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Whether you had an existing licensed PowerPoint product or whether you got a new Microsoft Office installation with your new computer, irrespective of when this error occurs — it is important that we fix this activation error! In some cases, fixing the date, time, and timezone settings on your computer can solve the problem. If nothing works, reinstall Microsoft Office. In this article, we shall take a look at exactly do you need to do in order to fix this problem on your computer.
Plus, we shall also understand some of the common reasons why this error occurs in the first place! There is a myriad of reasons why this error occurs. Sometimes, you may see this error on a fully functioning Microsoft Office application that has been working perfectly fine for months! There are multiple reasons why this error could occur and the reasons can vary from one person to another. Thus, fixing this issue requires you to understand why the error is happening in the first place.
While there are a ton of different reasons for this error to show on your computer, for the sake of this article, we shall take a look at some of the top reasons for this error to occur —.
You may even have been led to believe that you will get a free Microsoft Office along with the computer. However, the hard truth may be that you have perhaps been misguided. Usually, when you buy a new computer, you may receive a 1-month free trial. Post which, you will have to pay to continue using the product. This error may also occur if you have installed Microsoft Office without a valid license key.
In such a scenario, the Office application that you are using such as PowerPoint will prompt you to provide the license key. It is highly likely that you have perhaps entered any one of the characters incorrectly by mistake.
If you have bought the key separately from the software, it is highly likely that the key has been fraudulently obtained unfortunately so. Hopefully, you will be able to find a solution. You can also try reaching out to their support team to see if something can be done. However, have realistic expectations. If you have been cheated on the key by the seller, there is really not much the support team will be able to do for you. Another reason why your PowerPoint may show you the activation failed error is when perhaps the core Microsoft Office files have become corrupt.
This can happen due to multiple reasons, but the most common cause of this issue is a virus attack! If your computer has recently detected a virus or if your antivirus had to clean up your computer due to malware or a virus attack, it is highly likely that some of the files may have become corrupted in the process! As unfortunate as that may be, you will usually get an activation failed error. The best solution, in this case, is to repair the office files, update your Microsoft Office application, or completely reinstall the program if nothing works.
More on this in the next section. The reason I say that is you may not even realize the reason behind this issue until you finally reach out to the support team or perhaps you stumble upon this article! Alternatively, you may have installed an upgraded version of Microsoft Office as shown in the image. Sometimes, you may be using the basic version of Microsoft Office, but then you get a better version paid for by the office or your university, and you may end up installing it on your computer before removing the one that already existed!
Another reason why you may get an activation failed error is when your license has simply expired! This can happen especially when you take a 1-year license or if you have a monthly subscription and the credit card details used for the payment are not valid anymore.
You just need to log in to your Microsoft Office account and pay for the renewal of the license. If you are unsure how to do that, check out the sections below in the article where I mention the step-by-step process of how to re-activate your PowerPoint license.
Another reason for getting the product activation failed error in PowerPoint is strangely the change in your date, time, or the timezone settings. If the clock on your computer bottom right corner of your screen is not showing the time in your country or if your computer is in another timezone than the actual timezone based on the location of your computer, this error can also occur. I have never really understood why this causes the failure of product activation, but just that it does!
Some of the latest versions of Microsoft Office applications require you to log in to your account instead of providing a product key. So, if you are using the latest versions of Microsoft Office such as Office , Office Office , Office , or the like, then it is possible that you have logged in to an incorrect Microsoft account.
This can happen if you have two Microsoft accounts or if you have created a new account during the installation process of Microsoft Office on your computer by mistake. It is easy to fix this problem all you have to do to open Office. You can also sign in from your PowerPoint application on your computer. You can also just as easily switch accounts. From the window that opens up, simply enter your login credentials associated with your paid license for Microsoft Office to sign in to your account.
If someone has shared an Office account with you or if Microsoft Office came pre-installed on your computer, check out this link for further support and assistance. If this subscription expired notice is not taken care of, you will usually see the product activation error on the top.
If the license of your PowerPoint application or rather Microsoft Office has expired, then the best way to get rid of this error is to re-activate your PowerPoint license.
However, from Office , you also have an option to log in and use Microsoft Office for a limited time period such as for one year or even on a monthly basis. There are basically two ways to renew your Microsoft Office subscription. The easiest way is to renew your subscription online. Once the payment is done, your subscription is immediately activated and extended for the period of time that you have chosen. You may want to add a payment method to your Microsoft Office account in order to avoid getting the subscription expired error.
You can also renew using a product key by purchasing the Microsoft Office either in a physical store or using the Microsoft Office 1 Year Subscription on Amazon. You can sometimes get a discounted deal using this method. Your product will be activated immediately. After that, simply quit all the Office applications open on your computer, and reopen PowerPoint to verify that the error is gone.
If you are facing any issues, check out this link for further troubleshooting and support. To do that, you will have to enter the product key and activate the software. After that, your product will be activated.
To activate your PowerPoint by using a telephone, follow steps 1 through 3 as described in the previous section of this article and then follow the steps given below. This will provide you with a phone number from your area.
After you receive the phone number, call the number, and talk to a customer service representative. After confirming your subscription, the representative will provide you with the character product activation key. Then, follow the steps mentioned above to complete the process. Perhaps the problem lies not with the license itself or your Microsoft Account, but the problem may exist on your computer!
Continue reading the next section to know how to troubleshoot the product activation failed error in PowerPoint! In the previous section, I touched upon some of the most common reasons why you may be getting the error in your Microsoft Office.
There may be more reasons, but these are some of the most common ones! As mentioned earlier in the article, if your date, time, or timezone settings have changed for some reason, it can affect the activation of your Microsoft Office product. If you are unable to activate your PowerPoint application or Microsoft Office, you can try to run the Microsoft Office application as an administrator. You might wonder how this will help. Well, sometimes, there are permissions required on an operating system level to activate Microsoft Office.
And, while usually, Microsoft Office is good at prompting for passwords and permissions, it can sometimes run into permission issues. Running the application as an administrator allows you to fix any permission issues that may be encountered during the activation process. Make sure you click on the link and check out the step-by-step guide if you are unsure how to update your Microsoft Office.
While you are at it, also check out how to enable auto-update in PowerPoint. This will ensure that your Microsoft PowerPoint is always up-to-date and you eliminate this one reason from the activation failed issue. But, even otherwise, this can sometimes help fix the issue if the reason for the failure of activation is corrupt Microsoft Office program files. If that is the case and none of the above options work, I would recommend completely starting off afresh by getting rid of the old Office files by uninstalling Microsoft Office completely.
You will have to uninstall the Office suite and reinstall it. Also, you need to remember that uninstalling Microsoft Office will not affect any files that you have created and saved on your computer using a particular application.
The first method is using the control panel of your computer. This is the fastest method and works for most cases. However, if you are uninstalling Microsoft Office to get rid of corrupt files, then you should look at the 2nd method described below.
Once the installation is complete, restart your computer and proceed to the installation process described below. If your computer has been infected with a virus recently and is the main reason for the product activation failure error, then you want to make sure that you carry out a complete uninstallation of Microsoft Office from your computer! As mentioned before, this method is particularly helpful when you want to get rid of corrupt Microsoft Office files especially when your computer has gone through a virus attack recently!
To use this method, you will need to download a special tool provided by Microsoft Office click on the link to download. This tool ensures that all the Microsoft Office hidden files and codes are removed from your computer. Choose the version of Microsoft Office that you want to uninstall. Run through the following sequence as prompted by the application and proceed with the uninstallation.
Restart your computer when prompted. You can also carry out the process manually instead of using the software. But, the process is really cumbersome and technical. Nevertheless, if you are interested, check out this page on the Microsoft Support site for detailed instructions.
Now that you have completed the uninstallation process of Microsoft Office, the next step is to reinstall the application. But, I will leave a link to a thread from the Microsoft Support page explaining the detailed step-by-step process. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions related to this topic that you may want to check out for further information.
Need help uninstalling Microsoft Office Activation Assistant for - Microsoft Community
Microsoft Office codenamed Office 14 [6] is a version of Microsoft Office for Microsoft Windows unveiled by Microsoft on May 15, , and released to manufacturing on April 15, [1] with general availability on June 15, [7] as the successor to Office and the predecessor to Office Office introduces user interface enhancements including a Backstage view that consolidates document management tasks into a single location.
The ribbon introduced in Office for Access , Excel , Outlook , PowerPoint , and Word is the primary user interface for all applications in Office and is now customizable. Office is the first version of Office to ship in a bit version. Reviews of Office were generally very positive, with praise to the new Backstage view, new customization options for the ribbon, and the incorporation of the ribbon into all programs. Mainstream support for Office ended on October 13, , and extended support ended on October 13, , the same dates that mainstream and extended support ended for Windows Embedded Standard 7.
Development started in while Microsoft was finishing work on Office 12, released as Microsoft Office The version number 13 was skipped because of the fear of the number On April 15, , Microsoft confirmed that Office would be released in the first half of They announced on May 12, , at a Tech Ed event, a trial version of the bit edition. An internal post-beta build was leaked on July 12, This was newer than the official preview build and included a "Limestone" internal test application note: the EULA indicates Beta 2.
On July 14, , Microsoft started to send out invitations on Microsoft Connect to test an official preview build of Office In an effort to help customers and partners with deployment of Office , Microsoft launched an Office application compatibility program with tools and guidance available for download. It was leaked to torrent sites.
Office was to be originally released to business customers on May 12, , [56] however it was made available to Business customers with Software Assurance on April 27, , and to other Volume Licensing Customers on May 1. The RTM version number is Microsoft released two service packs for Office that were primarily intended to address software bugs. SP1 is a cumulative update that includes all previous updates, as well as fixes exclusive to its release; [62] [66] a list of exclusive fixes was released by Microsoft.
On April 8, , a beta build of Office SP2 was released. In both its client programs and in its Internet implementation, the design of Office incorporates features from SharePoint and borrows from Web 2. A new Backstage view interface replaces the Office menu introduced in Office and is designed to facilitate access to document management and sharing tasks by consolidating them within a single location.
Tasks that are accessed via tabs in the main Backstage pane are categorized into separate groups that display contextual information related to app configurations, files, and tasks; each tab displays information relevant to that specific tab.
On the Info tab in Word, for example, document metadata details are displayed within the Prepare for Sharing group to inform users of potentially personal information before the file is shared with other users, [80] whereas the Help tab displays Office version information and product licensing status.
Backstage is extensible; developers can add their own commands, tabs, tasks, or related information. The File tab replaces the Office button introduced in Office and offers similar functionality. The previous Office button—a round button adorned with the Microsoft Office logo—had a different appearance from the ribbon tabs in the Office interface and was positioned away from them, with a target that extended toward the upper left corner of the screen in accordance with Fitts's law.
Opening the File tab displays the new Backstage view. Office introduces a pasting options gallery on the ribbon, in the context menu , and in the object-oriented user interface that replaces the Paste Special dialog box and Paste Recovery feature seen in previous versions of Office.
The gallery introduces Live Preview effects to the paste process when users position the mouse cursor over an option in the gallery so that the result of the process can be previewed before it is applied to the document; a tooltip with an associated description and keyboard shortcut for that option will also appear.
If users position the mouse cursor over a gallery option in the context menu, the rest of the context menu becomes transparent so that it does not obstruct preview results within the document. Gallery options change based on the content in the clipboard and the app into which the content is pasted. The ribbon introduced in Office is fully customizable and included in all programs in Office Users can also export or import any customization changes made to the ribbon to facilitate backups, deployment, or sharing, or reset all ribbon customizations.
After the launch of Office , Microsoft provided free downloads for a new Favorites tab that consolidated commands based on customer feedback regarding the most frequently used commands in all Office programs. From Backstage within Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word, users can also save documents directly to remote locations to facilitate remote access and co-authoring sessions. In the Excel Web App, the OneNote, and the OneNote Web App edits to a shared document in a co-authoring session occur on a sequential basis, in near real-time, as shared documents save automatically with each edit.
In PowerPoint and Word, however, users must upload changes to the server by manually saving the shared document. During a co-authoring session the Excel Web App, PowerPoint, and Word denote how many co-authors are editing a document through a status bar icon that, when clicked in PowerPoint and Word, displays contact information including the presence of co-authors; the Info tab of Backstage also displays these details.
When users open the name of a co-author, they can send email with an email client or start instant messaging conversations with each other if a supported app such as Skype for Business is installed on each machine. If a conflict between multiple changes occurs in PowerPoint or Word, sharers can approve or reject changes before uploading them to the server.
In both OneNote and the OneNote Web App, users can view the names of co-authors alongside their respective edits to the content in a shared notebook, or create separate versions of pages for individual use. Edits made since a notebook was last opened are automatically highlighted, with initials of the co-author who made the edit displayed. In OneNote, co-authors can also search for all edits made by a specific co-author.
Office introduces a new Click-to-Run installation process based on Microsoft App-V Version 4 streaming and virtualization technology as an alternative to the traditional Windows Installer -based installation process for the Home and Student and Home and Business editions, and as a mandatory installation process for the Starter edition.
Click-to-Run products install in a virtualized environment a Q: partition that downloads product features in the background after the programs have been installed so that users can immediately begin using the programs.
The download process is optimized for broadband connections. During the Office retail lifecycle Microsoft, in collaboration with original equipment manufacturers OEMs and retail partners, introduced a Product Key Card licensing program that allowed users to purchase a single license to activate Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional editions preinstalled on personal computers at a reduced cost when compared with traditional retail media.
Volume license versions of Office require product activation. In Office product activation was only required for OEM or retail versions of the product.
Office File Validation, previously included only in Publisher for PUB files has been incorporated into Excel, PowerPoint, and Word in Office to validate the integrity of proprietary binary file formats e.
When users open a document, the structure of its file format is scanned to ensure that it conforms with specifications defined by XML schema ; if a file fails the validation process it will, by default, be opened in Protected View, a new read-only, isolated sandbox environment to protect users from potentially malicious content.
To improve Office File Validation, Office collects various information about files that have failed validation and also creates copies of these files for optional submission to Microsoft through Windows Error Reporting.
Administrators can disable data submission. When users attempt to open a document that fails validation, they must first agree to a warning prompt before it can be opened. Protected View, an isolated sandbox environment for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, replaces the Isolated Conversion Environment update available for previous versions of Microsoft Office. When a document is opened from a potentially unsafe location such as the Internet or as an e-mail attachment, or if a document does not comply with File Block policy or if it fails Office File Validation, it is opened in Protected View, which prohibits potentially unsafe documents from modifying components, files, and other resources on a system; users can also manually open documents in Protected View.
As a precautionary measure, active content within a potentially unsafe document remains disabled when a user reopens it after exiting Protected View until a user clicks the "Enable Content" button on the message bar, which designates the document as a trusted document so that users are not prompted when it is opened in the future.
The main process of each app is assigned the current user's access token and hosts the Office user interface elements such as the ribbon, whereas the Protected View process consists of the document viewing area, parses and renders the document content, and operates with reduced privileges; the main process serves as a mediator for requests initiated by the separate process. Office allows users to designate individual documents as trusted, which allows all active content to operate each time a specific document is opened; trusted documents do not open in Protected View.
Documents residing in either local or remote directories can be trusted, but users are warned if an attempt is made to trust a document from a remote resource.
Trusted document preferences, referred to as trust records , are stored within the Windows Registry on a per-user basis; trust records contain the full path to trusted documents and other specific file information to protect users from social engineering attacks.
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word include a variety of artistic effects such as glass, paint stroke, pastel, and pencil sketch effects that users can apply to inserted images. A new background removal feature based on Microsoft Research technology is included in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word to remove the backgrounds of images inserted into documents.
It is exposed as a Remove Background command that appears on the Picture Tool s contextual tab on the ribbon when an image is selected, which displays a separate Background Removal contextual tab and places a selection rectangle and magenta color over portions of the selected image; the selection rectangle algorithmically determines which area of the selected image will be retained once the background removal process is complete, whereas the magenta color indicates the areas that will be removed.
Users can manually adjust the position and size of the selection rectangle and also mark specific areas of an image to keep or remove; [] it is also possible to delete a mark after an inadvertent selection or if it produces an undesired result. After the background has been removed, users can apply various visual effects to the result image or wrap text in a document around it ; users can also crop the image since removing the background does not reduce its original size.
The crop selection rectangle now grays out the portion of a photo to be removed when cropping and displays the result area in color—instead of omitting the removed portion from view, as previous versions of Office did.
Photos can now be repositioned underneath the selection rectangle. The Picture Shape command in previous versions of Office has been replaced with a new Crop to Shape command that allows users to resize and move the selected shape itself when cropping.
Office , like previous versions, automatically resizes photos that are inserted into shapes by default, which can negatively affect their aspect ratio. To address this, photos in shapes can now be cropped or resized after being inserted, and individual Fit and Fill options have been incorporated. The former option resizes the selected photo so that the entire area of the crop selection rectangle or shape is filled, whereas the latter option resizes the photo so that it is displayed within the selection rectangle or within a shape in its entirety; both options maintain the original aspect ratio of the selected photo.
Photos inserted into SmartArt diagrams can also be cropped, resized, or repositioned. Excel, PowerPoint, and Word support text effects such as bevels, gradient fills, glows, reflections, and shadows.
Publisher and Word support OpenType features such as kerning , ligatures , stylistic sets , and text figures with fonts such as Calibri , Cambria , Corbel , and Gabriola. Excel, PowerPoint, and Word support hardware accelerated graphics when installed on a machine with a DirectX 9. Excel supports hardware accelerated chart drawing, and PowerPoint supports hardware accelerated animations, transitions, and video playback and effects; slideshow elements are now rendered as sprites, which are then composited with additional effects such as fades and wipes implemented using Pixel Shader 2.
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word allow users to immediately insert a screenshot of open app windows or a selection of content on the screen into documents without saving the image as a file. The functionality is exposed through a new Screenshot command on the Insert tab of the ribbon that, when clicked, presents individual options to capture either app windows or selections of content.
The former option presents open windows as thumbnails in a gallery on the ribbon that insert a screenshot of the selected window into the active app, while the latter option minimizes the currently active app, dims the screen, and presents a selection rectangle for users to create a screenshot by holding the main mouse button, dragging the selection rectangle to a desired area of the screen, and then releasing the button to automatically insert the selection as an image into the document.
Only windows that have not been minimized to the taskbar can be captured. After a screenshot has been inserted, various adjustments can be made. SmartArt, a set of diagrams introduced in Office for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word has been updated with new effects, options, and interface improvements.
The SmartArt text pane now allows users to insert, modify, and reorder images and their associated text within a diagram, and new Move Up and Move Down commands on the ribbon facilitate the reordering of content. Images are automatically cropped when inserted into shapes within SmartArt diagrams to preserve their aspect ratio; users can also manually reposition images.
During the crop process, the layout of shapes in SmartArt diagrams is locked to prevent users from inadvertently modifying its position while making adjustments to an image. Of these, a new Picture category dedicated to the presentation of images includes over 30 diagrams, and the Organization Chart category includes 3 new diagrams. A new Convert command on the SmartArt contextual tab of the ribbon includes additional features for Excel and PowerPoint.
The Convert to Shapes feature, introduced in Office SP2 as a context menu option that turned SmartArt into a group of customizable shapes is now on the ribbon in both programs. Additionally, in PowerPoint, it is possible to convert SmartArt diagrams into bulleted lists through a new Convert to Text option.
Office introduces Accessibility Checker in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word that examines documents for issues affecting visually impaired readers. It is accessible through the "Check for Issues" button on the Prepare for Sharing group on the Info tab of Backstage, which opens a task pane with a list of accessibility issues discovered in the document and provides suggestions to resolve them. Backstage itself also reports accessibility issues in the Prepare for Sharing group so that they can be resolved before the document is shared with other users.
Translations for phrases or words are displayed within a tooltip, from which users can hear an audio pronunciation of the selected text provided by one of the Microsoft text-to-speech voices installed on a machine, copy the translation to the clipboard so that it can be inserted into another document, or view a definition provided by an online service if the selected text is a word.
Users can download various text-to-speech engines from Microsoft. Office Starter is an ad-supported , reduced-functionality edition consisting of Excel and Word, discontinued in June before the release of Office and Windows 8.
Office Online is a collection of free Web-based versions of Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word that offers fewer features than its client counterparts. Office Mobile was released before general availability of Office as a free upgrade for users of Windows Mobile 6.
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