Office Assistant "not installed" 2003

[Cara]

Having a weird issue. Recent computer purchase with XP and office 2003.
Whenever I start Excel, I get this error.

"There are no Office Assistant Character files present on the system. Please
run Setup in maintenance mode and install at least one character."

However, the darn paperclip is nice enough to pop up whenever I start
Outlook 2003.

Any idea what gives and how to make it go away!
I was hoping there would be something in Options to stop excel trying to
load the OA on start up? After a quick google, I find that if you are running
diff versions of office, you may get this error. I have access 2002, could
this be causing the problem?

 

[Beth Melton]

Yes, if you have another Office version installed that can account for the
error you are encountering. It's caused by turning the Assistant on in one
version and then turning it off in another. For example turning it on in
Access 2002 and then turning it off in Excel 2003.

The solution to this is to first repair your installation and then either 1)
Always leave the Assistant turned on or 2) Never turn it on. Of the two, the
latter is the recommended method.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/