Help is Not Showing Online Content

Summary: Microsoft Word 2003 should show updated help information from the Internet. If this doesn’t display, perform the following tweak.

By default, when you access Microsoft Word 2003‘s help features, online content is displayed to supplement the help files on your computer. This provides access to expanded and updated information that may not have been included when Word 2003 was originally released.

If this content is not available while you are connected to the Internet, the feature may have been disabled. To re-enable it:

1. Select “Tools” – “Options”.

2. When the “Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the “General” tab.

3. Click the “Service Options” button near the bottom of the dialog box.

4. When the “Service Options” dialog box opens, click “Online Content” in the left pane and the dialog box should appear similar to the following screenshot:

Screenshot: Word 2003’s Online Content options

5. Make sure “Show content and links from Microsoft Office Online” and “Search online content when connected” are checked. You may also want to check “Show Microsoft Office Online featured links” and/or “Show Template Help automatically when available”.

6. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

NOTE that if you later want to disable Microsoft Word 2003’s online help features, just repeat the above steps, but uncheck the “Show content and links from Microsoft Office Online” box.