Add Creative Commons Licenses to Microsoft Office Documents

Microsoft has released an tool for copyright licensing that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licensing information for works in popular Microsoft Office applications.

Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office is a free software at Microsoft Office Online that will enable users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to easily select Creative Commons licenses from directly within the application they are working in.

A Creative commmons press release says

“The goal of the Creative Commons licenses is to give an author a clearer ability to express his or her intentions regarding the use of the work. The Microsoft Office tool allows users to choose from a variety of Creative Commons licenses that enable an author to retain copyright ownership, yet permit the work to be copied and distributed with certain possible restrictions, such as whether or not the work can be used commercially and whether or not modifications can be made to the work.”

Clear about the rights to grant to users of your creative work? Then embed Creative Commons licenses directly into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents.