"There are no Office Assistant character files present" error message when you start an Office 2000 program for the second time

When you start a Microsoft Office 2000 program for the second (or subsequent) time, you may receive the following error message:

This problem may occur if all the following conditions are true:

• You have both Microsoft Office 2000 programs and Microsoft Office 2003 programs installed on the same computer.
• You start an Office 2003 program before you start an Office 2000 program.
• The Office Assistant is active in the Office 2003 program.
• You start and then quit an Office 2000 program.
• You start an Office 2000 program a second (or subsequent) time.

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Office 2000 post-Service Pack 3 Hotfix Package that is dated May 13, 2004. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: