Office tools for students to use at home

Typically, the teachers give handouts as PDF-files or some the MS Office file formats. (In addition, also videos and sound files can be used, as well as specific professional software files (e.g. CAD) but these are not the subject of this post.) In order to be able to open these typical files the teachers hand out, you will need office software and a software that can read PDF files on your computer.

You will need office software also for making your own study related outputs. At school premises, you can use the Microsoft Office package that includes e.g. Word (word processing), Excel (spreadsheet) and PowerPoint (presentation graphics). During your studies, you are eligible to install Office tools on your own computer.

Alternatively, you can obtain e.g. Libre Office or Apache Open Office without any charges. Both of these packages (NB. also other packages exist!) contain equal office applications as the MS Office: You are able to open files made with the MS Office, and the teachers are able to open your files using the MS Office.

Files that are made with office tools can also be opened with Google Drive; Google Drive requires only a network connection and a browser. You can access Google Apps for Education with your students account. However, not all the styles that are required e.g. in your thesis are available, at least not yet although the tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentation graphics are already quite extensive. To boot that, Google Drive has a pretty good proof reading and it is highly usable e.g. in group work, as you can share documents among the group members and modify the documents simultaneously. Also it is pretty convenient to have your works saved in the Google cloud, as it is achievable to you if you have just a network connection and a browser. If you wish, you can also register for a regular Google account, unrelated to your studies. A Google account is free of charge. What ever Google services you may decide to start using, be sure to first read the Google Drive terms of service.

Installing the MS Office in your own computer

You can install the MS Office in five different computers (or even compatible mobile devices) through the Microsoft 365 cloud service. To be able to do this, you need to have an active student account. Also, you need to login to the cloud service at least every 30 days: If you are not able to do that, the installation will not let you to create new documents or modify existing documents: However, you will be able to read documents. This is the situation also after your graduation, when your account is deactivated. It is possible to activate the MS Office again by logging in to the cloud service.

How to install Office applications on a Windows computer:

Sign in at https://o365.oulu.fi.
You can either click on Install and More > Install Microsoft 365 Apps from the top right, or open this link: https://portal.office.com/account/?ref=Harmony#installs.
Select the language of your choosing and click on Install Office.
Open the OfficeSetup.exe file and go through the installation process.

How to install MS Office on a Mac:

Sign in at https://o365.oulu.fi.
You can either click on Install and More > Install Microsoft 365 Apps from the top right, or open this link: https://portal.office.com/account/?ref=Harmony#installs.
Select the language of your choosing and click on Install Office.
Install the package as usual. (NB. You will need the administrator rights to be able to do the installation.)

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This article was published in categories English version available, All instructions, Oamk , for Oamk students, for the University of Oulu students, accessible content, UniOulu and tags Apache Open Office, ekampusvideot, esitysgrafiikkaohjelmat, Microsoft Office 365, MS Office, MS Office Macille, Office, Office 365, Open Office, taulukkolaskentaohjelmat, tekstinkäsittelyohjelmat, toimisto-ohjelmistot. Add the permalink to your favourites.