Office Customer Preview FAQ

Office 365 remains a great option for businesses, with plans that span companies of all sizes. New in this release, we’re expanding Office 365 to include a new plan that is optimized for use at home and school. Learn more about Office 365 Home Premium.

There are several Office 365 plans available in the Customer Preview, providing you with the flexibility to choose one that best fits your needs:

• With Office 365 Home Premium Preview you can install Office on up to 5 PCs and you get 7GB of online storage on SkyDrive so that you can save and share your documents online. Home Premium includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. Learn more about Office 365 Home Premium.
• Office 365 Small Business Premium Preview is ideal for businesses with up to 10 employees. Each user can install Office, getting the same applications that are included in Office 365 ProPlus, on up to 5 PCs, and enjoy professional email, shared documents, and HD video conferencing in an easy-to-manage solution that is hosted by Microsoft. Learn more about Office 365 Small Business Premium.
• Office 365 ProPlus Preview lets you create up to 25 user accounts, with 5 installations of Office 365 ProPlus per user. It includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, and Lync. Learn more about Office 365 ProPlus.
• Office 365 Enterprise Preview gives you the benefits of Office 365 ProPlus combined with Exchange Online, including archiving and legal hold to fully manage your company’s email in the cloud. It also includes SharePoint Online to manage and share documents, and Lync Online to allow you to conduct meetings and collaborate across remote teams and team members. Learn more about Office 365 Enterprise.
• The final version of Office 365, when available, will include Office for Mac.

Yes, the following services will be available in the final version of Office 365 Home Premium:

• Skype world minutes - Talk to anyone using Skype, including 60 minutes of free international calls every month to landlines in over 40 countries and to cell phones in 7 countries. (Skype account required. Excludes special, premium and non-geographic numbers.)
• Get an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive online storage for easy access and sharing of your documents.
• Office for Mac.

Yes! The Customer Preview is a great way for you to get an early view of what’s coming with Office 365. Keep these things in mind as you begin using the Preview:

• The Preview is separate from your current Office 365 service and is for temporary use only.
• When the Preview ends, all data in the Preview account will be deleted, including email and calendar data, web sites, and uploaded documents, so be sure to download any information that you need to keep.
• When you sign up for the Preview, choose a user ID that is different than the one you use for your existing account. For example, if your company name is Contoso, sign up for the Preview using Contoso Test or Contoso Preview.
• To switch between accounts, just sign out of one account and then sign into the other.

Yes, you can install and use the Preview version alongside an existing version of Office 2003, Office 2007, or Office 2010.

Preliminary system requirements for the Preview include the following:

• Computer and processor: 1 Ghz or greater x86/x64 Processor with SSE2 instruction set
• Memory: 1 GB RAM (32 Bit) /2 GB RAM (64 Bit)
• Hard disk: 3.5 GB free disk space
• Operating System: Windows 7 or newer, either 32-bit or 64-bit; Windows 2008R2 or newer with .Net 3.5 or greater. It isn’t possible to install on a PC running Windows XP or Vista. To use with Windows 8 you must be running the Release Preview version or higher. Get the Release Preview.
• Graphics: Graphics hardware acceleration requires DirectX10 graphics card and 1024 x 576 resolution

If you install any of the Office 365 Preview plans, you can install Office on up to 5 PCs. The process for installing on additional PCs depends on which plan you’ve installed:

• Office 365 Home Premium: Go to www.office.com/myaccount and then click Install Office.
• Other Office 365 plans: Log into your Office 365 account at www.office365.com to manage your Office installations.

The Preview version does not include Mac. When available, the full release of Office 365 will be available on Mac computers in addition to PCs.

Office installs more quickly than ever, thanks to Click-to-Run, a streaming technology that lets you begin to use Office applications before installation is complete. All of the Office 365 plans use Click-to-Run.

The 32-bit version of Office is installed by default. Even if your computer is running a 64-bit version of Windows, we recommend that you install the 32-bit version of Office because it is more compatible with the applications and add-ins that work with Office. If you do want to install the 64-bit version of Office, you can do so by taking the following steps:

• Office 365 Home Premium Preview: go to www.office.com/myaccount, click Languages and install options, and then click Additional install options.
• Other Office 365 plans: log into your account at www.office365.com and choose the option to install the 64-bit version of Office.

It is not possible to install both the 64-bit version and 32-bit versions of Office on the same computer.

The Preview version of Office 365 Home Premium is supported in a limited number of countries. If your country is not listed, we strongly recommend that you select a different product to preview. Selecting a country that you don't live in can cause issues with other Microsoft accounts that you might already have, including Xbox and Zune.

You can install Office on additional PCs, remove existing PCs, or cancel your subscription at any time. The steps for doing so depends on which plan you’ve installed:

• Office 365 Home Premium: Go to www.office.com/myaccount and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Other Office 365 plans: Log into your Office 365 account at www.office365.com to edit your profile as a user or manage your organization as an administrator.

Yes. Simply start your current Office application, and then open your document from within it.

The advantage of saving to SkyDrive is that it lets you access your documents from almost anywhere or from any device – no syncing or cables needed. It works just like your hard drive in the cloud. You'll never be without the documents, notes, photos and videos that matter to you.

The OneNote app is a new app that takes full advantage of new features exclusive to Windows 8. It is available for Preview through the Windows Store to customers participating in the Windows 8 Release Preview. For more information, visit the Release Preview site. The traditional OneNote application as well as all other Office applications are available for download as a part of the Office Customer Preview.

Office on Demand lets you use Office applications on PCs you did not install Office on, for example a PC in the library, at a business center, or one that you borrowed from a friend. The applications are “streamed” nearly instantly to the PC without being permanently installed on it. Once you log off the PC, the applications and documents are no longer available to other users of that PC. You can use Office on Demand on a PC that is connected to the Internet and running Windows 7 or later.

If you installed the Office 365 Home Premium Preview, you can create a new document using Office on Demand by going to www.officepreview.microsoft.com, signing in with your Microsoft account and then, on the MY OFFICE tab, clicking Create New for the application you want to use. You will be able to start working on your new document within seconds—even before the streaming of all features is complete. You can also access existing documents using Office on Demand either from www.officepreview.microsoft.com or from SkyDrive. Just sign in with your Microsoft account and open the document you want to work in. The document will initially open in its Web App, but you can open it in the full application from the Web App.

If you installed the Preview version of Office 365 Small Business Premium or Office 365 Enterprise, you can use Office on Demand by logging into your account at www.office365.com on a PC that doesn’t have Office installed. Then, go to SharePoint and open the file you want to work on, selecting the option to edit the document in its application.

In addition, there is a wide range of find Help and How-to content at www.officepreview.microsoft.com. In addition depending on which product you are previewing, there are communities of knowledgeable people ready to answer your questions:

• Office 365 Home Premium: See the Answers site.
• Other Office 365 plans: visit the Office 365 community.
• Products for IT pros: If you installed one of the products that are available on TechNet, see the TechNet Forums.

You can find resources for IT pros, including technical articles, videos, white papers, and FAQs, at the Office IT Pro page.

You can uninstall Office by doing the following:

• Office 365 Home Premium: Go to www.office.com/myaccount and then, in the Current PC Installs section, click deactivate. Then, to remove Office entirely, go to your PC’s Control Panel and uninstall it.
• Other Office 365 plans: Log into your account at www.office365.com to manage your installations, including deactivating Office. If you want to remove Office applications completely from your computer, you must uninstall Office from your PC’s Control Panel.

Deactivating Office leaves the Office applications on your PC in read-only mode, which means that you can view documents but can’t create new documents, edit, or save them. To remove Office applications completely, you must uninstall Office from your computer using your PC’s Control Panel.

If you have installed an Office 365 plan, the Preview will expire approximately 60 days after the next version of Office becomes available in your market. As the date approaches, you will receive notifications in the Office applications alerting you to the pending expiration. Once the Preview has expired, the applications enter read-only mode, which means that you can view or print documents only, it isn’t possible to create new documents, edit, or save them. You must uninstall the Preview version of Office before installing a newer version of Office.

If you installed Office 365 Small Business Premium or Office 365 Enterprise, all data in the Preview account will be deleted when the Preview ends, including email and calendar data, web sites, and uploaded documents, so be sure to move any information you want to keep to a different location.

If you installed one of the Preview products for IT pros on TechNet, the product will expire on June 30, 2013. At that time, it will not be possible to use the product any further.