Locking Down an Office Configuration

Office 2000 takes advantage of Internet technology by including several built-in connections to information on the World Wide Web. For example, if a user queries the Office Assistant and it doesn’t find the right information, the user can click None of the above, look for more help on the Web in the Answer Wizard to check for other information on the Internet.

If you don’t want your users to use these built-in links to get to the Web, you can disable several of the connection points through system policies. For example, you can prevent users from installing the feature, or you can include the Web address in your firewall protection.

Toolbox   The built-in Web connections in Office 2000 are listed in a spreadsheet called WebEnt.xls available in the Office Information download (Offinfo.exe). The spreadsheet also identifies which connections can be disabled and shows you how to disable them. You can find this downloadable file on the Office 2000 Resource Kit Downloads page.

For example, you can disable the Office on the Web hyperlinks in Help by setting a system policy for each of the applications you want to limit in this way. The following procedure shows you how to disable this option for Excel.

To disable the Office on the Web connections in Excel

1. In the System Policy Editor, double-click the Default User icon.
2. In the Default User Properties dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft Excel 2000.
3. Click the plus sign next to Disable items in user interface.
4. Click the plus sign next to Predefined.
5. Select the Disable command bar buttons and menu items check box.
6. Under Settings for Disable command bar buttons and menu items, select the Help | Office on the Web check box.

See also

Several of the built-in Web connections in Office 2000 can be disabled through system policies. For information about using system policies, see Using the System Policy Editor.

You can redirect the Answer Wizard Web connections to a place on your own Internet or intranet site. For more information about customizing Web connections in the Answer Wizard, see Linking the Answer Wizard to the Web.