The Office Assistant was an intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office.
The code written in C++ is now available to anyone for one day only.
Office Assistant assisted users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It was included in Microsoft Office for Windows (versions 97 to 2003), in Microsoft Publisher (versions 98 to 2003), and Microsoft Office for Mac (versions 98 to 2004).
The default assistant in the English Windows version was named Clippit (though Clippy is a common nickname), after a paperclip. The character was designed by Kevan J. Atteberry, Clippy was the default and by far the most notable Assistant (partly because in many cases the setup CD was required to install the other assistants), which also led to it being called simply the Microsoft Paperclip.