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Keep Your Assistant Under Control
by Jess Fraser, staff writer —
N
o, I'm not talking about that intern you just hired. I'm talking about the Office Assistant that comes pre-installed with Word (and the rest of Microsoft® Office). It might seem cute in the beginning but the little sucker can get downright annoying after awhile. Here's how to keep him under control.

In the Beginning
Starting with Word 97, Microsoft® introduced the Office Assistant to help provide on-screen help and answers to user questions. When the program thinks that you might need a bit of help finding a feature, the Assistant pipes-in to present you with some advice, options or an easy-to-use search box.

Welcome to 2002
As of Word 2002 (and after multiple requests to the developers, I imagine), the assistant only appears when requested by choosing Help > Show the Office Assistant. In past versions, the program's default setting always left the Assistant visible; ready to give you a fun wink at a moment's notice.

Customize
You can customize the Office Assistant by following a few simple steps.

1. Select the "options" button that you see once you click on the Assistant. (If the Assistant isn't visible, go to Help > Show the Office Assistant or, for later users, Help > Microsoft Word Help.)

2. Click on the "Options" tab. Select (or deselect) the options of your choice. Here you can control the Assistant's sound and other options.

3. Click on the "Gallery" tab to select from different Office Assistant characters.

4. Click "OK" when you're done.

Get Lost
Want to get rid of the Assistant altogether? It's simple to do. For recent versions of Word, follow the instructions above and deselect the "Use the Office Assistant" box. For older versions, right-click on the Assistant and select "Hide Assistant." If you want him back, just press the "F1" key. Quick as a wink, he's back.

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