Why is my antivirus flagging ProWritingAid as unsafe?

If your antivirus software flags ProWritingAid as suspicious or unsafe when downloading or installing any of our integrations, this is a false positive. This means that ProWritingAid is safe and that your antivirus is erroneously flagging our software.

You can safely allow the download of installation of the ProWritingAid software.

If this happens to you, you can also get in touch, and we can investigate this for you. Please include additional context, such as:

• The integration being flagged
• Your operating system (Windows or Mac)
• The name and version of your antivirus
• A screenshot of the error message or warning

Using ProWritingAid and Norton AntiVirus

On Windows, Norton AntiVirus installs a plug-in for Microsoft Office that allows it to scan documents for macro virus infections. However, Norton AntiVirus sometimes erroneously flags software created by smaller vendors like ProWritingAid.

Additionally, the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in may cause performance issues and incompatibilities with other Office plug-ins, including our Word Add-in. You can find more information on this article published by Microsoft 365 Support.

If you use Norton AntiVirus, we recommend that you update it to the latest version available. If the problems persist, disable the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in, and then install the ProWritingAid Word Add-in.