Office Assistant

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The Office Assistant was a feature included in Microsoft Office 97 and subsequent versions until Office 2007, in which the assistants have been removed due to widespread dissatisfaction on the part of Office users. The default assistant in the English language version was officially named Clippit, nicknamed Clippy,^[1] after its animated paperclip representation. The feature was an entry point to the application's help system, presenting various help search functions and offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms in Office versions 97 to 2003 on Windows and versions 98 to 2004 on the Macintosh. Many of the characters are based on "guides" from the defunct Microsoft Bob user interface.

Overview

Clippit was enabled by default in earlier versions of Microsoft Office, and would pop open whenever the program thought the user could use its advice. Famously, typing an address followed by "Dear" (or, indeed, almost any other imaginable combination of words) would prompt Clippit to pop-up and say "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?" Animated representations other than Clippit are available, such as The Dot (a shapeshifting and colour-shifting smiley or red ball), F-1 (a robot), The Genius (a caricature of Albert Einstein), Office Logo (jigsaw puzzle), Mother Nature (a globe), Scribble (a cat) and Power Pup (a dog). In many cases the Office CD is necessary to activate a different office assistant character, so Clippit, the default setting, has remained the most widely known, especially among users who may be using a pirated or shared edition of Word. In the editions which use Agent, users can add other .ACS files to set locations for them to show up as selectable assistants. The Office assistant is also present in the Mac OS versions of Office, starting with Office 98, with a Mac-only assistant named Max, in the shape of a Macintosh Plus, serving as the default (although Clippit remains available). Starting in Office 2000 Microsoft Agent (.ACS) replaced the earlier Microsoft Bob-descended Actor (.ACT) format as the technology supporting the feature. The Microsoft Office XP Multilingual Pack provides two additional representations, Saeko Sensei (冴子先生, Saeko Sensei^?), an animated secretary, and a version of Monkey King (孫悟空, Monkey King^?) for customers who used Asian languages in non-Asian versions of Office[1]. Native language versions provided additional representations such as Kairu the dolphin in Japanese. Clippit has inspired takeoffs such as Vigor, a version of the vi text editor with a paperclip providing unhelpful "help". The program was widely reviled among users as intrusive and annoying,[2][3] and was criticized even within Microsoft. Smithsonian magazine referred to Clippy as "one of the worst software design blunders in the annals of computing". ^[2]

The various helpers from Word 97: The Dot, The Genius, Hoverbot; Office Logo, Mother Nature, Power Pup; Scribble, Will, and Clippit.

The helpers from Office 2003: Top, left to right: Clippit, The Dot, F1, Office Logo;
Bottom, left to right: Merlin, Mother Nature, Links, and Rocky.

Additional assistants

Since Office 2003, more assistants have been released in the ACS format.^{[3] [4]}

• Kairu the Dolphin (available for East Asian editions, downloadable for Office 97)^[5]
• Earl (a cat)
• Genie
• Peedy (a parrot)
• Bosgrove (a butler)
• Max (a computer)
• Robby (a robot)

Some of these assistants can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.^[6]

Ex-paperclip

One of the key elements of Microsoft's advertising campaign for Office XP was the "removal" of Clippit and the Office Assistant from the software, although in reality it was simply disabled by default. It is also still available in Office 2003, though this version went a step further and did not install the Office Assistant by default. The self-effacing campaign included the now-defunct website officeclippy.com (still viewable at YouTube [4] [5]), which featured the animated adventures of Clippit (voiced by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who is famous for his intentionally annoying voice) as he learned to cope with unemployment ("X... XP... As in, ex-paperclip?!") and parodied behaviors of the Office Assistant ("It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like Help?") As of Office 2004, the Mac OS versions of Microsoft Office retain the Office Assistant in the default installation, with Max remaining as the default assistant. Unlike its Windows counterparts, Max is confined to a small floating window in which a lightbulb in the corner indicated that advice would be available. As of Office 2007, Microsoft has removed the Office Assistant feature in favor of a new help system. Clippit is still about in another application: The character Boo Who? in the Windows Dancer for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 application is wearing a ghost outfit, in the rough shape of Clippit's body, and a small piece of wire is visible underneath. Occasionally the white sheet slips, revealing the thin curve of steel underneath. The description mentions "working for a short while for a Redmond, WA based software company, where he continued to work until being retired in 2001".

In popular culture

• Comedian Demetri Martin makes a reference to the paper clip on his album These Are Jokes, where he mocks the paperclip's "I see you're writing a letter..." question as "It looks like you're writing a ransom note, need some help? You should use stronger language; you'll get more money."
• Clippit also appears in the animated TV show Drawn Together during the second season premiere. He appears to Wooldoor Sockbat to help him carve a suicide note into the wall by offering tips such as "remember to avoid clichés like 'Goodbye cruel world'" and "don't forget to blame your parents".
• In The Simpsons episode, "Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot!", when a python is seen sinking its teeth into a computer monitor, Clippit appears onscreen and says "It looks like you are trying to eat me. Need some help?" In another episode, "Funeral For A Fiend", when Sideshow Bob tries to kill the Simpson family with an explosive laptop, Clippit says, "It looks like you're trying to blow up the laptop. Mind if I hug my kids?" (prompting the appearance of three small children Clippits being embraced by the parent).
• On an episode of CNNNN, Chas Licciardello walked around in a Clippit costume offering help in various tasks, including "It looks like you're trying to write a letter, would you like some help?" "It looks like you trying to spread propaganda, would you like some help?" (spoken to a man at a newsstand) and "It looks like you're trying to relax and unwind, would you like some help?"
• In the Family Guy episode "Lois Kills Stewie", Stewie Griffin controls a CIA computer and hacks into their network. This is when Clippit pops up, saying "It looks like you're trying to take over the world. Need some help?" Stewie responds by saying "Go away, paper clip! Nobody likes you!".
• The paperclip is a recurring feature of ridicule on the BBC radio show The Now Show.
• In the webcomic God Mode, Kraig complains about not being able to write his gaming reviews because his favorite office assistant, Clippit, was removed from Office 2007.

References

See also

• Microsoft Bob
• Ms. Dewey
• Vigor

External links

• Clippy emulator (Spanish page)
• Download additional Agents Office 97 (Genie, Merlin, Peedy, Robby)
• Microsoft Agent Ring - download more unofficial characters
• Customizable Clippy simulator
• Luke Swartz — Why People Hate the Paperclip — Academic paper on why people hate the Office Assistant
• Vigor — Vigor Assistant, a comical addon to Unix editor vi.
• Clippit discontinued in Office 12
• Clippit would like to help - Whatever you may need, Clippit is there for you.
• That Infernal Dancing Paperclip Offers Advice to a Windows User - Humorous cartoon featuring Clippit and a disgruntled user.
• Clippit as one of the Worst 100 Ways to Deliver Bad News
• Mug shots of the Evil Clippit
• Screenshots of Clippit v1.0, a humorous program that causes Clippit to recite useless phrases.
• The helper to help get rid of Clippit
• http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2001/apr01/04-11clippy.mspx