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Looking to make a good start for its OneNote application at schools and colleges, Microsoft plans to give away its upcoming note-taking software to certain institutions and will offer special academic pricing for the product, the company said Monday.

Educational institutions that have a volume license for other Microsoft software will be able to use OneNote for free until their agreement expires. The license, a so-called Campus and School Agreement, has to be active by December 31, said Bobby Moore, product manager for OneNote at Microsoft.

The number of OneNote copies a school can use at no charge will depend on the number of licenses for other software it has signed up for under the volume plan, Microsoft said. OneNote is scheduled to be available worldwide in October, along with Microsoft's other new and upgraded Office products.

Price Point

Microsoft also announced Monday that the Academic Edition of OneNote will cost $49 at campus bookstores. That is much less than the regular $199 price tag, although Microsoft will also offer a $100 mail-in rebate for nonacademic users in the U.S. and Canada to spur adoption of the product.

Microsoft sees education as one of the key markets for OneNote, Moore said. The product will be part of a promotional campaign that targets 1600 U.S. colleges. In about 300 of those, kiosks will be set up with Tablet PCs and OneNote. Furthermore, about half a million trial CDs will be distributed and Microsoft will conduct a sweepstakes with a Tablet PC as the grand prize, Moore said.

Other key markets for OneNote include legal professionals, engineers, and journalists, Moore said.

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