The Office Assistant was a virtual helper in Microsoft Office that was designed by Microsoft to provide assistance to the user when using supported software. The default assistant that first appeared in Office 97 was Clippit, a paper clip nicknamed "Clippy".
After receiving criticism and being voted onto "most hated" lists, the Office Assistant was replaced by a new online help system in Microsoft Office 2007 for PC and Office 2008 for Mac.[1][2]
Default assistants[]
- Clippit - A paper clip with eyebrows and eyes.
- The Dot - A red bouncing ball with eyes and a smiley face.
- F1 - A robot with two arms and has his head shaped like a rectangle.
- Office Logo - An object with four colored puzzle pieces, symbolizing the logo.
- Mother Nature - Our planet earth that transforms into images of nature.
- Links - A cat that chases on the prowl for answers.
- Rocky - A dog who has a crush on Lassie probably.
- The Genius - An Albert Einstein caricature who wears a brown shirt and blue jeans.
- Will - A William Shakespeare caricature and a short name for him.
Downloadable assistants[]
- Bosgrove - A butler that looks like the Genius.
- Genie - An Egyptian Jinn that came from his lamp and named after his name.
- Kairu - A blue dolphin that is exclusively for the Asian versions.
- Max - A Macintosh Plus computer and the nickname for him only available in the Macintosh versions of Microsoft Office.
- Merlin - An old wizard named after him
- Peedy - A green parrot that has white eyes.
- Robby - Another robot like F1.
- Saeko Sensai - A secretary of Japan that is exclusively for the Asian versions.
- Monkey King - A legendary monkey warrior.
Replaced assistants[]
- Hoverbot - A robot that was replaced by F1.
- Power Pup - A super hero dog that was replaced by Rocky.
- Scribble - An origami-esque cat that was replaced by Links.
Trivia[]
In early versions of Office Assistant, if you write "Dear" followed by a space, Clippit will pop up to say that it looks like you're writing a letter and offer help. The poor public reception to the unsolicited help caused it to be turned off by default in Office XP and eventually replaced.[2][3]
Other[]
- Ribbon Hero 2 - Though discontinued, Clippy was featured in a Windows-only video game from Microsoft, subtitled Clippy's Second Chance, to promote features of Microsoft Office 2010. In the game, Clippy is working on his cv / resume in order to look for work, and accidentally enters a time machine to proceed with gamified tutorials.[4]
- Vigor - In the clone of vi for Unix, Clippy was parodied by an evil assistant named "Vigor", a combination of the words "vi" and "Igor".[1]
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Microsoft’s Clippy Voted Most Hated Mascot Ever by Dr. Roy Schestowitz, Techrights. 2010-09-13.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Tragic Life of Clippy, the World's Most Hated Virtual Assistant by Jake Rossen, Metal Floss. 2017-09-28.
- ↑ Farewell Clippy: What’s Happening to the Infamous Office Assistant in Office XP, Microsoft. 2001-04-11.
- ↑ Clippy Returns for Ribbon Hero 2 in MS Office’s Learning Tutorial by Kevin Shane, Gamification. 2013-08-15.
External links[]
- Intelligent Failures: Clippy Memes and the Limits of Digital Assistants at Microsoft Research (2019-10)
- Ribbon Hero 2: How to play the game (video) (2011-04-26)
- Office Assistant at Wikipedia