license agreement for 2004 Office for Mac Professional

[newtomac]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I read the license agreement below and assumed that my husband and I could use our copy of Office for Mac on two computers in our home office - one a main computer and the other a portable. I guess the mistake we made is that on the first computer it was loaded on (a few years ago), my husband did the set-up and used his name as the primary user and then on our new Mac laptop, I was doing the set-up and used my name as the primary user, never thinking that this would make a difference. It's extra frustrating because I spent a lot of time installing the software on the new laptop (extra time to install all the updates) and it went through without a hitch. It wasn't until I tried to open a document in the program that I received an error message. Why wouldn't I have received this error message at the very beginning of the installation?

Is there a way to solve this or is Microsoft so rigid that they won't allow the software to be used on two computers in the same business, if different user names are used?

If the new laptop is already set up with my User Name is there a way to change it ? OR is there a way to change the User Name on the first computer to my name from my husband's name, so that we can use this software on both computers? Thanks.

"Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Professional Edition Includes one product key. The license terms for Office allow you to install your licensed copy of Office on a single computer. The license terms also allow you, as the primary user of that computer, to install a second copy on your portable computer, such as a laptop, for your own personal use."

 

[newtomac]

Got it. That makes sense. Theoretically one person wouldn't be using both machines at the same time... although I do that quite often on busy days - have a laptop next to the desktop. I was thinking in terms of one home-based business without any employees. At this point, I'm the only one working this business, but nonetheless, what I understand from your response is that any Office programs can only be actually running on one machine at a time. I don't like it, but if that's the way it is, so be it. It just seems odd that I didn't get a warning or error message early in the set-up process.

Thanks for the response.

It doesn't matter what name you use, the license is to *one person* who can

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I guess the set up program does not check to see if another copy with the
same license is running during setup. If it were not running on the other
computer you would not have gotten the warning anyway even if it did "look".

 

[ebasir]

It doesn't matter what name you use, the license is to *one person* who can
install on both a desktop & laptop. That *person* can run the software on
one of those systems at a time. If the systems are networked the first copy
launched prevents the second installation from launching - the same person
can't be usingOfficeon separate networked systems simultaneously.

But what I don't understand is that before I got a new MacPro with
10.5.2, we could run two Office applications from the same license at
the same time one two different computers (we previously had a
PowerMac 10.4.11). We've always used Office 2004. Do you know why it
worked all these years until the new computer and OS?

 

[CyberTaz]

You can install from the same disk using the same number on a thousand Macs
& run Office on them all at the same time *if* they aren't networked. There
is nothing in Office to prevent you from doing so - one Mac doesn't have any
way of knowing what the others are doing. However, it is a Violation of the
EULA to do so.

If the systems *are* on the same network the programs send out a "feeler" on
launch & if the same license is found to be already in use the app will
refuse to launch. My guess would be that the systems weren't networked
previously, now they are.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac