Announcing the Office 365 self-service download portal!

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As of February 23, Microsoft has enabled auto-licensing and self-signup for all students and staff at New Zealand schools and tertiary institutions, so they can get Office free of charge! The self-service portal will make it easier for students and teachers to get the free Office subscription they are entitled to.

To help students get the most out of their education, Microsoft provides Office to every student, teacher and staff member at a New Zealand educational institution - free of charge! With Office 365, students and staff will have access to the latest version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and much more!

What does this mean?

  • Install on up to 5 compatible PCs and Macs, plus 5 tablets (including iPad!)
  • Use with 1TB of OneDrive for automatic device syncing
  • Gain valuable skills on the world’s most popular productivity software
  • Office subscription lasts for as long as your child is a student here and the program continues
  • Retain the Office subscription for as long as you belong to the institution

How do you get it?

It's super easy! All you need is an institution-provided email address, and to be over the age of 13! Follow the links below:

For students - Office.com/GetOffice365

For teachers - Office.com/Teachers

Important information for IT managers

If your school has already signed up for Office 365, and you have not yet assigned Office 365 ProPlus licenses, your users will automatically be assigned the appropriate license when they sign in.

It’s important to note that you will continue to have full control over managing your services in a manner that's best for you and your organization. See the FAQ if you wish to prevent licenses from automatically being assigned to your users.

If your school is not yet using Office 365 Education, students, faculty and staff with email addresses from your school can still sign up, create an account (if they are old enough), and enjoy the benefits of Office 365 services, including Office 365 ProPlus, Office Online and OneDrive. Please see the FAQ if you wish to prevent users from creating their own Office 365 accounts using their school email address.

Students, faculty and staff who already have an Office 365 account can use their existing user name and password. If you have not assigned licenses to them, one will be automatically assigned to them when they sign in. 

Important: If you are an ADFS user, and to ensure there are no issues with how you are currently managing your identities, I would like to advise you to run the “self-sign up” script. This will block some functionality on the website that currently allows a user to create their own O365 account. Your teachers and students will still be able to use the website to get an Office 365 license that will allow them download Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs and other mobile devices, including iPad.
 
To run the script, please see below. These steps require the use of Windows PowerShell, see Getting Started with Windows PowerShell.

1. If you haven't already, install the latest 64-bit version of the Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell.

  • After you click the link, select Run to run the installer package

2. Use this Windows PowerShell command to enable automatic tenant join for new users:

  • " Set-MsolCompanySettings -AllowEmailVerifiedUsers $true "
  • (remove " " from script)