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Clipy ms word4/6/2023 ![]() She wasn’t what former employees describe as a typical Microsoftie at the time: a Birkenstocked or button-downed developer with a Y chromosome. Sometimes, they’d tear up.įries didn’t want people to feel stupid using computers. “They’d be afraid to even move the mouse,” recalls Fries. Even the people closest to the geeks actually building the machines feared the technology. Only about 15 percent of households owned a personal computer, or PC. Managers and developers eyed subjects like lab investigators from behind the glass, observing their every cursor move. Back then, the company still leaned on friends and family as guinea pigs for its products. The wife of a colleague had offered to test Microsoft Publisher, the desktop application that debuted in 1991. In one of the company’s Teams backgrounds, the paperclip hovers above yellow legal pad paper on a pedestal in a cement-walled basement, seemingly exiled to the dungeon of bad tech ideas. Clippy can now permanently live in Word files, Outlook emails, or other common workplace apps. The character replaced a plain old paperclip in Microsoft 365 to help liven up the company’s emojis and indulge a social media outpouring. Last year, Microsoft officially revived the Office Assistant that debuted in Office 97. But nearly three decades after its genesis at the Redmond tech giant, Clippit-better known as Clippy-improbably lives on. Time labeled it one of the 50 worst inventions ever. Almost immediately, computer geeks and neophytes panned it. Many users found its polite but presumptuous suggestions invasive, obnoxious, and creepy. The metallic office supply bounced around the margins of documents and never stopped looking over our shoulders, even as it blinked back at us impatiently. “It looks like you’re writing a letter,” a googly-eyed, caterpillar-browed paperclip in Microsoft Word observed when we may or may not have been trying to write a letter. Then, out of nowhere, an incorporeal know-it-all popped up to make us feel even worse about the novel notion of word processing in the mid-’90s. All rights reserved.T he blank screen was already intimidating enough. Source and lower two images: Clippy.js at You can make it look like me, but there's only one theclippy. It looks like someone has cloned me in JavaScript. Of course, the real Clippy is now enjoying his retirement, and living out his days on Twitter. Smore says that its team had a lot of fun recreating the Office Assistants, and that it wanted "to share that fun and whimsy with everyone, and to remind people to try new and risky things, even when they seem really silly." The full range of animations has been created, and can be enjoyed on demand on Smore's website, where more details are shared on the project. ![]() Clippy.js is a JavaScript implementation of the Office Assistants that can be embedded in any website. Other Assistants such Dot (a ball) and the Hoverbot have not been so fortunate. Smore has brought back not just Clippy, but also Merlin the wizard, Rover the dog, and (my personal favourite) Links the cat. Naturally, we decided to combine the two." Created as a 'weekend project' by their developers, Smore explains: "Our research shows that people love two things: failed Microsoft technologies and obscure JavaScript libraries. ![]() Clippy and friends made their last appearance in Office for Mac 2004, while the last PC version of the software to feature the Office Assistants was Office 2003.īut now, there is cause for equal measures of rejoicing and despair with the resurrection of Clippy by digital flyer start-up, Smore. In reality, these Office Assistants were just plain irritating, and no more useful in practice than accessing a standard text-based help database.Ī range of Office Assistants were created, but the most famous one of all was, of course, the paper clip. Those of you who have been using Office for many, many years will no doubt recall the days when Microsoft's productivity suite included digital companions, tasked - in theory, at least - with helping users to get things done more easily. ![]()
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