. With ORP, you simply click "Delete Slip"
• Use ORP together with the "track changes" and comments features of Microsoft Office for a more comprehensive and powerful routing approval process. Toggle on/off the tracking feature right from within ORP for each routing document. If downstream recipients turn the track changes feature off from within MS Word, ORP will turn it back on when the document is routed to the next recipient.
• Visual status label box at top clearly shows status of document.
• Written in "managed code" (utilizing Microsoft .NET Framework), meaning this program is more robust than many add-ins.
• Mature application, which has been deployed to multiple environments.
• Available in multiple languages and configured for international settings (such as regional dates and times, etc).
• Use VBA to programmatically add recipients for routing based on document content through the Office Routing Plus Programming API.

ORP ENTERPRISE FEATURES (Go to the ORP Enterprise Page)

• Introduces routing history and routing templates. Each routing process you initiate or approve will be captured locally to a local database on your computer and ORP Enterprise will allow you to view the routing history (it is even possible to pull up the exact copy of the approved or initiated document; you may also quickly pull up frequently initiated routing documents from your template history).
• Status subscriptions have more granular options and controls than Standard version. In Enterprise any user can sign up (or be signed up) to recieve tracking emails on the routing process with the following options: Status Emails - File Only at End; Status Emails Only; Status Emails with Updated File at Each Step; No Status Emails - File Only at End. In the Standard version the only options are: Status Emails - File Only at End; and Status Emails -- Updated File at Each Step.
• (MS Word Only) - When routing to users with the "All at Once" option, when documents come back to the initiator, he/she will have the option to merge changes from each file that is returned from each user to the original initiated document (with track changes showing changes from each of the recipients).
• Introduces enhanced comments tracking and management platform so comments remain with routing slip, and collaboration dialogs are clear, readable, and intended to remain part of routing process.
• Comments can be spell checked in Enterprise version
• Initiators can set a flag for follow-up with date and due by date/reminders for themselves and for the downstream recipients. We're also allowing you to set a due date on the entire workflow process. In addition, you can get an option to track routes with Microsoft Outlook Tasks tool.
• Print and Archive the final document and/or routing slip information to native Microsoft Word/Excel format or to PDF.
• Initiators can tell the system to send themselves a reminder email and/or flag for follow-up message to help remember to push each document to completion.
• Mid-stream users will be able to collect feedback from others in the flow without the need to disrupt the flow with an unwanted approval or rejection.
• Initiators and recipients can send any routing document for delay.
• Initiators and recipients can send any routing document on High Priority.
• Introduces "Default Settings" so you don't have to keep entering the same settings on every routing slip you receive or initiate.
• Initiators can lock certain settings so downstream recipients cannot override them (such as track changes).
• Features enhanced document protection. Introduces the ability to route documents that are automatically placed under one of several protection modes:
  • Track changes only
  • Comments only
  • Read-only
  • Fill-in forms only