An Actor Character Preview (ACP) file is a file format used by Microsoft Actor to preview Microsoft Office Assistant characters. It debuted with the release of Microsoft Office 97 as a lightweight way to preview Office Assistants before selecting/installing them.[1] However, the .ACP format would be replaced with the Agent Character Preview file format following the release of Microsoft Office 2000.
Usage
In Microsoft Office, assistants are shown in a gallery/selection UI where the user can preview an assistant's look and behavior before choosing it. Office installs (or references) an ACP preview file for each assistant alongside the full .ACT version of the character.
Structure
.ACP files share a common structure with .ACT files and .ANI files, with all three files formats having a similar file header. However, unlike .ACT and .ANI files, .ACP files contain only character metadata and the following two animations for each individual character: Idle (ID 1) and GetAttentionMinor (ID 12)
Trivia
No Microsoft Actor 1.0-format .ACP files are known to exist.
This is likely due to the fact that most Microsoft Actor 1.0 characters utilized .WMF assets instead of .BMP assets, making them already smaller in size.
This file format was only utilized in Office 97 before being discontinued in Office 2000.
