Clippy: The love child of Microsoft Bob

Clippy, the hated Microsoft Office Assistant, is a direct descendant of Microsoft Bob. The latter software was the company's infamous foray into agents, avatars who add personality to the help process, answering questions and responding to your commands until you get aggravated and tell them to go away.

Microsoft continues to do limited work in the area, offering a free agent developer's kit and character editor on the Microsoft Agent site.

The original Clippy was stored as an .ACT file, the same extension as all of Bob's characters. For no good reason, I've found a way to fire Clippy and replace him with any Bob agent in older versions of Microsoft Office programs such as Word 97.

To try it, look for an Actors folder inside an Office folder such as Microsoft OfficeOfficeActors). If you have one, drop Rover into it. The dog becomes one of the choices for the office assistant (screenshot).

Microsoft Bob · 2003/11/20 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Comments

I like the office assistant because it helps you if you need help.
The assistant are very cute I love the dog Rocy.I think you can make new assistants like a bunny,sun,pig,cow,star,bird and their are a loot of others you can make but I like what you have dun keep it up thank you.

#1 · Rhiannon · 2008/08/07