How to modify or remove Office Assistant Help in Office XP

This step-by-step article describes how to modify or remove the Microsoft Office Assistant.

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.

Modify the Behavior of the Office Assistant

To change the way that the Office Assistant behaves, follow these 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 click the Options tab in the Office Assistant dialog box.
3. To have the Office Assistant provide minimal help, click to clear all check boxes except the following:
   
   
   • Use the Office Assistant
   • 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 this option does not affect when the Office Assistant offers help.
4. Clear all check boxes in the Show Tips about section.
5. Click OK to close the Office Assistant dialog box.

Remove the Office Assistant

To remove the Office Assistant, use one of the following methods.

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 click the Options tab in the Office Assistant dialog box.
3. To make the Office Assistant provide minimal help, click to clear the Use the Office Assistant check box.

Remove the Office Assistant Files

1. Close all programs and run Office Setup in Maintenance mode.
2. In the Microsoft Office XP Maintenance Mode dialog box, click Add or Remove Features, and then click Next.
3. In the Microsoft Office XP: Features to Install dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Office Shared Features 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.
5. Click OK when you receive the prompt that Office XP Setup has updated successfully.

For additional information about the Office Assistant, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: