Anyone who has worked with Microsoft Office products such as Word or Excel around the turn of the millennium is guaranteed to remember him: Clippy, also known as Karl Klammer in Europe.
The anthropomorphic paper clip provided the users of Office 97 with more or less useful tips and persistently offered its help. With the release of Windows XP in May 2001, the little office assistant had had its day, »because the new operating system is so easy to use«.
Twenty years later, the paper clip is about to make a comeback, as Microsoft indicated on Twitter.
Will Karl Klammer be part of Office again soon?
If you now fear that you will soon be annoyed by a talking paper clip that keeps popping up at the edge of the screen while you are working: Don’t worry. The “lovable” helper will probably be part of Microsoft Office again, but you will probably not see him very often.
Return as an emoji: The developers are currently holding Clippy hostage, and they are demanding 20,000 likes on Twitter for his release. As soon as this has been achieved, the famous paper clip will be able to celebrate its comeback and in the future it will replace the paper clip emoji in all products of the Microsoft 365 series.
The action is a complete success. Just 15 hours after it started, the tweet was able to collect over 125,000 hearts. The revised design by Karl Klammer, who now looks a bit like a Pixar character, may also have contributed to the success. But see for yourself:
Link to Twitter content
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will actually implement its threat or promise. When a user asked if it was a joke, the software giant simply replied: “Wait and find out.”
Link to Twitter content
Microsoft is of course not only working on the comeback of Clippy, but also on a new operating system. In our overview article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Windows 11.
Are you up for a return from Karl Klammer? And would you finally use the paperclip emoji if you made a comeback? Let us know in the comments!
