Metis Desktop

Metis Desktop brings Helium22's profanity detection and cleaning capability directly to your own computer, for situations where content needs to be screened locally rather than in the cloud. It is the ideal choice when data must stay on your machine or inside your network.

Some organisations handle sensitive documents, datasets or communications that, for privacy, security or regulatory reasons, should not leave their premises. Metis Desktop lets you clean and check that content on-site, keeping full control of your data.

The application scans text for profanity and inappropriate language, then cleans, masks or flags it according to the rules you set. Working locally means fast processing and complete confidence that nothing is transmitted externally.

Metis Desktop is well suited to preparing content for publication, tidying up datasets, checking documents before they are shared, and any workflow where a dependable local language filter saves time and protects your reputation.

Like its cloud counterpart, it is highly configurable, so you can tune sensitivity and vocabulary to match your particular context, audience and standards.

For anyone who needs powerful profanity detection and cleaning without relying on an internet service, Metis Desktop delivers exactly that, quietly and securely, on your own terms.

Microsoft Office add-ins

Metis Desktop belongs to the wider Metis Halo family, and the same Windows installer that puts the desktop scanner on your machine also adds a MetisHalo tab to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Where the desktop application works through files you point it at, the add-ins put the same check inside the document you are already writing.

What each one does

• Word — scan the whole document, or a page range such as 1,3-5, paragraph by paragraph. Matches are highlighted in yellow so you can read them in context and fix them in place, or let the add-in clean them automatically using the same masking rules as the API.
• Excel — scan a single cell, a range, or whatever you currently have selected. Flagged cells are shaded and annotated with the words that matched, and your selection and scroll position are left exactly where they were, so a scan does not lose your place in a large sheet.
• PowerPoint — scan every text shape on every slide, including shapes inside groups and text in tables, or limit the scan to a range of slides. Matches appear in bold red — which makes it a sensible last check on a deck before it goes to a client or on stage at a conference.

Setting it up

The add-in is a single Windows installer that registers the MetisHalo tab in all three applications at once. It installs per user and needs no administrator rights, which matters on a managed or locked-down machine where asking IT for an install is its own small project. Restart any Office application that was already open and the tab appears.

Open Settings once and paste the API key from your MetisHalo account. That one key is shared by Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the desktop scanner, so there is nothing further to configure. From then on it is a Scan button on the ribbon.

Nothing runs as a macro. The add-in is a compiled component rather than embedded code, so Office raises no macro warning, nothing is carried inside the documents you send on, and the add-in survives the macro restrictions that many organisations now enforce by policy.

Where it earns its place

The useful moment is nearly always just before something leaves the building. A deck checked the evening before a conference. A spreadsheet of imported reviews or survey responses checked before it is loaded into a live system. A report, a policy or a customer letter checked before it is signed off. In each case the alternative is reading every line yourself, or finding out afterwards in front of the people you least wanted to find out in front of.

It is equally useful on material you did not write. Imported data, user-submitted content and documents inherited from elsewhere are exactly where unwanted language hides, because nobody has read all of it.

Add-ins or Metis Desktop?

One practical difference decides it. The Office add-ins send the text they scan to the Metis Halo service over an encrypted connection, so they need the internet and an account with available credit; scanning is metered, and the current rates are on metishalo.com. Metis Desktop does its work on your own machine, which is the point of it — when the content must not leave the premises at all, that is the one to reach for.

Most teams end up using both: the add-ins while drafting, where the check belongs next to the typing, and Metis Desktop for the material that cannot travel. If you are not sure which fits your situation, talk to us and we will work it out with you.