She clicked the link. It took her to her university’s login page. She typed her credentials. A green checkmark appeared. A pop-up asked: “Allow your institution to activate Office 365 on this device?”
The document was still there, but the Review tab was greyed out. The Track Changes feature, the oxygen of her collaboration with her advisor, was dead. Worst of all, a ghostly watermark reading “Unlicensed Product” was beginning to bleed through the text like a slow, digital hemorrhage.
“Worse. My Office expired. I can’t track changes, I can’t export to PDF without a watermark, and I can’t afford the renewal until Friday.”