Note: This scenario is only applicable to licenses that were purchased prior to September 5, 2014. Any license that was purchased or renewed after this date has Silent Activation Technology wherein the product automatically activates without any manual intervention.
Overview
Office Timeline Plus Edition licenses are annual licenses that expire after a one-year term. At expiration, the Office Timeline Plus add-in will revert to the Free version unless the subscription is renewed and the new license key is used to re-activate the software. The following article provides two options for re-activating Office Timeline Plus with a renewed product key:
- Activate Office Timeline upon its expiration
- Activate Office Timeline Plus prior to its expiration
Solutions
The easiest solution is to wait for Office Timeline to expire and then activate it again using your new product key. However, you can refresh your license prior to expiration as well.
A) Activate Office Timeline upon its expiration
On the day of expiration, Office Timeline Plus Edition will revert to the Free version and you will have the option to activate (upgrade) it. Once it has reverted to Free version, simply activate the product with your new product key by following the activation steps listed here.
B) Activate Office Timeline Plus prior to expiration
This method forces Office Timeline Plus back to Free edition prior to expiration. Once it has reverted to Free edition you can simply activate the product with your new product key by following the activation steps listed here.
Steps
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Close PowerPoint.
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Navigate to your Office Timeline license folder C:\ProgramData\Office Timeline\Current. NOTE: This folder is hidden so you will need to type this into your File Explorer address bar.
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Delete the OfficeTimeline.dll.license from the folder.
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Open PowerPoint and click on the Office Timeline ribbon.
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Click the Upgrade button on the Office Timeline Free ribbon and follow the steps to activate it with your the new product key you received.
License renewals for corporate deployments
Companies that centrally deployed Office Timeline with a silent activation will need to re-deploy Office Timeline.
Steps
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Uninstall the Office Timeline Add-in from the clients.
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Delete the folder C:\ProgramData\Office Timeline on each client so the license folder is removed.
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Re-deploy Office Timeline and push out the new product key as described here: https://support.officetimeline.com/enterprise-corporate-deployment-how-to-for-it-administrators
Alternatively, IT administrators can instruct users to manually activate their licenses with a new product key by following either solution A or solution B listed above.