Beginning August 20, 2015, Saint Mary's College will offer Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for Students for free to our students. Office 365 ProPlus offers full versions of Microsoft Office to be downloaded and installed on students' personally-owned computers. Versions of Office for mobile devices are also included with Office 365 ProPlus. After a license has been assigned, a Saint Mary’s student can install Office 365 ProPlus software on up to five personally-owned computers and five personally-owned mobile devices. There are no monthly subscription fees associated with the Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for Students license. The Office 365 ProPlus software is downloaded directly from Microsoft, and no optical drive is necessary to install the software.

If you purchased physical media for Microsoft Office and you want to use the CD or DVD on a computer that has no optical drive (e.g. a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display), you are invited to the ResNet Office with your computer, software, and your laptop's power supply. The ResNet Office has external Apple USB SuperDrives available for students with Macs to use while installing Microsoft Office. The ResNet Office also has external USB CD/DVD optical drives available for students with Windows computers to use while installing Microsoft Office. Students must use the external USB drives while in the ResNet Office, and students must remain with their computers while the software is installing.

If you have a Mac, you can also access your Microsoft Office disc via the network from a different Mac by using Remote Disc.

1. On the Mac you want to share the disc from (that is, the Mac with the optical drive), choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu, then choose Sharing from the View menu.
2. Select the checkbox for DVD or CD Sharing.

   Note: If you want to be asked for permission before others can use the optical drive on the computer, enable the "Ask me before allowing others to use my DVD drive" checkbox. (This is recommended.)

3. After you have enabled DVD or CD Sharing, insert a disc that you want to share.
4. On your Mac (the Mac without an optical drive), open the Finder (you can double-click on the Macintosh HD icon to open a Finder window), and select Remote Disc in the DEVICES sidebar list. You should see the computer that has DVD or CD Sharing enabled.
5. Double-click the computer icon with the optical drive and click Connect. If the computer that is sharing its optical drive has "Ask me before allowing others to use my DVD drive" enabled, click on "Ask to use."
6. On the computer sharing its optical drive, acknowledge the request by clicking Accept.
7. More details about DVD or CD sharing can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5287