C. Setting Up and Modifying Office 2013

Installing Office 2013

Word 2013 is part of the Microsoft Office 2013 suite of programs. Although you can buy Word as a standalone product, most people either buy it as part of Office or get it preinstalled on a new computer.

There are two ways to buy Office 2013. You can purchase a DVD in a store, and install from that, or you can buy a subscription to Office via the Office 365 program. Either way, installing Office is simple.

If you have an Office DVD, you just put the DVD into your PC and follow the prompts that appear. You have significant interaction with the Setup program at only two points: You enter the product key and accept the software license terms, and you decide whether to do a standard or custom install. (Then, if you choose the custom install, you pick the components to install and the folder in which you want to install them.) If you are upgrading from a previous edition of Office, you are also prompted whether to upgrade (replacing your current version) or install new (leaving the old version installed as well).

If you want the subscription-based version, go to http://www.microsoft.com/office365, and click the link for a free trial (or click Buy Now if you are sure that’s what you want). Then follow the prompts to download and install the software.

Modifying or Repairing Your Office Installation

After Office has been installed, you can still access its Setup program from the Control Panel and use it to modify, repair, or reinstall Office.

Follow these steps to access Setup:

1. From the Control Panel, under the Programs heading, click Uninstall a Program.

2. Click Microsoft Office in the list of programs.

The name varies slightly depending on the version you have and includes the version name, such as Standard or Professional.

3. Click the Change button.

If a user account control window pops up asking for permission to continue, click Continue.

4. In the Microsoft Office window, choose the option you want:

• Add or Remove Features—Opens the Installation Options list, the same as with a custom install. Set each component to the desired setting: Run from My Computer, Run All from My Computer, Installed on First Use, or Not Available.

• Repair—Repairs the current installation without adding or removing components.

• Remove—Removes the entire program from your system.

• Enter a Product Key—Enables you to upgrade a trial or limited version of Office by entering a product key that you purchase from Microsoft.

5. Click Continue, and then follow the prompts to complete the Setup activity you chose to perform.

Optional Tools and Shared Features

It is easy to modify your Office installation by choosing Add or Remove Features, as in the previous section’s steps. The tricky part is knowing which options you want and why.

Office 2013 comes with a variety of tools and shared features, none of which is necessary for using Word. The exact set of them depends on the version of Office you have. Most of the available tools are installed automatically in a default install, but not all of them. You might want to pick through them and remove the ones that you will never need or add the ones that look interesting that aren’t already installed. Table C.1 summarizes what’s available that affects Word.

Table C.1. Optional Tools and Shared Features