Clippy to Return in Office 16 for Windows 8, Windows 10 Devices
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There are many features that are no longer present in modern versions of Windows, but veteran users are still hoping that they will be in luck. Such is the case with Outlook Express, Microsoft Office Communicator and many others. However, now it seems that Microsoft is really serious about bringing back an old feature – Clippy.
The upcoming version of Office, which is said to be Office 16, is said to sport the good old Office Assistant, as well. If you don’t recall what Clippy is or you were too young in those days, here’s a quick description:
An intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office that assisted users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It used technology initially from Microsoft Bob and later Microsoft Agent, offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms. In Microsoft Office for Windows, it was included in versions 97 to 2003 and in Microsoft Publisher, it was included in versions 98 to 2003. In Microsoft Office for Mac, it was included in versions 98 to 2004. The default assistant in the English Windows version was named Clippit, though the misnomer Clippy is commonly thought of as the name, after a paperclip.
However, there are big chances that the utility won’t be named Clippy anymore, but rather “Tell Me”, which is a helper tool found on the Office Online apps. Tell Me basically sits at the top of documents as a type of help and search tool, which means it’s very similar in function to Clippy, allowing users to quickly discover features and ask questions.
‘Tell Me’ doesn’t have too much of a personality as it doesn’t contain an animated character like Clippy, but just a simple bulb icon to indicate its presence in documents. Let’s hope that Microsoft will indeed bring Clippy back as this is going to be so cool!
Of course, it doesn’t have to bear the same aspect, but it will really useful for novice users to get a helpful tool like that.
