Word's Help Missing

[RossH]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

Help! (Or, where is Help?). When I select Word Help all I get is a window which lists "Popular Topics" and "Ask Someone". There's no index to the full Word Help. Where is it? I've searched this forum for "Help" and "Word Help" and it seems no-one else has asked this question. Is it just missing on my machine - I've a near default installation of Office 2008.

Thanks for any help.

 

[CyberTaz]

Click the oval Tic-Tac in the upper right corner of the window... One of
Apple's "novelty" items to hide menu bars

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RossH]

Click the oval Tic-Tac in the upper right corner of the window... One of

Apple's "novelty" items to hide menu bars

HTH |:&gt
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Sorry Bob, it didn't answer the question. The Tic-Tac opens and closes the toolbar but it doesn't affect what is available when I open the Help menu. Where can I find the Index and Contents to Word's Help?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Ross -

Well, it should have answered the question

It sounds like you're using the button on *Word's* title bar, not the Help
window's title bar. Help is actually a separate application & each
application has its own Show/Hide Toolbars button. Just select Word Help
from the Help menu or click the purple ? button on the Standard toolbar to
launch the Help application. (If you're looking for Word's Help menu content
to change then No, that's not going to happen.)

As is stands now you Help program window has a title bar containing 3
circular buttons at the left. The phrase "Word Help" in the middle, and the
Tic-Tac oval button at the right end - click that oval button. It will
display Help's toolbar containing a Topics button, a Spotlight Search box
plus several other controls. IOW, Help's features are in Help's window,
*not* in Word's menu.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

As is stands now you Help program window has a title bar containing 3
circular buttons at the left. The phrase "Word Help" in the middle, and the
Tic-Tac oval button at the right end - click that oval button. It will
display Help's toolbar containing a Topics button, a Spotlight Search box
plus several other controls. IOW, Help's features are in Help's window,
*not* in Word's menu.

And click on the Topics button to display Index and Contents, just in
case that's the roadblock.

 

[RossH]

Sorry folks but that is still not helping. There must be something different about my (default install) setup.
1. The Word Help menu window only has 'Popular Topics', 'Ask Someone' and 'Get more online'. There is no index or contents under any of these headings. That's all there is - there's nothing more - that's it (and anything else I can say to emphasise that the full Word Help is NOT in this window).
2. I had no purple Help button, but then my Standard toolbar is customised, so I added it. But the Help button still only brings up the same window as the menu Help.
OK, now I know that Word Help is a separate application (but not mentioned in What's New in Word). I've looked right through my Office 2008 folder and there's only Query Help in the Help folder. Maybe Word (etc) Help didn't install. Or, as I've got the Student/Home Edition, it's a Microsoft 'feature' that Help isn't provided for this version!
I'm still looking for an answer - Reinstall?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Ross -

I'm not about to say that what you're experiencing *can't be* but if it is
this is the first report of any such issue, so please bear with me here

To address the concerns you expressed: First, Help must be installed or it
wouldn't launch at all when you select it from Word's Help menu. Secondly,
there is no difference in the programs provided in the various editions of
Office - it's a matter of licensing & 'additional stuff' that varies. And
finally, the Help application isn't stored in the location you're looking
to, which explains why you aren't finding it there. So...

Let's go back to the Help window: In addition to what you describe - all of
which is in what we'll call the white Content Pane of the window - this is
what you *should* be seeing directly above that Content Pane:

Above the Content Pane there should be a blue graphic the width of the
window containing the text 'Word Help Home'.

At the very top edge of that window there should be a thin gray strip, in
the center of which the window is identified as 'Word Help'.

To the right of that text should be an oval button which expands the height
of that gray strip & discloses the window's toolbar.

Once that bar is displayed you should see a button labeled Topics which
produces a flyout containing the Contents & the Search features. The toolbar
also has a Home button, Forward & Back arrows, a Print button and the
Spotlight Search field.

If you're not finding this to be the case please indicate exactly what
components you're missing so we can figure out how to get it right.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Above the "Popular topics" heading, there is another heading: "Word Help
Home". Above THAT there is a toolbar. The left hand Icon is labelled
"Topics". Click that and the Table of Contents slides out to the left.

Mac Office Help has no Index: instead it has a Search tab.

If you are seeing the "Get more help online" tag, then your Help system is
NOT being allowed to go online, and if it's not, you're only seeing about a
tenth of it.

The Help was not ready when they burned the DVD, so most of it is not there
at all until you allow the Help System to update itself from the online
website.

Hope this helps

Sorry folks but that is still not helping. There must be something different
about my (default install) setup.
1. The Word Help menu window only has 'Popular Topics', 'Ask Someone' and 'Get
more online'. There is no index or contents under any of these headings.
That's all there is - there's nothing more - that's it (and anything else I
can say to emphasise that the full Word Help is NOT in this window).
2. I had no purple Help button, but then my Standard toolbar is customised, so
I added it. But the Help button still only brings up the same window as the
menu Help.
OK, now I know that Word Help is a separate application (but not mentioned in
What's New in Word). I've looked right through my Office 2008 folder and
there's only Query Help in the Help folder. Maybe Word (etc) Help didn't
install. Or, as I've got the Student/Home Edition, it's a Microsoft 'feature'
that Help isn't provided for this version!
I'm still looking for an answer - Reinstall?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[RossH]

Thanks to both John McGhie and CyberTaz. What I got wrong in the advice offered earlier was that the oval 'tictac' at the top-right of the window referred to the Word Help window. I never expected the Help window to have a toolbar, which was hidden by default, so I was opening the toolbar in my normal Word window. Opening it in Word Help brings up the button for Topics, so I've found Help.

And, yes, I"ve also found the Online Help trigger. But how does the Help system update itself? Does opening Online Help actually update the Help system on the user's Mac?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

And, yes, I"ve also found the Online Help trigger. But how does the Help system update itself? Does opening Online Help actually update the Help system on the user's Mac?

With online help on, your search searches all the online content, which
is added to frequently--they are writing new topics for 2008 all the
time (although I don't think the 2008 Help has yet matched the 2004 Help).

It doesn't download anything or change what is available on your
computer as offline Help---but as updates come out, the update may
install more content to offline Help. If online Help is difficult for
you to use, and you need offline Help to be as rich as possible, let the
MS MacBU know by using Help | Send Feedback in any application, or send
a message to the Help writers by using the "Did this help?" button at
the bottom of each Help topic (online Help only).

Glad you sorted the confusion.

 

[RossH]

Thanks for that Dalya. It clarifies everything. I don't have any problem using online Help so, given the status of Help for Word 2008, will probably normally use this.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Ross:

It is *intended* that eventually, the help will update itself every time you
search it, so the downloads it does will be kept on your local machine.

However, as Daiya says, that's not working yet. It's a fairly major change
they haven't finished.

What you are seeing is the beginnings of the mechanism. I think the rest of
it will come with the next version of PC Word (that's a wild guess...)

There's no point in the Mac BU writing their own version, and putting our
prices up, if they can just wait a little longer and steal the widget from
the Windows side, now is there

Cheers

Thanks for that Dalya. It clarifies everything. I don't have any problem using
online Help so, given the status of Help for Word 2008, will probably normally
use this.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]