The infamous Microsoft Office suite is now based in the cloud...

As part of the DEC's enterprise agreement with Microsoft, both students and staff can download the full suite of Microsoft Office applications for use on their personal or student BYOD devices for free. These complete applications will complement the provision of access to Microsoft Office 365 or "Office in the cloud" and were made available to all NSW public school students and teachers.

Specifically, students and teachers are entitled to the full Microsoft Office suite of software and mobile apps for Windows PCs, Apple Mac computers, tablets including iPad, and mobile phone devices. That is, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and more. This software and mobile apps can be used on up to 15 devices owned or used by staff and students at no charge, as long as they are a student or staff member of the DEC. This includes "BYOD" devices for schools with BYOD programs for students and staff.

This initiative aligns with the Department's new Student Bring Your Own Device Policy allowing students with access to the software on their personal devices to continue school work at home.

More information about the Office Online/365 Suite can be found here.

Students can access the Microsoft 365 (Office Online) by signing in to www.office.com with their firstname.lastname*@education.nsw.gov.au accounts. This is the same account used to access the Internet, Student Portals and Google Apps.

On the landing page, once logged in, students will find various links to allow them to download and install the Microsoft Office 2013 suite on their Mac and Windows laptops or PCs and Office Mobile on their smartphones and tablets. once installation is complete students sign in to their Office 365 as above. There is no need to enter a serial key.

Full instructions can be downloaded here.