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"The product key is not valid" error activating Outlook for Mac or How to Upgrade Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 to Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011

Article ID: 2393959 - View products that this article applies to.

Summary

This article describes how to upgrade from the Home and Student edition of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 to the Home and Business edition. In the Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 edition, some features and applications, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint, are not available.

If you have Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 installed, the product key included will activate Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Outlook for Mac 2011 will not activate using Home and Student product key. You can run Outlook 2011 by clicking the Try free for 30 days option or click Purchase a Product Key online to upgrade to Home and Business. If you try entering your Home and Student product key when activating Outlook for Mac, you may receive an error message:

The product key is not valid. Make sure that you entered the correct key. If the key doesn’t work, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support.

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More information

If you would like to upgrade from Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 to Office for Mac Home and Business 2011, purchase the Step-Up upgrade online. After you make the purchase, you must enter the new product key into the product to upgrade. See "Enter a new product key" section in this article.

Note If you purchased Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 – Family Pack and purchased upgrade to Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 – 1 Pack, you will gain access to Outlook on a single computer only. If you want to use Outlook on more than one computer, purchase a Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 – 2 Pack. (You may return the Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 – 1 Pack to the point of purchase.) See the "References" section.

Enter a new product key to convert

If you want to purchase an upgrade or you already have the Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 product key, follow these steps:

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1. Start any Office for Mac application.
2. Click Purchase Options on the `<application name>` menu. If you received a message that Outlook trial has expired, click the Purchase Office button.	Collapse this imageExpand this image
3. On this screen, you can purchase the Home and Business edition by clicking Purchase a product key online, or you can enter your Home and Business product key by clicking Enter your product key.	Collapse this imageExpand this image
4. If you selected Purchase a product key online, you will be directed to a website where you can purchase Step Up Home and Business upgrade key. You will have to complete steps 1 and 2 in this procedure, and then enter the product key. If you already have the Home and Business product key, enter it in the box. Note After you enter the key, the additional features of the Office for Mac Home and Business, such as Microsoft Outlook, will be activated.

References

Note SharePoint is a web-based business application that is not intended for the home user. Home users can instead use Windows Live SkyDrive with Office for Mac 2011 applications.

To learn more about SharePoint, visit the following Microsoft website:

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/product/capabilities/Pages/default.aspx

(http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/product/capabilities/Pages/default.aspx)

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