How to install Microsoft Word without the Office 365 suite
Q: My Microsoft Office 365 subscription will be expiring soon. Of the suite, I really only use Microsoft Word. Is there another way to download the suite so that I just have Word? I really don't want to pay for programs I don't use.
—Mary Oliver, Nettles Island
A: Microsoft Office 365 is a productivity suite with a subscription rate of $99.99 per year.
For that cost, users can install and use full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive (Microsoft's cloud-based storage system), OneNote and Outlook for one year and can install the suite on up to five different machines at once if needed. The subscription also includes all updates to these programs, which ensures you will always have the latest editions and capabilities of the programs available to you as long as your subscription remains current.
To continue using the suite from year to year, simply continue paying the subscription rate when prompted. Once you choose to stop paying the annual fee, then all programs included will stop being accessible to you at the time your subscription ends.
While previous versions of Microsoft Office allowed the user to perform “custom” installations of the program pack so he or she could pick and choose which programs and features to install from the suite, Office 365 does not offer this option. Rather, it’s an all-or-nothing scenario essentially. You must install the entire suite at once; if you don't want to use a title within the suite, then ignore it after installation and move onward.
Right now, Office 365 comes in three service-level editions: Home Edition, Personal Edition and Home and Student. The following link has information on what each contains and their respective pricing: products.office.com/en-US/compare-all-microsoft-office-products.
If you wish to use only Word and do not want to install the suite’s other components, then your best option would be just to purchase and install Word outright and not worry about getting the office suite at all. Word can be obtained online for a one-time installation fee of $129.
Keep in mind if you want to install Word only, you will need to take a few steps to ensure the program installs correctly. Rather than installing Word, you first must adjust your Office 365 account so that it does not automatically renew its annual subscription since this will not be done automatically by installing Word. Instructions for doing this can be found online.
After that, remove Office 365 from your computer so that your forthcoming Word download and installation will not conflict with the existing version of it already found in your installation of Office 365. You can do that by following the steps online.
Finally, go to the link above provided for Microsoft Word, purchase and download the program through that URL and install it as directed on the site. After that, you're good to go.
In terms of costs, in the end, you'll pay a little more for the latest version of Word than you would for another year of Office 365 ($129 vs. $99.99), but then you won't be charged again for Word after that. If you stay with Office 365, you'll be charged another $99.99 next year (and each subsequent year) to use continue using the program suite.
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