Accessing office.com

MS requires that all users of MS applications have an appropriate access license. These licenses also allow Microsoft to provide updates, security enhancements, and support for the tools we use daily.

RRU issues MS licenses to all students, staff, faculty, guests, etc. to ensure that each person has appropriate authorized access to MS software and services.

MS has phased out license type A1 Plus, which is the license currently assigned to you. A1 Plus has been replaced with A1 licenses. The main difference between the two types is that A1 Plus licenses allowed us download and install MS Office products. The new license - A1 – does not.

You may be affected, depending on whether you used the license issued by RRU and even depending on how you used it.

If you previously installed Office on your computer using the RRU license, the installed version of Office will no longer function either on <date> or after a 30 day grace period .

• At that point, you’ll need to log into http://office.com using your RRU Login and password.

• Documents already saved on your desktop are accessible from http://office.com (popup blockers may prevent this).

• New documents will be created from http://office.com .

Yes, you will be required to use MFA to access this online resource. If you have not set up MFA, please refer to these instructions to do that.

1. Go to https://office.com/

2. Click the purple ‘Sign in’ button

3. Enter your RRU Login (for me, cdavid@royalroads.ca) and your usual RRU password (the one you use to log into Moodle, email, etc.)

4. You may be required to use Multifactor authentication to access office.com.
   If you have not set up MFA, please refer to these instructions to do that.
   *** if you are outside Canada, contact the Helpdesk (see ‘How to get help’ below) for assistance ***

You may be prevented from opening documents in office.com if Pop-ups are an issue.

In this case, look at the far right of the URL in your browser. You will see this little notice saying “Pop-up blocked”. Click on it, then click the radio button for ‘Always allow...”, then click 'Done’. You will only need to do this once.

Once logged into office.com, click on the Apps icon on the left of the screen:

Then click on the icon representing the app you wish to use, like Word:

Under ‘Create’, click on ‘Blank document’:

Click on the little right arrow next to ‘Open’, then click on 'Open files from this device

Browse to the location where your file exists, highlight it, and click ‘Open’.

You may see a message that says your file is being uploaded to ‘My Files’ in OneDrive… if you don’t see it, check your browser for pop-up blockers“. This message may disappear quite quickly!

If your document does not open in a new tab, as expected, look at the far right of the URL in your browser. You will see this little notice saying “Pop-up blocked”. Click on it, then click the radio button for ‘Always allow..”, then click 'Done’. You will only need to do this once.

Your document should open in a new tab.

Yes, it does. You can save your files there and/or download them if your preference is to keep them on your computer.

You can’t save on your computer. Office.com saves to OneDrive by default. But you can download a copy of the document to your computer if you like:

While looking at the document:

OR while on the office.com landing page and while logged in, click on the ellipses to the right of the file you wish to download, then click ‘download’.

Our understanding is that there will be a grace period of 30 days during which the installed apps will function normally. After that, you can continue to open documents and print them, but you can no longer edit them. For that, you’ll need to log into office.com

Please direct questions to <where do we want questions directed?>.

We appreciate your cooperation as we make this adjustment to better align with organizational requirements and licensing standards.