OFF97: How to Modify or Remove Microsoft Office Assistant Help

The Microsoft Office Assistant is a new Help feature in Microsoft Office 97. Its functionality is similar to the Answer Wizard Help feature in Microsoft Office 95.

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 disable the ability to ask for help in a natural language style, such as "How do I print my document?" Help is still available through the Contents, Index, and Find tabs on the Help menu, even when the Office Assistant is removed.

Modify the Behavior of the Microsoft Office Assistant

To change how the Office Assistant behaves, use the following steps:

1. If the Office Assistant is not visible, click the Office Assistant button on the toolbar.
2. Using the right mouse button (right-click), click the Office Assistant, click Options, and then in the Office Assistant dialog box, click the Options tab.
3. To make the Office Assistant provide minimal help, click to clear all check boxes except:
   • Respond to F1 key
     
     
   • Search for both product and programming help when programming
     
     
   • Move when in the way
     
     
   • Make sounds
   
   
   Clearing the Make Sounds check box is optional because it 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 97 help: the ability to ask natural language questions.

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

1. Close all programs and run Microsoft Office 97 Setup in Maintenance mode.
2. Click Add/Remove, click to select Office Tools, and click Change Option.
3. In the Office Tools dialog box, click to clear the Office Assistant check box. Click OK.
4. In the Maintenance mode dialog box, click Continue.
5. Click Yes when you are prompted to remove one component.
6. Setup will check for necessary disk space, update your system, and then display the message:
   

         Microsoft Office 97 Setup was completed successfully.
   						

   
   Click OK to continue.
   
   NOTE: The actor (.act) files related to the Microsoft Office Assistant are not installed by the Setup program and therefore are not removed by the Setup program. To completely remove the Microsoft Office Assistant, you must manually remove the actor files.
7. Remove the actor (.act) files. Each actor file provides functionality to a specific Office Assistant character. The default location for these files is:
   

         C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Actors
   						

   
   Delete the .act files from this location or the location in which you installed them.

For more information about the Microsoft Office Assistant, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: