The Microsoft Office Assistant is an interactive Help feature in Microsoft Office. Its functionality, introduced in Microsoft Office 97, is similar to the Answer Wizard Help feature in Microsoft Office 95.

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

You can also remove the Office Assistant. If you remove the Office Assistant, you disable the ability to ask for help in a natural language, such as "How do I print my document?" Help is still available through the Contents, Answer Wizard, and Index tabs on the Help menu in each of the Office programs, even when the Office Assistant is removed.

Back to the top

Modify the Behavior of the Office Assistant

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

1.	If the Office Assistant is not visible, click Show the Office Assistant on the Help menu.
2.	Right-click the Office Assistant, click Options, and then in the Office Assistant dialog box, click the Options tab.
3.	To have the Office Assistant provide minimal help, click to clear all check boxes except: • Use the Office AssistantRespond to F1 keySearch for both product and programming help when programmingMove when in the wayMake sounds Clearing the Make Sounds check box is optional because it does not affect when the Office Assistant offers help.
4.	Clear all check boxes in the Show Tips section.
5.	Click OK to close the Office Assistant dialog box.

Back to the top

To Remove the Office Assistant

When you remove the Office Assistant, you disable one of the key features of Office help, the ability to ask natural language questions. To remove the Microsoft Office Assistant, use either of the following methods.

Back to the top

Method 1: Turn Off the Office Assistant

1.	If the Office Assistant is not visible, click Show the Office Assistant on the Help menu.
2.	Right-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 the Use the Office Assistant check box.

Back to the top

Method 2: Remove the Office Assistant Files

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

1.	Close all programs and run Office Setup in Maintenance mode.
2.	In the Microsoft Office 2000 Maintenance Mode dialog box, click Add or Remove Features.
3.	In the Microsoft Office 2000: Update Features dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Office Tools to expand the features list. If the sign is already a minus sign (-) the features list is already expanded.
4.	Click the symbol next to Office Assistant, and then click Not Available in the list that appears. Click Update Now.

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

Back to the top