

- #Microsoft office 2011 for mac serial key how to#
- #Microsoft office 2011 for mac serial key software#
"Counting this one the first time?" I asked myself, and told the voice, "One." Apparently that's the wrong answer: it replied, "We can't help you at this time, please call back later, goodbye," and disconnected.
#Microsoft office 2011 for mac serial key software#
After I punched all the numbers in, the voice asked me how many computers I'd installed the software on.

The phone number was answered by a pleasant-sounding recorded woman's voice, which asked me to enter my "installation ID" - a 54-digit number that's displayed on screen when you click on the Activate by Phone option. When an attempt to activate online fails, you get the option to activate by phone.
#Microsoft office 2011 for mac serial key how to#
But I couldn't find anywhere, on the Microsoft support forums or elsewhere, that said how to do that. I did find references to "reassigning" your product key to a new computer, including in the license agreement itself. (I have the Home and Business Edition that permits installation on one, count it "one," computer.) I did some googling and learned that I was hardly the only person with this problem: apparently replacing my hard disk made it appear to the activation gods as though I were trying to run the program on an entirely different computer - which, of course, my license wouldn't let me do. No dice, the program told me - I'd already used that key the allotted number of times. No problem, I figured, and just typed it in. But the next time I tried to run Word, it asked me for my product key again. (The one I had was getting full, and I got a good Black Friday deal on one twice as big.) I used Carbon Copy Cloner to transfer the contents of my old disk to the new one and swapped the two without a hitch. Until, that is, I decided to replace my hard disk. The activation requirement was no more an issue than entering a product key ever is - whatever was going on behind the scenes stayed invisible. The product worked fine - I actually liked it quite a bit, better than Office 2008, and I gave it a good review.

I installed the software from the DVD with no problem, entered my product key on first launch, and was off and running. Unfortunately, upgrading your Mac can break that association, requiring a long, complicated reinstallation and reactivation procedure that can grind your business to a halt.I got my copy of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 back in October, when Microsoft kindly gave me one for a review I was writing. With the latest version of Office, Microsoft has introduced a requirement to "activate" the software, which ties your copy to your computer.
