Last fall, I purchased the Microsoft Office 365 Home subscription service for $99. With this, I got the ability to share 5 installs of Microsoft Office 2013 with my family. What a great deal. Along with having the latest versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher and Access, we also get 60 free Skype minutes each a month, 20GB of storage (updated Sep. 2014, now 1TB storage), and use of Office on-line from any computer with Office On Demand.
This article will show the buyer of the service how to access the account and will show you how to get a subscription to your family member. Then we’ll show that family member how to install Office on their own computer. So let’s go!
First thing to remember is that any purchase you make from Microsoft on-line (and you will have to purchase these subscriptions on-line) is saved in your order history. Simply type in your search box ‘Microsoft Store’, and you’ll get a link. Then you’ll be taken to a screen like that below to sign into the account you used to make your purchase.
After you’re logged in, look over to the right and you’ll see your profile along with a hyperlink to click that’ll take you to your purchase history and a list of your on-line keys, or access to your products.
Below is what you’ll see when you click on your Office 365 Home information. You can see that my name is listed first over on the left. Then, you’ll see the two pending invitations I sent. Remember you get 5 installs with this software. I’ve used 3 so far. Dwight is using one and below that there’s another install that’s not shown.
Microsoft has it set up now so that each person will have their own Microsoft ‘page’, where they can manage their subscription. This means they can handle their own install and you, as the software purchaser, won’t have to share your Microsoft account details with them. Nice. Even though your family has their own page, you can still deactivate a subscription, if need be.
I sent an invitation to myself so I could show the steps here. I opened the email that says what I’ll get if I click the big green ‘Accept’ button. So go ahead and click it.
Before you get to this page, you’ll first be taken to a Microsoft login screen (like the first image above). Here’s where you sign in with a Microsoft account. If you’ve never had one, you will need to set one up. Once your account is set up and you’re logged in, you’ll see the screen below.
Then choose Office for the Mac or Windows and click on Install. Or if you’re putting it on a device, then just choose the appropriate one.
You’ll follow the prompts to get Office installed on your device – it’ll probably take about 30 minutes. Then open up one of the programs – here I’m showing Excel and you can see I have signed in with my Microsoft account – that way, it’ll remember me and my documents from anywhere. To get to this screen, click on the ‘File’ option, this takes you to a ‘backstage’ area where you can get things set up and personalized. I believe you need to sign in to activate your account anyway. If you get an activation message, then do this.
Now you’re ready to enjoy the latest Microsoft Office products. If you’ve installed Office 365, let me know your experience in the comment section.