The Microsoft Office Online Web site provides up-to-date assistance—Help topics, articles, templates, training, and more—available whenever users are connected to the Internet. By default, this feature is enabled for Microsoft Office 2003. When you access Microsoft Office Outlook Help—for example, by typing in the Type a question for help box, by typing in the Search for: box in Outlook Help, or by opening a topic in the Table of Contents in Outlook Help—Outlook searches Office Online as well as the Help topics on your local computer. You can disable the feature or configure options for how Office Online is accessed by using Group Policy settings.

 Note   If you disable the feature, Office 2003 does not automatically access the latest assistance articles from the Office Online site but instead uses the Help topics on users' local computers.

You can deploy Group Policy settings to disable automatic access of Office Online assistance. Alternatively, you can change settings for online assistance by using the Change Office User Settings page in the Custom Installation Wizard.

To disable automatic access of Office Online content

1. In Group Policy, load the Office 2003 template (Office11.adm).
2. Under User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2003\Tools | Options | General | Service Options\Online Content, double-click Online content options.
3. Click Enabled to configure the policy.
4. In the Online content options drop-down list, select Never show online content or entry points, and then click OK.