Office for Mac 2011 subscriptions
I contacted MS to find out how to buy Office 365 University (4 year subscription for 2 computers, Macs or PCs, for $79.99).
I was told that although I already had a MS account, I would have to create a new one using my .edu email address to be able to purchase Office 365 University.
I did so, purchased the product, and received an activation key. The product downloaded and installed. Then it prompted me for the key to activate the product. I entered the key but the product called it invalid.
Contacted MS support and the support person told me that to activate a subscription I would not use the issued key but rather my MS account login and password. He also told me the following:
- I did not need to create a second MS account to purchase the Office 365 University subscription.
- I would be prompted to input MS account login and password monthly to keep re-activating the account for the duration of the subscription.
Since I am interested to buy Office 365 Home Premium (1 year subscription for 5 computers, Macs or PCs, for $99.99) to outfit the other macs in my household, I asked if I would have to do the monthly reactivation in the other five macs with Office 365 Home Premium. He said that goes for every one of their Office subscription services, to account for reinstalls after hardware failure.
This does not sound like a good idea. I do not know why MS cannot allow the purchaser to activate/deactivate computers from his/her MS account as we can do with iTunes, rather than have the purchaser re-activate each machine monthly, or give their MS account credentials to all the other users in the household.