To reactivate your Office applications, reconnect to the Internet. If you don’t connect to the Internet at least every 31 days, your applications will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents but cannot edit the documents or create new ones. You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Office up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades.

Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app. This contains many different options, such as General, Display, Proofing, Save, Language, and Advanced. A pop-up window named Word Options will come up. To access that, click File, and then Options in the drop-down. Settings and Preferences are in the Option menu of the Backstage view.

For Microsoft 365 plans, Internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office on other PCs or to change billing options. How to use Settings and Preferences in Microsoft Word 2013. However, Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of Office suites and all Microsoft 365 subscription plans. You don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the applications are fully installed on your computer.

Word 2013 window