Changing the Office Assistant

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Some days you feel like a paper clip, other days you feel like a genius or a dog. You can change the Office Assistant used by Word to reflect your moods, if you so desire. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. If the Office Assistant is not visible on your screen, asking you what you would like to know, press F1. If the Office Assistant still does not display, choose Show the Office Assistant from the Help menu.
  2. The Office Assistant should be displayed under a cartoon balloon that has two or three buttons at the bottom. If so, click on the Options button. If not, right-click on the Office Assistant and choose Options from the resulting Context menu. Either way, Word displays the Office Assistant dialog box.
  3. Click on the Gallery tab. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Gallery tab of the Office Assistant dialog box.

  5. Scroll through the available Office Assistant characters by using the Back and Next buttons.
  6. When you find an assistant you like, click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1890) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using a Macro to Change the Formatting of All Instances of a Word

If you have a word that you need to make sure is formatted the same way throughout your document, there are several ways ...

Discover More

Conditional Printing

If you need to make what Excel prints be based upon conditions in a worksheet, you'll love the information in this tip. ...

Discover More

Reducing the Size of Spaces in a Selection

If you want to decrease the size of spaces in some selected text, the best approach is to use a macro. This tip includes ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Using the Organizer to Manage AutoText

There are times you need to move your AutoText entries from one template or document to another. Use Organizer to do this ...

Discover More

Ignoring Punctuation in Names

If you have a word that includes punctuation as part of the word itself, then you may be frustrated by how Word treats ...

Discover More

Converting a Text Box to a Frame

These days, most people using Word know what text boxes are but have no idea about frames. Yet, for some purposes, frames ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six more than 3?

2019-11-29 17:21:32

Rick

Hi, I hope you can help me. I have MS Office 2003 pro and I managed to download the Help Assistant (Rocky), however now when I close word, Rocky stays on the screen. I have to Click on the desktop for Rocky to disappear ? He usually goes back in his Dog House on closing Word, now, for some reason, he stays on the screen.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.