The school year is fast approaching and that means it's time to buy school supplies. If Microsoft Office is on your list, don't purchase it quite yet: there's a chance you can get it for free, courtesy of Microsoft.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it was giving away Office 365 subscriptions to New York City public school students, and later it opened up the program to students in dozens of countries around the world.
Now, any qualified student or faculty member can get a free Office 365 Education plan, which gives you unfettered access to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, plus the ability to collaborate with others in real-time using those programs. Here's how to get it.
Read over the eligibility requirements.
In order to get Office 365 Education you must:
Includes the following: In order to help our students, faculty and staff prepare for success, we're providing Office 365 software to you free of charge. You will now.
- Be an active full-or part-time student at a qualified school, college or university (more on that below).
- Have an email address issued by your school, such as [email protected].
- Be at least 13 years old.
- Have access to the Internet.
Check if your school is part of the program.
Your school must have purchased an Office license for the entire institution through Microsoft's Volume Licensing program to participate. Here's how to check:
- Head to the Office 365 Education site and click the 'Find out if you're eligible' button.
- Enter your school email address.
- Microsoft will send you an email with sign up instructions if you're eligible for Office 365.
- If not, you'll get a message right away letting you know that Office 365 Education isn't available for your school.
Follow the directions in the email to complete the process and download Office. You'll be able to install the software on up to five Windows or Mac computers, plus download the Office mobile apps for Android, iOS or Windows tablets or phones. Your Office 365 subscription also entitles you to 1TB of free cloud storage in OneDrive.
Bonus: If you are not able to get Office 365 Education plan, there's still hope. You can still use Microsoft's free tools at Office.com, which includes Word, Powerpoint and Excel. Though they aren't the same as the paid desktop versions, they are only missing advanced features (like mail merge) that you likely won't miss anyway. Just keep in mind that you'll need an Internet connection at all times to use Office.com.
Not only can students and teachers easily check their school's eligibility for a free Office 365 subscription, but they should also be able to sign up for the offer themselves rather than going through an administrator.
Microsoft Office 365 Education
Microsoft features a bunch of Office 365 plans for personal, business, or non-profit use. One such plan may already be in place at your school. By going through the following eligibility check, you should have your questions answered about this, but if not, you can ask your school's administration whether they have Office 365 Education.
What is Included for Eligible Students and Teachers
These free accounts for students and teachers include the latest available desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access and Publisher (Office 2019 for Windows or Office 2019 for Mac). Not only that, but these desktop programs can be installed on as many as five PCs or Macs as well as up to five mobile devices.
This also implies integration with Office Online, the browser-based version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. The important thing about Office Online is that it allows you to collaborate on a document in real-time with other students or teachers. If you do need to work offline, you can save locally then sync changes once a connection is reestablished.
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The offer also includes free storage in OneDrive. Documents saved to OneDrive can be accessed across all your mobile and desktop devices. The Office 365 Education plan typically allows educational institutions to offer the Office and OneDrive experience plus sites, free email, instant messaging, and web conferencing. You may need to check with your school for details on these components.
Determining Eligibility
This program has been in effect for a while, but now it is more simple to determine whether your school is a qualifying institution. Quite a few students are eligible for this opportunity.
Checking for eligibility requires a school email address. If you do not have access to the email account issued by your school, you should start by troubleshooting that. Next, visit the appropriate website to further investigate the possibilities for your school:
- Students should visit office.com/getoffice365
- Teachers should visit office.com/teachers
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What Administrators of Eligible Institutions Need to Do
Not much. This is the elegant thing about Microsoft's offer, as described on their Office in Education site:
'There are no administrative actions your institution needs to take to enroll. You can simply communicate the availability of Office 365 Education for Students to your students using content from our toolkit. Access the toolkit. Contact your Microsoft representative with specific questions about the steps your school should take.'
For Non-Eligible Students or Teachers
Your interest may prompt important conversations on behalf of the other students or teachers at your school. If your school is not eligible you can reach out to your school's administration to request that they reach out to Microsoft regarding failed eligibility.