User Guide for Office 365 ProPlus for student

1. Introduction

Under the Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) agreement signed between the University and Microsoft, each University student can download and install Microsoft Office ProPlus (Office 365 ProPlus) on up to 5 machines being PC or Mac as well as Office Mobile on up to 5 mobile devices without additional cost.

For details on the Office 365 Pro Plus products offered and the supported platforms, please refer to here.

2. Incompatibility between Locally Installed Products and Office 365 ProPlus

Users may see the following error if their PCs/Macs are installed with other locally installed Microsoft products (e.g. via a CD/DVD media) when they try installing O365 ProPlus on the same machines. They will not be able to proceed the installation of O365 ProPlus unless they uninstalled the locally installed Microsoft products.

3. Microsft Office Installation Guide

IMPORANT: Before installation, please make sure you have uninstalled all trial or earlier versions of Microsoft Office on your personal devices. And before you uninstall an earlier version of Office, you may want to find the product key and installation media that came with it in case you would like to reinstall it at a later point.

If there are problems uninstalling the earlier version of Office, use the appropriate Fix it at here to remove Office from the PC: How to uninstall Office 2003, Office 2007 or Office 2010 suites if you cannot uninstall it from Control Panel.

3.1 Login to Microsoft Office 365 website

Please go to Microsoft login page to access the Microsoft Office 365 login page.
Enter your username (in format of HKUPortalUID@connect.hku.hk) and you will be redirected to another designated login page, Microsoft Office 365 for Students.
Enter your HKU Portal PIN in the password field and then click “Sign in”.
NOTE: Your HKU Portal UID/PIN are used to authenticate the use of this Microsoft service. Whenever your HKU Portal UID/PIN is changed, you will be required to use your newly effected HKU Portal UID/PIN to login and use the Microsoft service.

3.2 Windows 10 / Windows 11

You can install Office 365 on Windows 10 / Windows 11 by the following steps:

Refer to section 3.1, login to the MS Office 365 website.
On the front page, click the button Install and more > Install Microsoft 365 apps.
Click Install Office to download the installer file. Go to Download folder (or destinated file location) and start the installation by double clicking the installer file.
It will then start the installation progress automatically. Please be patient.
Click Close when it completed the installation progress.
Open one of the MS Offices Application (Like MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint… here use MS Word for demonstration), you will be asked to activate the application. Click Sign in or create account.
Sign in with your HKU Portal account (Staff with domain @hku.hk; Student with domain @connect.hku.hk).
Enter your Portal PIN as the password.
Click OK to continue the activation process.
Click Done to complete the activation process.
To verify the success of activiting the application, open a MS Applications (MS Word is used for demonstration) > File > Account
Your account information will be shown after successful login to the MS Applications.

3.3 Mac

To learn how to install Office 365 on Mac, please click here.

3.4 Android

You can install Microsoft Office Mobile on Android by the following steps:

You can download and install the Microsoft Office mobile apps from the Google Play Store.
Search the app through Google play store and click “INSTALL” to start the installation.

Swipe through the introduction, and tap “Sign In” before you can use the app.

3.5 iOS

You can install Microsoft Office Mobile on Android by the following steps:

You can download and install the Microsoft Office mobile apps from the Google Play Store.

Search the app through Google play store and click “INSTALL” to start the installation.

Swipe through the introduction, and tap “Sign In” before you can use the app.

On the next “Sign in” screen, enter your Office 365 user ID (HKUPortalUID@connect.hku.hk) and click “Next”.

On the next “Sign in” screen, enter your HKU Portal PIN and click “Sign in”.

After successful sign in, you will be brought to your Microsoft 365 account profile.

After installation, you can choose to start using the installed Office app or download other Office apps.

3.6 Installation and Use of OneDrive

OneDrive for Business is a public cloud storage offered by Microsoft. Students are advised not to store or share any personal or sensitive data on OneDrive.

3.6.1 Installation and Setup Procedure for Microsoft OneDrive on Android Devices for Students

3.6.2 Installation and Setup Procedure for Microsoft OneDrive on iOS Devices for Students

3.6.3 Setup Procedure and Use of Microsoft OneDrive on Windows 8 / Windows 10 for Students

4. Office 365 Account Settings

4.1 Change the display language

You can change the display language of your Microsoft account by the following steps:

Click the Settings button > “Office 365”.
Select “Settings” from the left pane and click Language.

Select the preferred display language from the drop down menu and click “Save: button.

5. Registering the computer and activating Office 365 ProPlus

During the installation and activation process, Office 365 ProPlus connects to the Office Licensing Service, and sends the following data:

Data	Description	Purpose
OrgId user identity	The OrgId ticket generated when the user signs in to Office 365.	Used to authenticate the call with the Office Licensing Service. The user signs in to their subscription account to retrieve a license for Office 365.
Machine Key	The serial number of the Office 365 ProPlus product key for the computer.	Used to uniquely identify the Office 365 ProPlus product key used by the computer.
Machine Name	The friendly name of the computer, as set by the user in the operating system. For example, if the full name of a computer is “computer1.contoso.com,” only “computer1” is sent to Office 365.	This value is needed so users can identify which computers they have activated Office 365 ProPlus on when they sign in to the Office 365 portal. On the software page, they see a list of their computers and can manage their Office 365 ProPlus installations.
Machine ID	The hardware ID of the computer.	Used to uniquely identify that computer.

6. Checking the status of the Office 365 subscription

Once Office 365 ProPlus is installed and activated, a process runs once a day to connect to the Office Licensing Service. The purpose is to check whether the Office 365 subscription is still active or if it has changed in any way. The connection needs to succeed at least once a month for Office 365 ProPlus to remain fully functional. Office 365 ProPlus connects to the Office Licensing Service, and sends the following data:

Data	Description	Purpose
Machine Key	The serial number of the Office 365 ProPlus product key for the computer.	Used to uniquely identify the Office 365 ProPlus product key used by the computer.

7. Managing product keys for Office 365 ProPlus

Office 365 ProPlus uses a standard Microsoft technology called Activation & Validation Service to activate and validate keys. Since Office 365 product keys need to be renewed every month, communication with the Activation & Validation Service is necessary on a monthly basis.

For up-to-date information on Microsoft’s data processing practices, please review the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

8. What is reduced functionality mode?

In reduced functionality mode, Office 365 ProPlus remains installed on the computer, but users can only view and print their documents. All features for editing or creating new documents are disabled, and the user sees a message like the following:

The user can then choose one of the available options to reactivate Office 365 ProPlus on that computer.

9. Product Deactivation

After graduation, student’s right to use Microsoft Office 365 will be terminated which means they can no longer able to use Office Online or desktop version of MS Office.

Quick Links