Microsoft KB Archive/231955

Knowledge Base

OFF2000: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

Article ID: 231955

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q231955

SYMPTOMS

When you ask the Office Assistant a question about Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, you receive one of the following responses:

The Office Assistant cannot currently answer your questions. Run Setup again to make sure all the necessary Help files are correctly installed.

-or-

I don't know what you mean. Please rephrase your question.

CAUSE

If the Office Assistant tries to answer the question but does not point to the expected topic, you may not be in the Visual Basic Editor.

-or-

The errors may indicate that the required Help files have not been installed or have been removed from the installed location. Both the product Help and Visual Basic Help files are necessary for the Office Assistant to answer Visual Basic questions.

RESOLUTION

If you are not in the Visual Basic Editor, press ALT+F11 to open it and then ask the Office Assistant your question. In Microsoft Access, open a database, and then open a module, before asking the Office Assistant your question.

If the Office Assistant cannot answer your question while you are in the Visual Basic Editor, install the VBA Help files.

To install the VBA Help files, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Office programs. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
3. On the Install/Uninstall tab, click to select Microsoft Office 2000 product where Office 2000 product is the name of the specific Office product being used. If you are using a stand-alone version of one of the Office programs, click to select the appropriate product in the list. Click Add/Remove.
4. In the Setup dialog box, click Add or Remove Features.
5. In the Microsoft Office 2000: Update Features dialog box, click the plus sign (+) to expand the features list next to the program that requires product Help. If the sign is already a minus sign (-) the features list is already expanded.
6. Click the symbol next to Help, and then click Run from My Computer in the list that appears.
7. Click the plus sign (+) next to Office Tools to expand the features list.
8. Click the symbol next to Visual Basic Help, and then click Run from My Computer on the list that appears.
9. Click Update Now.

MORE INFORMATION

The Visual Basic Help files are not installed to your hard disk when you select the Install Now (Typical) or Customize installation, but are set to Installed on First Use unless you explicitly select the Help options. This requires the installation media be available to install the Help files the first time you try to access Visual Basic Help.

Additional query words: OFF2000 vbe vba

Keywords: kbprb KB231955

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