Microsoft Office 365 - Free for faculty, staff & students

Summary

The University of Maine System has an agreement with Microsoft which allows for current Faulty, Staff, and Students to access Office365 on their personal devices. Office365 can either be used online within a web browser or be installed on a computer for offline use.

Body

Step by step instructions for obtaining and installing MS Office 365 which allows for current Faulty, Staff, and Students to access Office365 on their personal devices.  Office365 can either be used online within a web browser or be installed on a computer for offline use.

IF you are an Active Student or Employee, you should NEVER have to Register for this product, you will automatically be assigned a license upon employment or prior to the start of the semester.  POI status does NOT get you a license for the Microsoft 365.

INFO: This article is for personally owned devices. University-owned and managed computers get Office installed during the initial software set-up process or by using Software Center (Windows) or UMS Application Catalog (macOS).

Instructions

Login in for Office 365 use

  1. Sign in to download Office by going to www.office.com and if you're not already signed in, select Sign in.

  2. Sign in with your @maine.edu account.   

  3. After signing in, follow the steps that match the type of account you signed in with.

If you signed in with a work or school account
  1. From the Office 365 home page select Install Office apps (If you set a different start page, go to aka.ms/office-install.)

  2. Select Office 365 apps to begin the installation.

Tip: The 64-bit version is installed by default unless Office detects you already have a 32-bit version of Office (or a stand-alone Office app such as Project or Visio) installed. In this case, the 32-bit version of Office will be installed instead.
To change from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version or vice versa (version instructions here), you need to uninstall Office first (including any stand-alone Office apps you have such as Project of Visio) (Uninstall instructions found here) . Once the uninstall is complete, sign in again to www.office.com and select Other install options, choose the language and version you want (64 or 32-bit), and then select Install. (See Install Visio or Install Project if you need to reinstall those stand-alone apps.)
  1. This completes the download of Office to your device. To complete the installation, follow the prompts in the "Install Office" section below.

Install Office

  1. Depending on your browser, select Run (in Edge or Internet Explorer), Setup (in Chrome), or Save File (in Firefox).

  • If you see the User Account Control prompt that says, Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device? select Yes.

  • The install begins.

  1. Your install is finished when you see the phrase, "You're all set! Office is installed now" and an animation plays to show you where to find Office applications on your computer.

  2. Select Close

  3. Activate Office: To open an Office app, select the Start button (lower-left corner of your screen) and type the name of an Office app, like Word.

  4. If you have Windows 8.1 or 8.0, type the name of an Office app on the Start screen. Can't find your Office apps?

  5. To open the Office app, select its icon in the search results.

  6. When the Office app opens, accept the license agreement. Office is activated and ready to use.

  7. Note: The Activation Wizard appears if Office has trouble activating. Complete the steps in the wizard to finish activating Office.

If you experience issues logging into Office applications on your computer, you may have remnants of an older version or another license installed. See Uninstall Office from a PC or How to uninstall Office from a Mac to completely uninstall, then retry the installation instructions above.

WARNING: In most cases, students will lose access to Office 365 one year after their last enrollment in a for credit course. 

Environment

Web access or downloaded app/software

Details

Details

Article ID: 134660
Created
Wed 7/21/21 3:33 PM
Modified
Mon 7/15/24 12:10 PM
Applies To
Students
Faculty
Staff

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