HOW TO: Use the Office XP Custom Maintenance Wizard to Change the Text and URL in the Office Assistant for Finding More Help on the Web (307870)

SUMMARY

When a user searches for help by using the Office Assistant, a list of possible topics relating to the search is displayed, along with a link for getting more help by visiting the Microsoft Office Web site. You can modify the text and URL for this link to redirect the user to a different site, such as an internal support site, by using the Custom Maintenance Wizard included in the Microsoft Office XP Resource Kit. This article describes how you can use the Custom Maintenance Wizard to change the text and URL in the Office Assistant for finding more help on the Web.

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Change the Text and URL in the Office Assistant

You may have an internal support site that you want users to send feedback to, rather than the default feedback site used in the Office Assistant. You can change the text in the Office Assistant that reads "None of the above, search for more on the Web" to a text that is more appropriate for your setting.

When a user clicks None of the above, search for more on the Web in the Office Assistant, the user is presented with a feedback form. This form is for typing a comment about the problem the user is experiencing and the type of Help topic that the user expects the Assistant to return. If the user chooses to submit the comment, the user is directed to the Microsoft Office Web site, where a search for applicable information is automatically run again using the user's original question.

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Change the Feedback URL That Points to the Office Web Site

First, you must use the Custom Maintenance Wizard to change the text that appears in the Office Assistant.

To change the text in the Office Assistant:

Start the Custom Maintenance Wizard.
Open the MSI for the edition of Office that you want to customize.
Navigate to the Change Office User Settings page.
Expand (click the plus [+] sign) the Microsoft Office XP (user) node.
Expand Assistant and then expand Help on the Web.
Type the text that you want in the Feedback dialog text box (or leave it blank).

Next, you use the Custom Maintenance Wizard to change the feedback URL (perhaps to an intranet support site). To do this, follow these steps:

While still in the Help on the Web option, type the URL that you want in the Feedback URL text box.
Save the CMW file.

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Customize the Feedback Form

If you want to redirect information to your organization's support staff, you can customize the feedback form and create a custom Active Server Pages (ASP page) file to handle the information from the form.

To customize the feedback form, change the following three options in the sample Answiz.asp file:

F_log=1
Set to 0 to disable logging of users' questions. Default is 1.
f_redirect_to_MS=1
Set to 0 to disable sending of information to the Microsoft Office Web site. Default is 1.
Where_if_not_MS="alert.htm"
Set to the URL of the page that you want users to see after they submit the feedback form. This option is valid only if you set the redirect option to 0.

The following is an example of the Answiz.asp file:

<%
response.expires = 0

f_log = 1
f_redirect_to_MS = 1
where_if_not_MS = "alert.htm"

APP = request.form("app")     ' used
UQ = request.form("UQ")       ' used
UD = request.form("UD")       ' not used
IAP = request.form("IAP")     ' not used
HLCID = request.form("HLCID") ' not used
OPC = request.form("OPC")     ' not used
OCC = request.form("OCC")     ' not used

if f_log = 1 then
   app=mid(app,11)
   what_tl_log=APP & ":" & UQ
   what_to_log=mid(what_to_log,1,80)
   response.appendToLog(what_to_log)
end if

if f_redirect_to_MS = 1 then
   redirloc = "http://www.Microsoft.com/office/"
   redirloc = redirloc&"redirect/fromOffice10/answerwizard.asp"

   public buffer
   public buff2
   quote = chr(34)
   LF = chr(10) & chr(13) ' carriage return and line feed

   function bufferwrite(x)
      buffer=buffer & x
End Function

   buffer=""

   bufferwrite("<form action-" & redirloc & " method=post name=f>" & LF)

   for each i in request.form
   buff2=" name=" & quote & i & quote & " value=" & quote & _  
     request.form(i) & quote

   bufferwrite("<input type=hidden" & buff2 & ">" & LF)
   next

   bufferwrite("</form>")
   bufferflush
   %><BR/>

   <script language=javascript for=window event=onLoad()>
      <!--f.submit();-->
   </script>
   <%
else
   response.redirect(where_if_not_MS)
end if
%>