XL97: F1 in Custom XLM Dialog Box Displays Office Assistant

In Microsoft Excel 97, when you use the Microsoft Excel 4.0 macro function Dialog.Box to display a custom dialog box, and you press F1 while the dialog box is active, your custom help file does not appear. Instead, the Office Assistant appears.

NOTE: If you clear the Respond to F1 Key check box in the Options tab in Office Assistant, the Microsoft Excel help file appears.

You cannot use the F1 key in Microsoft Excel 97 to display a custom help file while a Microsoft Excel 4.0 custom dialog box is active.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. Display the custom dialog box.
2. Use the right mouse button to click (right-click) any item in the custom dialog box.
3. Click What's This?

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.