Jump to content

Office Assistant: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
copyedit, vigor
clear up some bits about Agent (Office 97 isn't Agent) and change some "paperclip"s to "Clippy"
Line 1: Line 1:
The '''Office Assistant''' is a version of [[Microsoft Agent]] included in [[Microsoft Office]] starting with ''Office 97'', and has been dubbed '''Clippy''' or '''Clippit''' after its animated [[paperclip]] representation. Clippy is a conceptual descendant of [[Microsoft Bob]].
The '''Office Assistant''' is a feature included in [[Microsoft Office]] starting with ''Office 97'', and has been dubbed '''Clippy''' or '''Clippit''' after its default animated [[paperclip]] representation. Starting in '''Office 2000''' [[Microsoft Agent]] (.ACS) replaced the earlier [[Microsoft Bob]]-descended Actor (.ACT) format.


Animated representations other than the paperclip were available, such as The Dot, F-1, The Genius, Office Logo, Mother Nature, Links and Rocky. But the default paperclip is the most widely known.
Animated representations other than Clippy were available, such as The Dot, F-1, The Genius, Office Logo, Mother Nature, Links and Rocky. In the editions which used Agent, users could add other .ACS files to set locations for them to show up as selectable asssistants. But Clippy is the most widely known.


Clippy was enabled by default in some versions of Microsoft Office, and came to be widely disliked by many users. It would pop open whenever the program thought the user could use its advice, and frequently either the advice was not really required or it was not really useful. One of the key elements of Microsoft's advertising campaign for Office XP was the removal of Clippy and the Office Assistant from the software, although it was still present if the user enabled it.
Clippy was enabled by default in some versions of Microsoft Office, and came to be widely disliked by many users. It would pop open whenever the program thought the user could use its advice, and frequently either the advice was not really required or it was not really useful. One of the key elements of Microsoft's advertising campaign for Office XP was the removal of Clippy and the Office Assistant from the software, although it was still present if the user enabled it.


The paperclip has inspired takeoffs such as [[Vigor]], a version of the [[vi]] text editor with a paperclip providing unhelpful help.
Clippy has inspired takeoffs such as [[Vigor]], a version of the [[vi]] text editor with a paperclip providing unhelpful help.


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 22:25, 15 May 2004

The Office Assistant is a feature included in Microsoft Office starting with Office 97, and has been dubbed Clippy or Clippit after its default animated paperclip representation. Starting in Office 2000 Microsoft Agent (.ACS) replaced the earlier Microsoft Bob-descended Actor (.ACT) format.

Animated representations other than Clippy were available, such as The Dot, F-1, The Genius, Office Logo, Mother Nature, Links and Rocky. In the editions which used Agent, users could add other .ACS files to set locations for them to show up as selectable asssistants. But Clippy is the most widely known.

Clippy was enabled by default in some versions of Microsoft Office, and came to be widely disliked by many users. It would pop open whenever the program thought the user could use its advice, and frequently either the advice was not really required or it was not really useful. One of the key elements of Microsoft's advertising campaign for Office XP was the removal of Clippy and the Office Assistant from the software, although it was still present if the user enabled it.

Clippy has inspired takeoffs such as Vigor, a version of the vi text editor with a paperclip providing unhelpful help.

External links