VOW Helper
The VOW Helper is a small cross-platform desktop app. It runs in the system tray and lets you click edit buttons in VOW to open files in your native desktop applications. When you're done editing, you trigger Send back from the helper to upload your changes to VOW.
Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
See the helper reference for the full list of actions, statuses, and settings.
Still using the original Windows-only helper? See the legacy helper guide.
Prerequisites
You'll need a personal API key set up before the helper can talk to VOW. See Personal API key for how to generate one.
Installing the helper
Open the downloaded file and follow the install prompts for your platform. On Linux, install the .deb with sudo apt install ./VOW-Helper-latest.deb (or double-click it to open in your package manager).
The installer isn't currently code-signed, so your operating system may warn you that the publisher can't be verified. On Windows, click More info and then Run anyway. On macOS, right-click the app and choose Open the first time you run it.
First-time setup
The first time you run the helper you'll be prompted for your API key — paste the personal API key from your VOW My settings page (see Personal API key for how to find or generate one).
Other settings (server URL, local file directory, etc.) come with sensible defaults and can be changed later from the helper's settings page if you need to.
If you change the local file directory and you use OneDrive, iCloud Drive, or another file-syncing service, choose a folder that's not inside a synced location. Sync conflicts can interfere with the edit/save workflow.
Editing files
Click the edit button on any editable attachment in VOW:
| Flat view | Folder view (context menu) |
|---|---|
 |  |
Your browser will ask you once whether to open vowhelper:// links with the VOW Helper — tick the "always" option so you don't have to confirm every time. The helper will launch automatically if it isn't already running.
The helper then:
- Downloads the attachment to your local file directory
- Opens it in the default application for that file type (Word, Excel, etc.)
When you've finished editing, save and close the file, then open the helper and click Send back on the file to upload your changes to VOW and unlock the attachment.
When you edit a report, related attachments (images, supporting documents, etc.) are downloaded alongside it so you can insert them directly from your file browser. Use Open folder in the helper to see all the files for a given edit in one place.
Managing checked-out files
The helper's home screen shows a list of all files you currently have checked out, grouped by the record they belong to. From there you can:
- Open — re-open a file in its default editor
- Open folder — show the file in your OS file manager
- Send back — upload the current version back to VOW, unlock the attachment, and remove the local copy
- Discard — unlock the file on VOW and delete your local copy without uploading
- Discard all — available from the record's context menu; discards every file in the group at once
Each file also shows a status indicator that tells you what stage the workflow is at — e.g. Ready to edit, Editing, Sending back…, or Close file to finish cleanup. See the helper reference for the full list.
Running in the system tray
Closing the helper window hides it to your system tray rather than quitting the app — this way it's ready to receive edit links from your browser without cluttering your taskbar. To actually quit the helper, use the tray icon menu or your OS's quit shortcut.
The settings page
Most defaults work out of the box, but you can adjust them from the helper's Settings page:
- VOW server — live or test. A custom-host option also exists but is primarily for development use.
- API key — the personal API key the helper uses to talk to VOW. Use Test connection after changing it to confirm authentication is working.
- Local file directory — where checked-out files are stored while you edit them.
- Auto-cleanup threshold — how many days old a file must be before the helper removes it on startup. Default is 5 days.
- Theme — light, dark, or follow your system theme.
- Log verbosity — how much detail is shown in the in-app log panel. All log levels are always written to the log file regardless of this setting.
The Open logs button on the settings page opens the helper's log directory in your file manager — useful if you need to send logs when reporting an issue.
Troubleshooting
The edit button downloads a file instead of opening the helper
Check that you selected Current (v2) under Settings | My settings | Integration in VOW for the Helper version. If it's set to Legacy (v1), the browser will download a .vowxfer file instead of opening a vowhelper:// link.
My browser doesn't ask to open the helper
The first click on an edit button should prompt your browser to open the vowhelper:// link with the VOW Helper. If that prompt doesn't appear, check that the helper is installed, then try again.
My changes haven't reached VOW
Saving and closing the file in Word or Excel isn't enough on its own — open the helper and click Send back on the file to upload your changes and unlock the attachment in VOW.
The file says "Close file to finish cleanup"
After a Send back or Discard, the helper needs to delete the local copy of the file. If Word, Excel, or another app still has the file open, the operating system won't let the helper remove it. Close the file in your editor and the helper will finish the cleanup automatically.