OFF98: How to Modify or Remove the Microsoft Office Assistant

ID: Q185328

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Office Assistant is a new Help feature in Microsoft Office 98.

You can make the Microsoft Office Assistant less interactive. Certain features, such as Guess Help Topics and Display Alerts, can be disabled so that the Microsoft Office Assistant provides help only when you request it.

You can also remove the Microsoft Office Assistant. If you remove the Microsoft Office Assistant, you make the ability to ask for help in a natural language style (for example, by asking a question) unavailable. Help is still available if you click Contents And Index on the Help menu even after you remove the Office Assistant.


MORE INFORMATION

Modify the Behavior of the Microsoft Office Assistant

To change how the Office Assistant behaves, follow these steps:

  1. If the Office Assistant is not visible, click the Office Assistant button on the toolbar. If the Office Assistant is visible, click the Office Assistant.


  2. Click Options and click the Options tab in the Office Assistant dialog box.


  3. To specify that you want the Office Assistant to provide minimal help, click to clear all of the check boxes except for the following:

    • Respond to Help key


    • Include product help in Visual Basic Editor


    • Move when in the way


    • Make sounds


    NOTE: The Make Sounds feature does not affect when the Microsoft Office Assistant offers help.


  4. Clear all check boxes in the Show Tips About and the Other Tip Options sections.


  5. Click OK to close the Office Assistant dialog box.


Remove the Microsoft Office Assistant

When you remove the Microsoft Office Assistant, you disable one of the key features of Microsoft Office 98 help: the ability to ask natural language questions.

IMPORTANT: Microsoft recommends that you do not remove the Microsoft Office Assistant.

To remove the Office Assistant, follow these steps:

  1. Close all Microsoft Office programs.


  2. Remove all of the actor files from the <Hard disk>:Microsoft Office 98:Office:Assistants folder.

    Each actor file provides functionality to a specific Office Assistant character.


For more information about the Microsoft Office Assistant, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q180276 OFF98: Controlling How and When the Office Assistant Appears


REFERENCES

For more information about customizing the Microsoft Office Assistant, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

office assistant, customizing
and then click Show Topics. Select the exact topic text topic you wish to review, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.

Additional query words: assistant disable view help change remove OFF98

Keywords : kbdta offassist offhelp offmac
Version : MACINTOSH:98
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type : kbinfo


Last Reviewed: May 26, 1999
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