XL98: Office Assistant Disappears and Cannot Be Displayed

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you start Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, the Office Assistant window may unexpectedly disappear. If you click the Office Assistant tool on the Standard toolbar, the Office Assistant window does not appear on the screen.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

• You insert a Microsoft Excel Worksheet object into another program, such as Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition or Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition, by following these steps:

      1. On the Insert menu, click Object.
  

      2. In the list of object types, click Microsoft Worksheet Object.
         Then, click OK.
  

  -and-

• You have not previously run Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition on the computer.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, following these steps:

1. On the Help menu, click Contents And Index.

2. Close the MS Excel Help window.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.