Install Fonts from Office 365

All of the fonts you only see in Office 365 are embedded in each individual app (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook). Yes, that's a lot of duplicated fonts that take up well over a GB of space.

Because they're within the Office application packages, only the Office apps see them. In order to use them on the rest of the system, you need to copy them from one of the apps and then activate those copies they way you normally would with Font Book, or whatever font manager you use.

Oddly, this does not create font conflicts. The Office apps just ignore one or the other of the duplicated fonts. Likely because the embedded fonts aren't actually active as a normal font would be. The Office apps just use the embedded fonts directly as you choose them.

To access these embedded fonts, right click on any Office app. Choose Show Package Contents and go to the Contents/Resources/DFonts folder.

Since the fonts included within the MS applications are licensed all or in part to Microsoft, would using them in other non-Microsoft creation tools that resulted in commercial distribution get sideways with Microsoft copyright protections?

Most of the included fonts belong to other vendors, with the majority being Monotype. Many are also duplicates of what's already included with the OS, such as Wingdings, Times, Verdana and Arial.

That said, I have never checked to see if Microsoft specifically prohibits the use of their included fonts outside of Office 365. I suppose mostly because I have so dang many fonts of my own to use from my previous business doing prepress work, the only thing I ever did with those embedded fonts was to remove as many as possible without breaking the Office apps.

Now I feel compelled to look. 🙂

Edit: Hmm, still couldn't find a real answer. I could only locate a section on Microsoft's licensing here:

https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Licensing-Guides

The only close match is the PDF for Microsoft 365 for enterprise | Licensing Guide. Doing a search through that document, the word "font" doesn't appear even once. But then, the doc concerns licensing use of the suite, not the included components.

Haha! How serendipitous can you get?! An email just showed up regarding changes to Microsoft's licensing agreement. I haven't used Office for years now, but I get these anyway as a one-time user/owner. Section iii may apply, but it's kind of vague.

Software License

8. Software License. Unless accompanied by a separate Microsoft license agreement (for example, if you are using a Microsoft application that is included with and a part of Windows, then the Microsoft Software License Terms for the Windows Operating System govern such software), any software provided by us to you as part of the Services is subject to these Terms. Applications acquired through certain Stores owned or operated by Microsoft or its affiliates (including, but not limited to the Office Store, Microsoft Store on Windows and Microsoft Store on Xbox) are subject to section 14.b.i below.

• a. If you comply with these Terms, we grant you the right to install and use one copy of the software per device on a worldwide basis for use by only one person at a time as part of your use of the Services. For certain devices, such software may be pre-installed for your personal, non-commercial use of the Services. The software or website that is part of the Services may include third-party code. Any third-party scripts or code, linked to or referenced from the software or website, are licensed to you by the third parties that own such code, not by Microsoft. Notices, if any, for the third-party code are included for your information only.

• b. The software is licensed, not sold, and Microsoft reserves all rights to the software not expressly granted by Microsoft, whether by implication, estoppel, or otherwise. This license does not give you any right to, and you may not:

• • i. circumvent or bypass any technological protection measures in or relating to the software or Services;
  • ii. disassemble, decompile, decrypt, hack, emulate, exploit, or reverse engineer any software or other aspect of the Services that is included in or accessible through the Services, except and only to the extent that the applicable copyright law expressly permits doing so;
  • iii. separate components of the software or Services for use on different devices;
  • iv. publish, copy, rent, lease, sell, export, import, distribute, or lend the software or the Services, unless Microsoft expressly authorizes you to do so;
  • v. transfer the software, any software licenses, or any rights to access or use the Services;
  • vi. use the Services in any unauthorized way that could interfere with anyone else’s use of them or gain access to any service, data, account, or network;
  • vii. enable access to the Services or modify any Microsoft-authorized device (e.g., Xbox consoles, Microsoft Surface, etc.) by unauthorized third-party applications.

Fortunately for me, Microsoft does not send me emails even though I own Office 2021 on both Mac and Windows 11, so did not receive any software license update. 🧐

It would appear that the issue I raised about using Microsoft application fonts elsewhere was covered by Roman numerals in that licensing revision content.

Seems so. But what is the user supposed to do then when you absolutely need access to a particular font, but Office 365 won't list it?

In this case, I'm referring to Zapf Dingbats. Office will list all active fonts on the system, but will not show Zapf Dingbats. This has been an issue with Office for quite a while, and as far as I know, still hasn't been fixed. The only way to get that font to appear in Office is to copy it from the System folder into the Office app's embedded DFonts folder.

So according to the license, you're violating it at least as a "hack" (subsection i). But if you don't copy the font into an Office application package, you can't use it.

Kurt Lang wrote:

Which I do. 🙂

Knew that, so humor.

I don't miss MS Office at all. Not that the SoftMaker suite is free (if you want all of the features), but it sure is cheaper for a nearly identical product.

Since I only pay around 34 USD for Windows or Mac Office suites on Stack Social, I may update them to Office 2024 when it is finally released. Or, I may switch over to the fully featured SoftMaker solution.

I've seen you mention them before. I looked up the company a couple of times. Some folks say it's legitimate. Others say the software is so cheap because they're illegal copies. I don't know which to believe on that one.

When I purchased both Office suites from Stack Social, part of that process was to sign into a Windows account, and Stack Social registered the purchases under the Microsoft account's Purchases history.

Initially, I installed Office 2021 for Mac Home and Business under Big Sur on an M1 MacBook Pro in 2021. Later, I decided to uninstall it and re-install it on my M2 Mac Mini Pro. Signed into my Microsoft account via Safari on the mini and there was the Install button for the Mac version of Office. Once I clicked install, it was done and I never needed to enter the Office license key during that process. Office 2021 for Mac continues to auto-update without a hitch under Sonoma.

I have made two purchases through Stack Social with no complaints about the process or any post-purchase barrage of emails.

Excellent response!

Then yes, they have to be legitimate copies, or Microsoft's portal would never let you enter a product key that was already in use by another user.

Which means the negative reviews I've seen is only based on, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." I'll definitely have to check them out in the future if they have software I'm in the market for.

And I love BlackMagic Design! You pay for the full version of DaVinci Resolve Studio once, and everything after that is free. Even major upgrades. I just upgraded from version 18 to 19. No cost, which is rather amazing when you read how many features they added to it.

🤯… Then one uses the Softmaker Office 2024 suite…😎

Which I do. 🙂

I don't miss MS Office at all. Not that the SoftMaker suite is free (if you want all of the features), but it sure is cheaper for a nearly identical product.