Clippit, aka Clippy, the animated talking paperclip who served as the default Office Assistant in Microsoft Office, is dead. Yes, as of Office 2007, users can no longer rely on the context-sensitive advice of that persistent, big-eyed dancing paperclip.
As an online help author, I can vouch for the animosity that Clippy invoked. God forbid I’m ever in a meeting and Clippy unexpectedly springs to life on the monitor. Out of control online help! People glance at me as the presenter clicks in vain to make him go away, and the meeting digresses into a roundtable trouncing of poor Clippy. His intrusive willingness to help just touched a nerve.
Clippy became symbolic of just how lame Microsoft is (“You’ve got questions. We’ve got a dancing paperclip” – here). In 2001, Microsoft turned off Clippy by default, saying “Office XP is so easy to use that Clippy is no longer necessary, or useful”. Clippy lay dormant in the Help menu unless a user specifically turned him on. Apparently, no one did, and Clippy slipped quietly out of the Office product roadmap.
And because Microsoft doesn’t have the balls to publicly associate themselves with Clippy any longer, I will offer a eulogy.
Clippy was a triumph of documentation engineering. He was a pioneer in acquainting the general public with online help. Clippy helped millions of users who are too proud to admit that they sought his assistance. And that’s too bad, because as a power MS Word user, I know two things: 1- That 80% of Word users use only 20% of its features, usually incorrectly, and 2- That Word is getting more powerful and complex, and a day will come when even the most virulent Clippy hater yearns for those friendly eyes and zany eyebrows to magically appear and do what he was programmed to do: Help.
Clippy, your requiem is finished. It has made me sad, for I sang it with all my heart.
