Accessing office.com (not relevant to students or employees)

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.

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 December 9 or after a 30 day grace period, so January 9.

• 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 so you may need to adjust the blockers).

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

The fastest way is to open an Office app like Word, Excel, or PowerPooint and look in the upper right of the screen. You’ll see the name of whoever is logged in. Click on the little image (This could be a picture as shown below, or it may be your initials, etc.).

If you “@royalroads.ca” in the area highlighted in yellow, you’re using an RRU license.

If you see gmail.com, outlook.com, hotmail.com, etc. showing there, you’re not currently logged in using an RRU license.

The new A1 license is primarily designed for lightweight, cloud-based use, which is optimal for educational environments that rely on internet connectivity and browser-based applications​.

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) then hit ‘Next’
   

   

4. Enter your usual RRU password (the one you use to log into Moodle, email, etc.) then hit ‘Sign in’
   

   

5. 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

-Step 1- One option for moving files from your RRU OneDrive is to:

• sign into office.com

• go to OneDrive

• find the files you want to move & select them

• download them to your computer to a location of your choosing

• (they still exist on your RRU One

• Drive at this point; you’ve taken a copy)

-Step 2- Before you buy a subscription, log out of your RRU MS account

• open Word

• click on the avatar in the upper right corner (most likely the avatar is your initials)

• click ‘Log out’

• close any other MS apps you have open such as Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc.

-Step 3- Buy the license

• If you’re in Canada, you can buy a subscription from Microsoft.

• When you do that, you’ll need to register with a non-RRU email address. Let’s say it’s yourfirstname.yourlastname@gmail.com.

-Step 4- Log into your new subscription of Office

• open Word

• you’ll be asked to login

• enter your MS credentials (yourfirstname.yourlastname@gmailcom + password)

• now you can open Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc. All of these will understand that you are logged in using the new subscription

-Step 5- Copy the files you downloaded… to your new OneDrive space

Note: you don’t need to copy your files up to the new OneDrive space; you can access them from your local drive if you wish. If you go this route, please make sure you have a backup scheme in place to prevent data loss.

• Access your new OneDrive space

• Copy the files from the download location to the OneDrive

• Consider deleting the downloaded copies to prevent confusion

If you follow the steps outlined in the section called “I will buy my own license. How can I make sure I don't lose the files on my RRU OneDrive?”, you will have opened Outlook using the new subscription. If you had set up Outlook to check your RRU email, that will still happen.

If you usually checked your RRU email using outlook.com, you can keep doing that. No change is required.

If you usually checked your email on your phone, you can keep doing that. No change is required.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this change or connect with the Helpdesk if you have difficulties accessing Office 365.

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