Section A.3. Other Help Menu Options

A.3. Other Help Menu Options

The Excel online help and the Office Assistant are the two cornerstones of the Help menu. However, there are also a few other options that you might find useful:

• Microsoft Office Online (or Office on the Web in Excel 2002). Choose this option to launch the Office Online Web site (http://office.microsoft.com) in your Web browser. The Office Online Web site has a wide collection of articles and resources that you can browse through.

• Check for Updates. Choose this option to launch the update page of the Office Online Web site. Look for the "Check for Updates" link on this page, and click it. When you do, the Office Online site checks the current version of Excel on your system and recommends security patches and other updates that aren't installed (see Figure A-8). If you haven't updated Excel since you installed it, you're certain to find something important here.

Figure A-8. Here, the Office Online update Web page has found five recommended updates. All you need to do to download these files to your computer and install them automatically is click Start Installation.

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Note: Excel 2002 fans don't have a menu link to the Web site for automatic update checking. However, you can still get there on your own and install useful security patches and minor fixes. Just go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/ or look for the Downloads link on the main Office Online homepage (http://office.microsoft.com).

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• Detect and Repair. If something's gone wrong with your Excel installation (for example, someone's deleted a required file and certain features don't work properly anymore), there's hope. In the past, you'd be forced to completely reinstall Office. However, both Excel 2002 and 2003 have the ability to heal themselves. Just select Detect and Repair from the Help menu to search for missing or corrupted files and replace them with the correct versions from the Office (or Excel) setup CD.