Microsoft is offering the Office 2007 Ultimate edition for a fraction of the regular price to college students from now until April 2008.
In the US the Office 2007 Ultimate edition is officially priced at $679 but college students can get it for only $59.95.
Office Ultimate 2007 includes the entire Microsoft Office toolset that students are accustomed to working with and more, including
Microsoft Office Word 2007,
Microsoft Office Excel® 2007,
Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007,
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager,
Microsoft Office Access™ 2007,
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007,
Office OneNote 2007,
Office Groove 2007 and
Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007.
The same deal is available in Canada and the UK from today while Spain, Italy and France have similar offers from 20 September 2007.
Australian university students had a similar offer earlier this year. This wider offer is very similar but lasts a lot longer than the Aussie opportunity. The Australian offer had the option of buying a one year use of Office 2007 but this is not available in the US arrangement (the UK does).
HOW IT WORKS
Download the trial version of Office 2007 and install it. The trial version will work fully for 25 application launches only. Trial DVD's can also be ordered.
You would then purchase the 'perpetual licence' from the promotion website - you'll be sent an Office 2007 product key to your ' .edu ' email address. Use that key to 'unlock' your trial version for regular use.
WHO CAN GET IT?
You have to be a student at an educational institution physically located in one of the countries (see above).
You must have an 'educational' email address, in the US that means one with an '.edu' suffix.
The offer is limited to one purchase per email address and billing address (the latter might be a problem if you're sharing accommodation).
Microsoft or a 'vendor' may contact you to confirm that you're a legitimate student.
AROUND THE WORLD
The US offer web site is at
www.theultimatesteal.com/ while the fine print is on the Microsoft web site.
The Canadian offer
www.theultimatesteal.ca/ or
www.officepourlesetudiants.ca/ is CAD$64 or CAD$22 for a one year licence.
The UK offer
www.theultimatesteal.co.uk/ is o38.95 or a one year use for o12.95
France
www.officepourlesetudiants.fr/Spain
www.daelgolpe.es/Italy
www.office30elode.it/Note that the offer may vary between countries so check the eligibility requirements for your location - don't assume that the US rules apply elsewhere. Microsoft subsidiaries are notorious for making changes to 'global' arrangements.
Since the whole deal is done over the Internet, make sure that you have a backup copy of the Office 2007 Ultimate trial edition installation - burn the lot to a DVD so you can install it again later. Carefully record the product key - without it you won't be able to reinstall Office 2007 in the future.
