Introduction
The Office Home Use Program is available only to current Carleton faculty and staff, not students, alumni, or former employees. The sections below describe this program, as well as alternatives that are available for current students and soon-to-be former employees.
Option A: EXPIRED
The products were Office 2019 Professional Plus for Windows, or Office 2019 Home and Business for Mac. This offer expired June 30, 2019, but the license to use a single copy is valid as long as the licensee is the primary user of a college-owned computer that has Office on it (in any version), and continues to be employed by Carleton College.
Many questions are answered in the old detailed FAQ page at: http://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/faq.aspx.
Keep the email you received from Microsoft with the Download link! It will be required if you need to reinstall Office or transfer it to another computer. If you have lost this email, you may be able to recover the information here, but this is not guaranteed to work forever.
Option B. For current Carleton faculty, staff, and students:
As long as you are affiliated with Carleton (i.e., have a CarlNetID@carleton.edu email address you can log into), use the free subscription for Office 365 Education associated with your CarlNetID@carleton.edu email address. No sign-up is required; in any Web browser, open https://portal.office.com and login using your CarlNetID@carleton.edu login and password. (This is a “Work or school account”, in case you are prompted.)
See this article on Office 365 Education for more information on what is included, how to install the desktop version, and how to access full functionality.
Usability Notes:
- Office 365 expects you to save all your documents in Microsoft OneDrive, which is not the same as Google Drive or Dropbox or your local computer drive. OneDrive is not supported at Carleton, so it will be your responsibility to get documents into and out of OneDrive.
- Office 365 Outlook Online, or the Mail, People, and Calendar apps on smartphones and tablets, do not work well with our Carleton Gmail or Google Calendar.
Option C: For exiting Carleton faculty and staff (no students):
If you are current Carleton faculty or staff, but plan to leave Carleton soon, you can purchase a rough equivalent of the previous option, for you to use with a personal, non-Carleton, email address, for as long as you renew the annual license. But this only works for faculty and staff, and only if you initiate the process while your CarlNetID@carleton.edu email address still works.
To get started, in any Web browser open https://www.microsoft.com/home-use-program and enter your CarlNetID@carleton.edu email address. A while later, check your Carleton email for a new message from Microsoft that may look like the following, with a subject like, "Check out this special discount, just for you" (sounds spam-my, doesn't it?):
The Web browser link under the blue button really is customized just for you (hence your name in the message), and must not be shared. It will take you to a Microsoft login page, where there is one tricky step: Now you must login with a personal, non-Carleton, email address, which will be your Microsoft account.
This will take you to a Web page that shows you save 30% on an annual subscription to either Office 365 Home ($99.99) or Office 365 Personal ($69.99). This discount applies forever, as long as you renew the subscription annually.
The Web page compares the two subscriptions in detail, but Office 365 Home will be the best choice for almost everyone. (Please ignore the section of the page titled, "Other Office Products"; those do not apply.)
To learn more, see the Frequently Asked Questions page here.
Here are the instructions on how to install or reinstall Office 365 purchased through this Home Use Program (HUP).
Carleton does not administer these purchased subscriptions, so all your interactions will be directly with Microsoft.
Rebecca Barkmeier now owns and maintains this article.