OFF98: Controlling How and When the Office Assistant Appears

ID: q180276

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

When you run any of the programs included in Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition and you use a lower screen resolution, or you open many windows at once, or the screen is cluttered; the Office Assistant window may become obtrusive. This article contains information about controlling how and when the Office Assistant appears.


MORE INFORMATION

All of the programs in Microsoft Office 98 include the Office Assistant. The Assistant is available to help you with any questions or problems that you have about using Office.

To ask the Office Assistant a question, click the Office Assistant window, and then type your question. If the Office Assistant window is not visible, click the Office Assistant toolbar button on the Standard toolbar.

By default, the Office Assistant is always visible. However, you can make the Office Assistant appear only when you have a question by following these steps:

  1. Click the Office Assistant window. Click Options on the dialog box that appears.


  2. Under Assistant Capabilities, several check boxes control how often the Office Assistant appears. These check boxes are listed in the following table. 
    
   Check box              Functionality
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Help With Wizards      If selected, the Assistant appears when you use a
                          Wizard.

   Display Alerts         If selected, all alerts are displayed in "word
                          bubbles" by the Assistant. If cleared, alerts are
                          displayed in normal dialog boxes.

   Guess Help Topics      If selected, the Assistant guesses which Help
                          topics you want to see based on your actions.

   Respond To Help Key    If selected, pressing Help displays the
                          Assistant and prompts you for a question. If
                          cleared, pressing Help displays the Help
                          Topics window for the current program.

   Move When In The Way   If selected, the Assistant window moves away
                          from the pointer when you are typing. If cleared,
                          the Assistant window may hide or obscure the text
                          you are trying to edit.
    If you want the Assistant to appear 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.


  3. Click OK.


When you press Help, the Assistant appears and prompts you for a question. You can also display the Assistant by clicking the Office Assistant toolbar button on the Standard toolbar.

To hide the Assistant, do either of the following:

Additional query words: OFF98 XL98 


Keywords          : offassist offhelp offmac 
Version           : MACINTOSH:98
Platform          : MACINTOSH 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: June 4, 1999