If you select the Activate by using the Internet option, the Office Activation Wizard automatically contacts the Microsoft licensing servers through your Internet connection. If you are using a valid product key that has not been used previously, your product is activated immediately.

If you select the Activate by using the telephone option, call the telephone number that is provided in the Office Activation Wizard and type the confirmation number that is provided by the customer service agent.

In either case, after you activate your product, you have a license to use Office that never expires.

You can run Office up to 50 times without activating it. If you cannot activate the product, the programs will start to run in a reduced-functionality mode. In reduced-functionality mode, you cannot save modifications to documents or create a new document and additional functionality may be reduced.

No existing Office files or documents will be harmed, and you can easily change Office out of reduced-functionality mode by following the instructions that are outlined in the screens that are presented. For more information, see the "Quit Reduced-Functionality Mode" section of this article.


Use the Internet to Activate the License

Activating Office by using the Internet is the easier of the two activation methods. To activate your product by using the Internet, follow these steps:

1. Start any Office 2003 program.
2. In the Office Activation Wizard, click the Activate by using the Internet option, and then click Next.
3. Read the Microsoft Office Privacy Policy page, and then click Next.
4. On the Customer Information page, type your personal information.
   The only information that you have to complete is the Country/Region option. Select the appropriate country from the list, type any other information that you want, and then click Next.
5. On the Special Offers page, you have three choices to obtain information and offers from Microsoft. None of these options is selected by default. If you want to receive the information or offers from Microsoft, select the options that you want, type your e-mail address, and then click Submit.
6. When you click Submit, your information is sent to the Microsoft licensing servers.
   When your information is validated, the Activation Complete page appears, and you can use the Office programs without having to activate Office in the future. Click Finish.

Use the Telephone to Activate the License

If you do not have Internet connectivity, or you choose not to activate Office by using the Internet, you can select the Activate by using the telephone option. To activate your product this way, follow these steps:

1. Start any Office 2003 program.
2. In the Office Activation Wizard, click the Activate by using the telephone option, and then click Next.
3. Read the Microsoft Office Privacy Policy page, and then click Next.
4. In the Select your location list, select a country or region. Call the telephone number that is listed on line 2. The customer service agent will ask you for the installation ID and will give you a confirmation ID in return. Type the confirmation ID in the boxes provided.
   
   Note Make a note of the confirmation ID that is provided by the customer service agent. You may be able to reuse it on the same computer if you have to reformat your hard disk and reinstall Office in the future. If the confirmation ID does not work at that time, call the customer service agent again and request a new confirmation ID.
5. Click Next.
6. On the Activation Complete page, click Finish.

Skip Activation

If you do not want to activate your copy of Office, you can click Activate Later on any page of the Office Activation Wizard. The wizard warns you that you have a specified number of times to run the product before you must activate it. Click Exit to close the wizard.

Note If you decide to activate your license later, the activation counter decrements each time that you start an Office program. If the counter reaches zero, the Office programs start running in reduced-functionality mode.

Quit Reduced-Functionality Mode

If you do not activate your Office license, and the Office programs start in reduced-functionality mode, you must activate your license to quit reduced-functionality mode. Because the Office Activation Wizard appears every time that you start an Office program (running in reduced-functionality mode), you can activate your license each time you start a program. If you do not activate your license when you start an Office program, you can also click Activate Product on the Help menu inside the Office program. This starts the Office Activation Wizard.