Mac/O365 Agent: Features and Limitations

This documentation aims to provide a comprehensive comparison of Agent features between the Windows and Mac/O365 platforms.

Synergy for Mac - Features overview

The Synergy Mac Agent has been developed to extend our product to additional platforms. With a primary goal of porting all functionalities available on Windows to Mac, we have worked diligently to ensure a seamless user experience across both platforms.

On Windows, the VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) framework was used to create the plugins. However, this technology heavily relies on .NET remoting (COM) communication, making it incompatible with Mac. To address this challenge, we ported the plugins to the Office Add-ins platform. For more information to why we chose Office Add-ins, visit: Office Add-ins platform overview - Office Add-ins

Plugins Overview

The Office Add-ins platform has allowed us to port all required plugins for the Synergy suite, enabling support for the same range of applications:

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Outlook

Deployment differences

One key advantage of Office Add-ins is their global deployment capabilities. Unlike traditional software installations, Office Add-ins are deployed globally and not directly on user machines. This simplifies the process and eliminates the need to deploy additional files on user machines or make changes to system configurations.

For more information about the deployment process, refer to our guide: https://getvisibility.atlassian.net/wiki/x/SoAZDw

Endpoints must be able to reach the cluster reliably and have a trusted SSL certificate. If these conditions are not met, the Office Add-ins may not load properly, potentially disrupting users' work.

For example, if the Outlook add-in fails to load, it may prevent users from sending emails.

File Types Overview:

In addition to the supported plugins, Synergy Finder (right-click classification) and CLI-Classification can process and classify the following file types:

File Types Supported	Extensions

File Types Supported	Extensions
Compressed Files	`.zip`
PDF Files	`.pdf`
Media Files	`.avi`, `.mp4`, `.m4p`, `.m4v`, `.wav`
Image Files	`.gif`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.png`, `.tiff`, `.tif`
Microsoft Office Files	`.vsdx`, `.docx`, `.xlsx`, `.xlsm`, `.pptx`

File Types NOT Supported (Comparing to Windows)	Extensions

File Types NOT Supported (Comparing to Windows)	Extensions
File Types	`.doc`, `.xls`, `.ppt`, `.dxf`, `.dwg`

For Microsoft files, only the metadata will be updated; visual labels (such as headers, footers, and watermarks) will not be added or modified. These features are planned for future releases.

Mac/O365 vs Windows

	Functionality	Description	Windows	MAC/O365	Additional Information

	Functionality	Description	Windows	MAC/O365	Additional Information
1	Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook Features
2	Apply New Classification	Create a new file and classify it	Yes	Yes
3	Reclassify Existing File	Open a previously classified file and apply a different classification	Yes	Yes
4	Read File Previously Classified on Windows	Open a classified document set by Windows and ensure the classification can be read on Mac	Yes	Yes
5	Apply Header	Apply visual labels as a header	Yes	Partially	Currently, only inline headers/footers are supported.
6	Apply Footer	Apply visual labels as a footer	Yes	Partially	Currently, only inline headers/footers are supported.
7	Overwrite/Append Header and Footer	Overwrite: Pre-set header will be substituted by the applied classification Append: Pre-set header and classification will both show	Yes	No	Support will be added in subsequent releases
8	Suggestions	Show and apply suggestion	Yes	Yes
9	Suppress Suggestion Dialog	The suggestion dialog won't appear, but suggestions will be available when clicking on the GV ribbon	Yes	Yes
10	Disable Add-in	Disable add-ins from the dashboard	Yes	Yes
11	Word, Excel and PowerPoint Features
12	Enforce Page / Slide / Sheet Layout Option	Classification tag shows only on the title page, all pages except the title page, or specific sheet/slide ranges	Yes	No	Enforce title page/sheet/slide configuration is not supported currently; all pages will be classified.
13	Floating Header / Footer	Different form of header/footer	Yes	No
14	Validation of Rules on Save	When forcing or warning classification on save, a pop-up message appears	Yes	Partially	No pop-up messages will appear for macOS, but the side panel will display that classification is recommended/required before saving.
15	Validation of Rules on Print	When forcing or warning classification on print, a pop-up message appears	Yes	Partially	No pop-up messages will appear for macOS, but the side panel will display that classification is recommended/required before printing.
16	Enforce De-escalation Rules	Prevent user from reclassifying a document with a less sensitive classification than the one already applied	Yes	Partially	macOS doesn't support pop-up messages as it cannot intercept save/print events, but the side panel will show deescalation issues.
17	Default Classification	Default classification applied on documents saved without classification, when selected on the dashboard UI	Yes	Partially	macOS doesn't support pop-up messages, but the side panel will show recommended default classification.
18	Enforce AI Classification	Prevent choosing a lower or different classification/distribution/compliance	Yes	Partially	macOS doesn't support pop-up messages, but the side panel will display AI-classification mismatch issues.
19	Suppress Share and Export	Suppress the option to share and export the document	Yes	No
20	Word Features
21	Apply Watermark	Apply Watermark to word files	Yes	No
22	Export PDF with Classification	Word file with classification exported to PDF and classification applied	Yes	No
23	Outlook Features
24	Validation of Rules on Send	When forcing or warning classification on send, a pop-up message appears	Yes	Yes	Same validations as in Windows
25	Validation of Rules on Print	When forcing or warning classification on print, a pop-up message appears	Yes	No
26	Enforce Default Email Policy	Allow/Block/Permission to Send/Warn	Yes	Yes
27	Auto Classify on Reply/Reply All/Forward	Automatically classify on reply, reply all, or forward	Yes	No	Office Add-in doesn’t support the funcionality to get the parent message yet
28	Prefix/Suffix Suggested on Email Subject	Add prefix/suffix according to email classification	Yes	No
29	Meeting Invitation	Classify meeting invitations	Yes	No
30	Enforce De-escalation Rules	Prevent user from reclassifying a document with a less sensitive classification than the one already applied	Yes	Yes
31	Enforce AI Classification	Prevent from choosing lower or different classification / distribution / compliance	Yes	Yes
32	Default Classification	Default classification applied on email sent without classification, when selected on dashboard UI	Yes	Yes
33	Miscellaneous Features
34	Auto-Update Feature	Updating the agent from new version without uninstalling	Yes	No	Feature will be available in upcoming release.
35	Agent UI Configuration	Changing configuration from dashboard	Yes	Yes
36	Right-Click Classification and Re-classification	Using the explorer option	Yes	Partially	Header / Footer can't be added with right-click classification. Metadata will be written in a similar format as on Windows.
37	CLI Classification	Command Line Interface	Yes	Yes
38	Custom Flavors	Agent based on client themes	Yes	Yes	Getvisibility / Forcepoint

Events Add-in

Comparison of logged events between Windows Agent and Mac Agent is added in the document below:

https://getvisibility.atlassian.net/wiki/x/EYByKg

Limitations/Future Scope:

Since the Office Add-ins technology is based on the web stack, it introduces certain limitations. This means that functions can't be ported 1:1 from Windows to Mac. However, we have been able to port most of the functionality, even if that sometimes required adapting the behavior to accommodate the constraints of the Mac and Office Add-ins platforms. The limitations are as below:

Validation on Save/Print/Send/De=escalation/Default Classification: The Office Add-in cannot intercept save events, so it won't be able to show warnings during the saving process. However, a side pane will be used to display recommendations for the user, such as "It is recommended to classify the document before saving."
Visual Markings: Header Alignment (left, center, right) is currently not supported.
CLI and right click classification: For Microsoft file types right know we are only applying metadata, visual headers will be added soon
PPT CustomProperties is not supported, so we write metadata into the Presentation Tags.

GV-KnowledgeBase