As an inducement for people to buy their Office software product, Microsoft offers a free trial for a limited time period. During that time the product has full functionality, but at the end of the trial it will only work with a reduced set of capabilities. The trial is available on a CD, by download of the software from Microsoft’s website or it may have been pre-installed by the supplier of a new computer system. However it was obtained, a Product Key must be supplied and entered in the registration screen to activate the trial. If the trial software was downloaded directly from the Internet, the key was given on both the “Download” and “Thank you” pages. As part of the downloading process it was recommended that both of these pages be bookmarked for later reference if the key was mislaid. The key was also sent in an e-mail following registration for the trial. If a trial version of Microsoft Office was pre-installed on the computer the trial key was included with the literature enclosed with the instructions and manuals. If the product was obtained directly from Microsoft, either as a CD or as a download, the advice offered by Microsoft is to contact their customer support team and request a replacement key.
