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Reformat - do we license Microsoft Office?

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:04 am
by jtyewhit
We had to reformat our machine. Question: Does the church license Microsoft Office (Word, Excel)?

For now, I've linstalled LibreOffice. Word/Excel was on the machine before, but that could have been a gift from one of the prior clerks since we live in a Microsoft town. But now that we are starting over, I want to see what the church licenses in terms of office software.

Re: Reformat - do we license Microsoft Office?

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:54 pm
by drepouille
Your STS and clerk must ensure that all software installed on the computer has a valid license. If your unit owns a valid license, you should have the installation media and a valid license key to reinstall MS Office. If you don't have those, you may have been running an unlicensed copy.
Microsoft Office: Due to high costs, the Church does not recommend purchasing Microsoft Office software with budget funds. Open-source office suites can perform all the essential functions of Microsoft Office.
https://www.lds.org/help/support/third-party-software

Re: Reformat - do we license Microsoft Office?

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:59 pm
by lajackson
jtyewhit wrote:We had to reformat our machine. Question: Does the church license Microsoft Office (Word, Excel)?
For local units, the Church does not license office software, and recommends the use of free software such as OpenOffice. LibreOffice, in my opinion, is a better choice.

If you had Microsoft Office on the computer legally, i.e., you have a physical copy of the license agreement, I am sure you would be allowed to reload that software on the reformatted machine. But if you can't prove you own it, you should not be using it.

Specific instructions are at the Other Software and Tools page in the Help Center.

Re: Reformat - do we license Microsoft Office?

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 1:01 pm
by jtyewhit
Thank you for the replies.
I will stick with the Libre Office I installed since I don't know the license history of what was installed before.