College students often receive significant discounts on tech products, but a new offer from Microsoft lives up to its billing as “the Ultimate Steal.”

The company announced Wednesday that students who are enrolled and have a valid e-mail address from an educational institution can get the Office 2007 Ultimate suite of software for $60, down from a list price of $680. The promotion runs through April 30.

The software has been sold at that price at some campus bookstores, but now it will be more widely available through downloads, Microsoft said.

Microsoft already offers Office Home & Student, with many fewer features, for $150. Part of the motivation for offering the software at a low price is that Microsoft would like to turn users into loyal Office customers.

In addition, the company is constantly combating software piracy and lowering the price makes it less tempting for students to use counterfeit programs.

To get the software, students must submit their e-mail address to www.ultimatesteal.com. They then will be sent instructions on how to acquire the software, which must be downloaded from Microsoft as a trial version.

Downloading the 502 megabyte software package takes about 33 minutes over a 2-megabit Internet connection. Customers who would rather have the software on a disk would pay an additional $12.95 for shipping.

Those who then pay the $60 fee will be sent an electronic “key” to convert the trial version to the full version.

The trial version allows the student to use Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint or Excel about 25 times. After that limit is hit, the software will allow the user only to view documents, not modify them or create new ones.