Monday, December 1, 2014

UGA faculty and staff now have free access to Microsoft Office ProPlus software to download on their personal devices, as part of an expansion of a program already made available to UGA students.

Faculty and staff may download and install Office ProPlus software on up to five personal devices, including computers, tablets and phones, through their web-based UGAMail accounts.

Students have had free access to Office ProPlus since May through Microsoft’s Student Advantage Program. This same service is now available to all UGA employees.

For devices with Windows operating systems, faculty, staff and students may install Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher and InfoPath.

For devices with Mac operating systems, faculty, staff and students may install Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Office for iPad is also part of the service. Office ProPlus also includes the new Outlook for Mac, which was recently released by Microsoft.

To install Office ProPlus on desktop or laptop computers, users should log in to their web-based UGAMail account (ugamail.uga.edu) and click on the gear (Settings) icon at the top-right menu. After clicking on Office 365 Settings, users may click Software to begin the installation process.

To install Office 365 ProPlus on mobile devices, go to the App Store or Google Play to find the applications and enter your UGAMail account information.

The EITS Help Desk website has step-by-step instructions for installing Office ProPlus on PCs and Macs, along with mobile devices.

The EITS Help Desk is available to help with Office ProPlus installation questions by calling 706-542-3106 or emailing helpdesk@uga.edu. For support questions about Office products after installation, users should contact Microsoft at support.microsoft.com.

Office ProPlus is available for faculty and staff while they remain active employees, as specified by UGA’s license with Microsoft. The program is not available to retirees.

After an employee leaves the University, they will no longer have full functionality of their Office ProPlus software within 30 days of their departure. They may decide to purchase Office ProPlus on their own. 

This program only applies to personal devices and not to University-owned devices. UGA has a separate agreement with Microsoft for software installation on University-owned devices.

UGA students have access to Office ProPlus while they remain eligible to enroll in classes. After students leave the University their license will no longer be valid, and they will have read-only access to their Microsoft files. At that point, students may purchase the Microsoft products.