Accessing office.com using an MS A1 license (not relevant to students or employees)

No, it does not. You log into Moodle using your RRU Login + password. This change only affects the way you access Microsoft Office applications.

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. based on your role and needs 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 have many features disabled either on December 9 or after a 30 day grace period, so January 9.

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

• you can use https://www.office.com/ to open documents on your computer.

  • see “How can I open a document previously stored on my C: drive?” below

  • popup blockers may prevent this so you may need to adjust the blockers.

• New documents will be created from https://www.office.com/ and saved to OneDrive

The fastest way is to open an Office app like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 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 still be required to use MFA to access this online resource. If you have not yet 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 you are running a pop-up blocker.

In this case, in most cases 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 will have 100gb of space.

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

Your A1 license will give you access to a OneDrive space. You will not lose access to files you’ve saved on your RRU OneDrive. You can choose to leave your RRU files on your RRU OneDrive space and access them just as you do now using the OneDrive app on your desktop, even after you purchase a subscription (which will give you access to a personal OneDrive space as well). These will show up as two different OneDrives in File Explorer similar to this:

But if you prefer to move your RRU OneDrive files to your new personal OneDrive space, you can use one of these two methods:

1. Using the OneDrive Web Interface:

   • Log in to the school OneDrive: Go to OneDrive and sign in with their school account.

   • Download Files: Select the files/folders to move, click Download, and save them locally.

   • Upload to Personal OneDrive:

     • Log in to the personal Microsoft account.

     • Drag and drop or upload the downloaded files.

2. Using OneDrive Sync App:

   • Set up both accounts:

     • Install the OneDrive sync client on your device.

     • Sync the school OneDrive to one folder.

     • Sync the personal OneDrive to another folder. (see earlier comment about having 2 different OneDrives)

   • Transfer files locally:

     • Move files from the school OneDrive synced folder to the personal OneDrive folder.

Please note: always be aware of information privacy when downloading files. Identifying information should not be downloaded to your personal computer.

Your RRU email address is linked to your RRU Login, so as long as you have an active RRU Login, you will continue to have an RRU email address. This change only impacts “how” to access your RRU email. You will not lose access at all.

If you usually check your RRU email using Outlook.office.com, you can keep doing that. No change is required.

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

If you usually check your email on a iPad or tablet, you will need to have a personal subscription for this to work.

If you check your email using Outlook on your computer using your RRU issued license, you will need to purchase a new personal license for Office. Then you need to switch the license on your computer. We recommend you do the following for the smoothest transition.

• close all Microsoft Applications and then open Microsoft Word.

• on Windows

  • the upper right, click on your name and choose Sign in with a different account

  • enter your new personal credentials

• on Mac

  • on the menu bar, click Word → Sign Out

  • confirm you want to sign out

  • sign in with your new personal credentials

• you are done. Open Outlook and you will see your same configuration as before, but you will now be using your personal license.

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.