Office frequently asked questions

No. Office applications are tailored to work best on each platform and device. The Office applications available for Mac users and the version numbers may be different from those available for PC users.

Office 2007, Office for Mac 2008, Office 2010, Office for Mac 2011, Office 365, Office 2013, and Office 2016 applications can open your documents without any additional action. Customers using earlier versions of Office may need to download and install a compatibility pack.

Yes. Documents that you have created belong fully to you. You can choose to store them online on OneDrive or locally on your PC or Mac. Learn what happens if you cancel your subscription.

Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of Office suites and all Office 365 subscription plans. For Office 365 plans, Internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office on other PCs or to change billing options. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app. You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Office up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades. If you do not connect to the Internet at least every 39 days, your applications will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents, but cannot edit the documents or create new ones. To reactivate your Office applications, simply reconnect to the Internet.

You do not need to be connected to the Internet to use the Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the applications are fully installed on your computer.

Your Microsoft account is the combination of an email address and password that you use to sign in to services like Hotmail, OneDrive, Windows Phone, Xbox LIVE, and Outlook.com. If you use any of these services, you already have a Microsoft account that you can use, or you can create a new account. Learn more about a Microsoft account. As part of signing up for a trial or purchasing Office, you will be prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account. You must be signed in with this account to install and manage your Office software, or to use some subscription benefits, including OneDrive storage and Skype minutes.

Users can activate 1 subscription for Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal and up to 25 licenses for Office Home & Student 2016, Office Home & Business 2016, and Office Professional 2016.

Yes. You can sign up to try Office 365 Home for free for a month on the Office website. (Note that a credit card is required for the free trial.) The trial gives you access to all the features of Office 365 Home. It includes:

• Full Office desktop applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook, plus Publisher and Access for Windows PCs).
• 1 TB of additional OneDrive cloud storage so you can save documents, photos and videos online and access them from nearly anywhere.
• 60 Skype minutes that you can use to call mobile phones and landlines. See the list.

1. Create or sign in with an existing Microsoft account. What is a Microsoft account?
2. Provide payment information to enable future monthly payments. International credit cards and PayPal (in some markets) are accepted.
3. The payment method you provide will be automatically charged at the end of your first free month to ensure that you do not experience any interruptions with your service. You can cancel online without penalty before your trial ends, by visiting www.office.com/myaccount and turning off auto-renew in the payment and billing area.
4. Once your payment method is confirmed, you'll be transferred to www.office.com/myaccount to install Office.

If you signed up for the trial via the Office website, visit the Microsoft Account site and turn off auto-renew. With this approach, the trial will automatically expire when your month is finished and your credit card will not be charged.

If you signed up for the trial by clicking an icon on your new PC, your trial ends automatically after a month; it isn’t necessary to cancel it. When the trial ends, you’ll be prompted to choose which version of Office you want to purchase.

It depends on how you signed up for the trial:

• If you signed up via the Office website, and if auto-renew is enabled on the Microsoft Account site, your service will continue uninterrupted and your payment method will be automatically charged at the end of the trial, and then monthly thereafter. You do not need to re-install Office.
• If you signed up by clicking an icon on your new PC, your trial ends automatically after a month; it isn’t necessary to cancel it. When the trial ends, you’ll be prompted to choose which version of Office you want to purchase.

Not immediately. For example, if you had a trial of Office 365 Personal, you can’t sign up for a trial of Office 365 Home. However, one year after your trial or paid subscription ends, you can sign up for a new trial.

To set up your account and install Office for the first time, visit https://setup.office.com. Learn more about setting up your account. If you have already created your account, visit www.office.com/myaccount. Learn more about installing Office.

A Product Key is a unique 25-character alpha-numeric code used to redeem and activate your Office product. You cannot use a product key for an older Office product (or a different product) to redeem your new copy of Office.

To find your Product Key, look for the 25-character alpha-numeric code on the back of the card inside your Office product packaging. Sometimes the Product Key may be printed on your retail receipt. If you purchased Office from a PC manufacturer, your Product Key will be located somewhere in your PC packaging. Sample Product Key format: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Get information on locating your product key.

After you associate your Product Key to your Microsoft account, you can sign in to www.office.com/myaccount to install and manage Office. But it's a good idea to keep your Product Key in a secure location as proof of purchase or to help our support agents trace your product.

It's best to use your existing Microsoft account. If you use other Microsoft products or services (e.g. Xbox, OneDrive, Outlook.com, MSN or Bing), you may already have a Microsoft account and won’t need to create a new one. If you forgot your username or password, recover those details by returning to sign in and clicking on Can't access your account?

Your Microsoft account can have only one subscription associated with it. If you use the same Microsoft account to buy or redeem multiple Office 365 subscriptions, you extend the amount of time for your subscription, up to a maximum of 5 years. Note that doing so does not increase the number of devices you can install Office on or increase the amount of online storage that is available with the subscription. Learn more about adding another Office 365 home subscription plan to your account.

Office 365 plans are available in most countries/regions. In countries/regions where Office 365 plans are not available, you can still buy an Office 2016 suite. When buying Office 365, it’s important that you select the country/region in which you will be billed and in which you’ll use the software. Selecting a different country/region may cause problems with subscription setup and renewal.

Office is available in the languages listed below. Not all languages are available in all countries/regions.

• For PCs running Windows: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay (Malaysia), Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
• For Mac: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English (United States), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
• For iOS: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (United States), English (United Kingdom), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
• For Android: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Catalan, Kannada, Malayalam, Persian, Tamil, and Telugu.

Microsoft offers simple and cost-effective solutions for multilingual individuals, families, and small businesses.

• Office 365: Each time you install Office on an additional PC or Mac at www.office.com/myaccount, you can choose the language in which to install Office.
• Office 2016 suites: You can install language accessory packs after installing Microsoft Office, to add additional display, help, or proofing tools. Learn more about the Language Accessory Pack for Office 2016.
• Office 2013 suites: You can install language packs after installing Microsoft Office, to add additional display, help, or proofing tools. Learn more.

OneDrive is an online storage service that you can use to store documents, notes, photos, music, videos, or other types of files. With OneDrive you can access your files from nearly any device and you can share them with others. Sign up for OneDrive.

The amount of additional storage that you get depends on your subscription:

• Customers with an active Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription receive an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage per subscription.
• Customers with an active Office 365 Home subscription receive an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, for up to 5 users. Each additional user must have their own Microsoft account and be added to the Microsoft Account site.

The additional storage is applied to the OneDrive account that is linked to the Microsoft account used to create the Office 365 subscription. For Office 365 Home, the storage is tied to the Microsoft accounts of the household members who have been added to the subscription.

To access documents stored on OneDrive, sign in to Office with the Microsoft account that you used to set up Office 365. If you have shared your Office 365 Home subscription with other members of your household, they should sign in with their Microsoft account. Learn more about signing in to Office. You can also sign in to OneDrive directly at OneDrive.com.

Yes. If you’re using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, OneDrive is preinstalled. To access your documents when you’re not connected to the Internet, open File Explorer on your PC and go to the OneDrive folder. When you reconnect, OneDrive updates the online versions with changes you made offline.

Visit the OneDrive for Windows 8.1 and OneDrive for Windows 10 support pages for more details.

You can also download and install OneDrive on Windows 7, Windows Vista, or on your Mac. The OneDrive app creates a folder that automatically syncs between OneDrive and your computer, so you can work on your documents—even when you’re offline.

If you cancel your subscription or if it expires, you can still access and download all your files by signing in to OneDrive directly using the Microsoft account you used to set up Office 365. You do lose the additional storage that comes with your subscription, so you must save your files elsewhere or buy more OneDrive storage if your OneDrive account exceeds the free storage quota.

They lose the additional OneDrive storage, but they can still access and download all files. If their OneDrive account exceeds the free storage quota, they'll need to save files elsewhere or buy more OneDrive storage.

With Skype minutes you can call friends or family on their mobile phone or landline, whether they have a Skype account or not.

You can use Skype minutes from any device where you have Skype installed, whether it’s your mobile phone, tablet, TV, or other device, subject to country/region availability. Each active Office 365 subscription is entitled to 60 Skype minutes/month, per user; this allowance resets each month.

Skype offers a variety of pay-as-you-go and subscription options to supplement Skype minutes. Visit www.skype.com for more details.

You can choose to apply your Skype minutes to a new or existing Skype account. To activate your Skype minutes, visit www.office.com/myaccount and then follow the onscreen instructions to either create a new Skype account or to use an existing one. You will see a confirmation at www.office.com/myaccount when the minutes have been activated.

Once you activate your account, you can change the Skype account with which your Skype minutes are associated once per year. To do this you must first deactivate your Skype minutes from the existing account, and then activate a new or different Skype account. To do so, visit www.office.com/deactivateskype and follow the onscreen instructions to deactivate your account. Once that is complete, visit www.office.com/myaccount to activate a new or different Skype account.

Office 365 University is a four-year subscription for full- and part-time enrolled university and college students, faculty, and staff in accredited institutions. Alumni of these institutions are ineligible.

After purchasing Office 365 University at a participating retailer, you need to go online to verify your eligibility in order to activate Office. You are also subject to the Microsoft Software License Terms for Office Consumer Subscriptions--Supplement to Microsoft Online Services Agreement and will be required to accept the agreement before activating the product. Internet access is required as the academic verification and redemption process occurs online.

Note that you may be eligible for free Office through your University, school or college. Check your eligibility at www.office.com/getoffice365 before purchasing Office 365 University.

Office 365 University is available in the following countries/regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.

Office 365 University will be available in each of the countries/regions listed as the new Office is released in that country/region.

To install Office 365 or Office as a one-time purchase, visit www.office.com/myaccount on the PC or Mac that you want to install Office on. Sign in with the Microsoft account that you used to purchase, or have already associated, with the subscription or one-time purchase product, and then follow the onscreen instructions to install Office. Learn more about how to install Office.

If you need to set up your account and install Office for the first time, visit https://setup.office.com. Learn more about where to enter your Office product key.

To download and install older versions of Office, visit www.office.com/downloadoffice.

You’ll need to determine which Office product keys correspond to each PC. Learn more.

Office 365 Personal subscribers can install Office on 1 PC or Mac, 1 tablet, and 1 smartphone for one user. Office 365 Home subscribers can install Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 smartphones for up to five users within their household. You can count hybrid Windows devices, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro, as either a PC or a tablet.

Yes. You can purchase Office 365 subscriptions for both Mac and Windows. Office Home & Business 2016 or Office Home & Student 2016 are also available for Mac as a one-time purchase. Office applications available for a Mac are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. The Publisher and Access applications are not available for Mac. Current Office application versions for Office 365 and Office 2016 are available for both Windows and Mac.

You can’t have side-by-side installations of Office 2016 and Office 2013 on the same PC. However, you can have side-by-side installations of Office 2016 and other older versions of Office, such as Office 2010 or Office 2007. Learn more about installing different versions of Office on the same PC.

The actual download speed of Office depends on the speed of your Internet connection; a broadband Internet connection is recommended for the best download experience.

All versions of the new Office for Windows PCs use a streaming technology that lets you begin to use Office applications before installation is complete.

If Office is taking a long time to install, learn about possible solutions.

Icons for Office applications are created when you install Office. You can start the applications by clicking the icons, which are installed in the following locations:

• Windows
• Windows 7: Start menu
• Windows 8: Start screen and Apps view (the view under the Start screen that includes all apps installed on a PC)*
• Windows 8.1: Apps view*
  *If you cannot find your icons in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, go to the Start screen and type the name of the application you want to launch (for example, Word).
• Windows 10: Start menu. You can also type the name of the application you want to launch (for example, Word) in Cortana.
  
  You can also pin an application shortcut to your Start screen or your desktop taskbar for convenient access. Learn more.
• Mac OS X
• 10.6 (Snow Leopard): Dock
• 10.7 (Lion): Dock and Launchpad
• 10.8 (Mountain Lion): Dock and Launchpad
• 10.9 (Mavericks): Dock and Launchpad
• 10.10 (Yosemite): You can start the applications by clicking the application icons which can be found in the Launchpad and Applications folder in Finder.

The 32-bit version of Office is installed by default.

Even if your computer is running a 64-bit version of Windows, we recommend that you install the 32-bit version of Office, because it is more compatible with the applications and add-ins that work with Office. If you do want to install the 64-bit version of Office, you can do so by visiting www.office.com/myaccount and following the onscreen instructions to install the 64-bit version. It is not possible to install both the 64-bit version and 32-bit versions of Office on the same computer.

If you have installed Office on the maximum number of PCs, Macs, or tablets and want to use Office on a different device, you can deactivate a device by visiting www.office.com/myaccount, after which you can install Office on a new device. The copy of Office on the device you deactivated will revert to read-only mode, which means documents can be viewed but not edited. You will not lose any documents that are saved locally on the original device.

To uninstall Office, first visit www.office.com/myaccount and follow the onscreen instructions to deactivate Office. Deactivating Office leaves the Office applications on your PC in read-only mode, which means that you can view documents but can't edit or save them, and you can’t create new documents. To remove Office entirely, go to your PC's Control Panel and uninstall Office. For Mac, iPad, and Android tablets, follow the instructions on that device to uninstall an application.

There are several ways to get a back-up for your Office product:

• Office 365 customers can download or reinstall from www.office.com/myaccount.
• You may order a DVD back-up copy for the latest release Office products for a fee. Visit www.office.com/backup for details.

Back-up copies cannot be shipped to the following countries/regions: Bhutan, Brazil, China, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cook Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Iraq, Jan Mayen, Kiribati, Libya, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Niue, Palau, Pitcairn Islands, Saba, Samoa, Sint Eustatius, Timor Leste, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna.

Get the core Office experience for free on your favorite tablets and phones. To find and download apps, visit the following pages: Office for iPad, Office for iPhone, Office for Android tablet, and Office for Android phone. For Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps, get premium features with an eligible Office 365 subscription. For information about the premium features for mobile devices that are available with Office 365, visit www.office.com/information.

Office 365 customers with an active subscription always get the newest versions of the Office applications when they are available. When we release a new version of Office, you will be notified that you have the option to update your software to the latest version.

The latest version, Office 2016 for Mac, is now available to Office 365 subscribers as part of your subscription. To install Office 2016 for Mac, go to http://office.com/myaccount and follow the instructions there.

To manage your billing information, install or remove Office from additional PCs or Macs, and manage your installations of Office on other devices at any time, visit www.office.com/myaccount.

If you purchased an auto-renew subscription, your subscription starts when you complete your purchase. Auto-renew subscriptions may be purchased from Office365.com, MicrosoftStore.com, the iTunes® Store, and some other retailers. If you purchased a pre-paid subscription, your subscription starts when you activate your subscription and land on your My Account page. Pre-paid subscriptions may be purchased from a retailer or reseller, or a Microsoft support agent.

If you have an active Office 365 Home subscription, you can share it with up to four members of your household. Each household member you share your subscription with can use any of your available installs on their PCs, Macs, iPads, Android tablets, Windows tablets, iPhones®, or Android phones, get an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and manage their own installs from www.office.com/myaccount.

To add someone to your subscription, visit www.office.com/myaccount and follow the onscreen instructions to add a user. Each person you add will receive an email with the steps they need to follow. Once they have accepted and completed the steps, their information, including the installs they are using, will appear on your My Account page. You can stop sharing your subscription with someone or remove a device they are using at www.office.com/myaccount.

Your Microsoft account can only have one active subscription. If you activate your Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription before your Office 365 Home subscription expires, the remaining time on your Office 365 Home subscription will be converted to the Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription (whichever you have chosen). However, you will only be allowed to install Office on as many devices as your new subscription plan allows for—1 PC or Mac, plus 1 tablet and 1 phone for Office 365 Personal, and up to 2 PCs, Macs, or tablets, plus 2 phones for Office 365 University. You will immediately lose the Office 365 Home benefits of installing Office on up to 5 PCs and/or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 phones. You may choose to wait until your Office 365 Home subscription expires before activating your Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription so you do not lose installs.

Your Microsoft account can have only one active subscription. If you activate your Office 365 Personal subscription before your Office 365 University subscription expires, the remaining time on your Office 365 University subscription will be converted to Office 365 Personal. However, you will be allowed to install Office on only as many devices as your new subscription plan allows for—1 PC or Mac, plus 1 tablet and 1 phone for Office 365 Personal. You may choose to wait until your Office 365 University subscription expires before activating your Office 365 Personal so you do not lose installs.

Your Microsoft account can have only one active subscription. You can either convert your Office 365 Home subscription to Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University, or you can wait until your current subscription expires before activating your Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription.

As the expiration date approaches, you will receive notifications in the Office applications and via email, alerting you to the upcoming expiration. If you choose to let your subscription expire, the Office software applications enter read-only mode, which means that you can view or print documents, but you can’t create new documents or edit existing documents.

To return to full Office functionality, you can purchase a new version of Office by visiting www.office365.com or any participating retailer. You could also return to full functionality using an older version of Office, or you can use Office Online for free for basic editing.

You will be notified before you’re charged when it’s time to renew an annual subscription. If you are signed up for a monthly subscription, your payment will be automatically debited each month and you won’t be notified in advance. You can change your payment method or cancel your subscription at any time by visiting the Microsoft Account site and signing in with the Microsoft account that you used to buy Office.

You have a few options for renewing. Regardless of the option you choose, be sure to renew using the same Microsoft account that you used when setting up your subscription.

• If auto-renew is enabled for your subscription, it will renew automatically. Your auto-renew setting is shown on the Microsoft Account site after you sign in with the Microsoft account that you used to buy Office.
• If auto-renew is not enabled, visit www.office.com/renew to purchase an Office 365 auto-renew subscription. The additional time will be automatically added to the remaining time on your existing subscription.
• To renew through the retailer that you purchased Office 365 from, return to that retailer and purchase another pre-paid one-year subscription. Follow the setup instructions included in the packaging – they are the same for setting up a new subscription. The additional year will be automatically added to the remaining time on your existing subscription.

Yes. When you renew early to the same Office 365 plan that you already have, the additional time is added to your existing subscription. For example, if you have two months left on your current subscription to Office 365 Home and you renew for one year (12 months), your subscription will run for 14 months.

• If you purchased an auto-renew subscription from Microsoft via MicrosoftStore.com or Office365.com, you have two options for cancelling:
  • You can cancel online by visiting the Microsoft Account site, signing in with the Microsoft account that you used to buy Office, and then turning off auto-renew. With this approach, your subscription will automatically expire when your remaining subscription time is up.
  • To cancel immediately, contact Microsoft support and request an immediate cancellation.
• If you purchased an auto-renew subscription from Apple via the iTunes Store, you will need to cancel your subscription with Apple. Learn more.
• If you purchased an auto-renew subscription from another retailer, you may have to cancel your subscription with that retailer. You can confirm this by visiting the Microsoft Account site.

Auto-renew is the simplest way to ensure continued service. You can set up monthly or annual auto-renew by visiting the Microsoft Account site.

If you have a monthly subscription you can save money by converting it to an annual subscription at the Microsoft Account site.

Visit Microsoft Support for help on technical issues, including:

• Order status
• Billing
• Download
• Product key
• Installation/de-installation
• Product activation
• Product use

For help and how-to content, visit www.office.com/support. For free video-based training, visit www.office.com/training.