XL97: "Help Topic Does Not Exist" Error in Function Wizard (173553)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Office Assistant (press F1 or click Microsoft Excel Help), when you click "Help on selected function," the following error message appears:

The topic does not exist. Contact your application vendor for an updated Help file (129).

When you search the Office Assistant for a function, the following error message appears:

No Help Available.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you do either of the following:

In the Function Wizard (Formula Palette), you click "Help on selected function" to use Help for any of the nine worksheet functions that begin with the word "IS."

-or-
In the Paste Function dialog box, you click the Office Assistant and search for one of the nine worksheet functions that begin with the word "IS."

NOTE: To display the Formula Palette, click Edit Formula in the formula bar.

WORKAROUND

To view Help for any of the IS functions, click Contents And Index on the Help menu and search for the function by name. For example, to view the Help topic for the ISERR function, follow these steps:

On the Help menu, click Contents And Index.
Click the Index tab. Type ISERR and click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem no longer occurs in Microsoft Excel 2000.

MORE INFORMATION

When you create a formula that contains a function, the Formula Palette helps you enter worksheet functions. As you enter a function into the formula, the Formula Palette displays the name of the function, each of its arguments, a description of the function and each argument, the current result of the function, and the current result of the entire formula.

The following functions do not have Help topics while you are using the function wizard or the Paste Function dialog box:

   ISBLANK
   ISERR
   ISERROR
   ISLOGICAL
   ISNA
   ISNONTEXT
   ISNUMBER
   ISREF
   ISTEXT

To view a Help topic for one of these functions, click Contents And Index on the Help menu, click the Index tab, type the name of the function, and then search for it.