Who needs to activate their copy of Office? When you activate your product, no personal information is sent to Microsoft. Product activation is an anti-piracy technology that is designed to verify that the product is legitimately licensed. We ask that you activate your product to verify that your installation is performed with a genuine Microsoft product. More Information Frequently asked questions No existing Office files are damaged while the product is in reduced-functionality mode.
Additional functionality may be reduced also.
In other words, you cannot save modifications to documents or create a new document. In reduced-functionality mode, Office programs function more like viewers. If you do not activate the product after you install it, the Office programs can be started only in reduced-functionality mode. To fully use Office, you must activate Office. This article provides an overview of the Microsoft Office Activation Wizard.
