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Office 2011 update includes more Office 365 features

The latest update to Microsoft Office addresses a number of critical bugs with the program and offers new integration with Office 365, Microsoft's next-generation Office suite for both the Mac and Windows platforms. The update is available either through the Office 2011 AutoUpdate utility, or from the updater's Web page as a 113MB download that will bring the latest version of Office to 14.3.4.

If you have not yet installed any updates for Office 2011, this update requires that you have Service Pack 1 installed, so some people may see two consecutive updates for Office available … Read more

Unlike Adobe, Microsoft won't abandon packaged software

A day after Adobe Systems killed its Creative Suite software, moving instead to a Web-based subscription service, Microsoft said it would not follow suit with its Office suite of productivity applications--at least not yet.

In a blog post Tuesday, Office spokesman Clint Patterson said that Microsoft, like Adobe, believes in the future of software-as-a-service, in part because the applications can be always up-to-date, and because subscribers can use the applications across a range of devices.

"However, unlike Adobe, we think people's shift from packaged software to subscription services will take time," Patterson wrote.

How much time? Patterson … Read more

Microsoft turns Forbes magazines into Wi-Fi hot spots

I have always believed that the old and the new can coexist with extreme joy.

Microsoft appears to believe this too.

In a promotion that melds the dying world of magazines with the living world of Wi-Fi, select copies of Forbes are enjoying a Wi-Fi router, which oozes 15 days of free Wi-Fi through T-Mobile.

This fetching gift was first noticed by someone on the Slickdeals forum -- handle BigMacG4 -- who wondered whether anyone else had been fortunate enough to be gifted this way.… Read more

Office 365 and Yammer integration: What's coming

On March 19, day one of Microsoft's annual Convergence conference, company officials shed more light on how Yammer's enterprise social-networking technology will be integrated into Office 365 and SharePoint in the coming year-plus.

Microsoft officials originally shared a road map regarding this integration in November. But today, officials provided more dates and more details around the integration of Yammer feeds into SharePoint.

Last fall, Microsoft officials said in the "immediate future" Yammer and SharePoint would be unified via a single ID/sign-on, shared document-management capabilities and feed aggregation. In the longer term, the Softies said, the … Read more

Microsoft changes Office licensing, allows transfer to new systems

Microsoft has changed its license agreement for its Office 2013 productivity suite, which now allows you to transfer serial numbers to new systems and activate it to allow the software to work.

Office is one of the more popular (if not required) programs for many activities, so having it on a system is often quite convenient to have; however, Microsoft has had an ongoing licensing restriction with its latest Office versions that prevents you from activating a previously used serial number on newer systems, even if you have uninstalled the software from prior systems. This setup obviously frustrates those who … Read more

Microsoft offers students three months free of Office 365

Microsoft is dangling a new offer to get students to try its Office 365 University software.

As of today, students with a qualifying .edu e-mail address can register to receive three months free of Office 365 University and an extra 20GB of space for their SkyDrive online storage. Share the offer on Facebook and you'll get an additional three free months of Office 365.

Geared for college students and teachers, a license for Office 365 University costs $79.99 for four years and is good for up to two PCs or Macs. The educational suite includes the same applications … Read more

Microsoft aims Office 365 updates at business users

In late January 2013, Microsoft launched its consumer-focused version of Office 2013, known as Office 365 Home Premium. Today, it's launching the updated business versions of its Microsoft-hosted Office 365 offerings.

Microsoft has added three new packages to its Office 365 lineup for businesses: Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Midsize and Office 365 Small Business Premium. These complement the existing Office 365 Small Business and Enterprise offerings, which Microsoft is updating with many of the latest new features and functions that it introduced late last year for the on-premises complements of the products in the suite. (Microsoft released to manufacturing Exchange Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013 and Lync Server 2013 … Read more

How to bypass the Office 2013 start screen

Some of the applications in Microsoft's Office 2013 suite launch with a start screen by default. On the left side of the start screen is a list of recent documents and on the right side, a list of templates. It's a useful feature, but if you prefer, you can bypass the start screen and go right to the edit screens of those Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Here's how:

From within the main edit screen, go to File > Options or use the keyboard shortcut, ALT+F, T. Under the General Options tab, go to Startup options … Read more

Microsoft addresses confusion over Office 2013 licensing

Can Office 2013 users transfer their license from one PC to another? Well, it depends.

Microsoft recently created some confusion and controversy when it revealed that Office 2013 would be restricted to one PC. People who need to install the software on another PC are out of luck, or so it seems. Ed Bott of CNET sister site ZDNet illuminated the licensing changes in the new suite.

You can't buy Office 2013 on DVD or other media. Instead, you have to purchase a key card, which allows you to download the software. But the real kicker is that Office … Read more