diff --git a/oletools/msodde.py b/oletools/msodde.py
index a09f7ab..34a26db 100644
--- a/oletools/msodde.py
+++ b/oletools/msodde.py
@@ -57,6 +57,18 @@ import csv
 
 import olefile
 
+# IMPORTANT: it should be possible to run oletools directly as scripts
+# in any directory without installing them with pip or setup.py.
+# In that case, relative imports are NOT usable.
+# And to enable Python 2+3 compatibility, we need to use absolute imports,
+# so we add the oletools parent folder to sys.path (absolute+normalized path):
+_thismodule_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
+# print('_thismodule_dir = %r' % _thismodule_dir)
+_parent_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(_thismodule_dir, '..'))
+# print('_parent_dir = %r' % _thirdparty_dir)
+if _parent_dir not in sys.path:
+    sys.path.insert(0, _parent_dir)
+
 from oletools import ooxml
 from oletools import xls_parser
 from oletools import rtfobj