OFF2000: Controlling How and When the Office Assistant Appears (199766)

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All of the programs in Microsoft Office 2000 include the Office Assistant; it is available to help you with questions or problems with Office programs. To ask the Office Assistant a question, click its character and then type your question. If the Office Assistant is not visible, click Show the Office Assistant on the Help menu.

The Office Assistant is always visible by default. To make the Office Assistant appear only when you have a question, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Office Assistant and on the shortcut menu, click Options.
2. On the Options tab, there are a number of check boxes; make your choices as appropriate. The functionality of each check box is described below:

      Check box              Functionality
      -------------------------------------------------------------------
   
      Use the Office         If selected, enables the Office Assistant
      Assistant              wizard. If not selected, disables the
                             Office Assistant.
   
      Respond to F1 key      If selected, pressing F1 displays the
                             Office Assistant and prompts for a question. If
                             not selected, pressing F1 displays the Help
                             Topics for the current program.
   
      Help with wizards      If selected, the Office Assistant asks if you
                             want help whenever you use a wizard.
                                                                                                        
      Display alerts         If selected, all alerts are shown in "word
                             bubbles" by the Office Assistant. If not 
                             selected, alerts are shown in normal dialog
                             boxes.                          
   
      Search for both        If selected, searches for both programming and 
      product and            product Help topics while you work with Visual 
      programming help       Basic for Applications in your program.
      when programming       
   
      Move when in the way   If selected, the Office Assistant moves away
                             from the cursor when you are typing. If not
                             selected, the Office Assistant may hide or
                             obscure what you are trying to edit.
   
      Guess help topics      If selected, the Office Assistant guesses the
                             help topics you want to see based on
                             your actions.
   
      Make Sounds            If selected, turns on sounds for the Office 
                             Assistant.
   
     Using features more     If selected, shows tips for features you may not 
     effectively             know and suggestions on how to better use 
                             features you know.
   
     Using the mouse more    If selected, shows tips about how to use the 
     effectively             mouse to get your work done more quickly.
   
     Keyboard shortcuts      If selected, shows the shortcut keys you can use
                             to get your work done quickly.
   
     Only show high          If selected, shows only tips that are considered
     priority tips           important, such as those that alert you to 
                             time-saving features.
     
     Show the Tip of the     If selected, shows a Tip of the Day when an 
     Day at startup          Office program starts as an easy way to get 
                             familiar with features.
   					

3. Click OK.

If you want the Office Assistant to display only when you need to ask a question, clear the "Help with wizards", "Display alerts", and "Guess help topics" check boxes. Make sure that the "Respond to F1 key" check box is selected. When you press F1, the Office Assistant appears and prompts you for a question. You can also display the Office Assistant by clicking Show the Office Assistant on the Help menu.

To make the Office Assistant disappear, you can either:

• Click Hide the Office Assistant on the Help menu.
  
  -or-
  
  
• Right-click the Office Assistant, and then click Hide.