Office 2010 and Office 365

http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-ca/office365-smallbusinesses/gg584196.aspx

http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-ca/office365-smallbusinesses/ff637537.aspx 

If you have Office 2010 or Office 2007 on your computer, you can use it with Office 365. If you use a Mac, and you have Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 or a later version, or Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update or a later version, you can use it with Office 365 also.

If your company has bought Office Professional Plus with Office 365, you can download this latest version of Office from the Office 365 Downloads page. Otherwise, if you already have Office 2010 or Office 2007 on your computer, you can set it up to work with Office 365. Versions of Office that are earlier than Office 2007 cannot connect to Office 365.

You can also install Lync (or Lync for Mac 2011 if you use a Mac) and use it for instant messaging, online meetings, sharing your desktop, and other tasks.

<snip  http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-ca/office365-smallbusinesses/gg584196.aspx >

Set up the version of Office that you already have to work with Office 365

You can set up Office 2010 and Office 2007 to connect to Office 365. An online tool that you can run from the Downloads page does most of the work for you.

Set up your desktop for Office 365 (steps 4 through 6)

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On the linked page it says:

<snip http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-ca/office365-smallbusinesses/ff637537.aspx >

1.      Under Set up and configure your Office desktop apps, click Set up. The Microsoft Office 365 desktop setup tool starts.

2.      Sign in using your user ID.

Office 365 desktop setup will check your system configuration. If the scan completes without detecting any problems, you’ll be presented with options to configure your desktop applications and learn more about the important updates Office 365 desktop setup will install. If a problem is detected, see Troubleshoot update and configuration issues for Office 365 for more information.

3.      After you have selected the applications you want to configure, click Continue, review the service agreements, and then click I accept to begin installing updates and configuring desktop applications.

4.      When the installation and configuration have completed, you may have to restart your computer to finalize the installation and configuration processes.

After running Office 365 desktop setup, a shortcut to the Office 365 portal will be added to the Start menu on your desktop.

</snip>

What is meant by the statement that office 2010 does not "support subscription to office 2013"?

With office 2010 installed may I simply delete office 365  that was installed when I bought a new lap top?

 and have access to ,Word 2010?

What is meant by the statement that office 2010 does not "support subscription to office 2013"?

With office 2010 installed may I simply delete office 365  that was installed when I bought a new lap top?

 and have access to ,Word 2010?

I need a reply to my question before making an assessment.

(FYI: there is often a delay between a reply is posted and when we receive it and ultimately reply to it. Most of us are unpaid volunteers, doing this in our "free" time.)

Back to your question I don't see a reference to the specific quote you cited. 

Having a factory installed free trial (of any version) and a user owned and installed version of Office WILL cause activation problems.

If your computer does have a factory installed Office 365 "free trial", then yes you MUST "uninstall" it, not just simply "delete" it.  I have to make the distinction between "uninstall" and "delete" to make sure we are talking about the same thing. 

After uninstalling 365 you MUST also do an Office Repair of your 2010 installation.

Then you should be able to activate your copy of 2010.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-Office-201  3-Office-2016-or-Office-365-from-a-Windows-computer-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8 Office 2016 / 2013, and Office 365

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repair-or-remove-office-2010-HA010357402.aspx?CTT=1 Repair Office

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-or-remove-Microsoft-Office-2010-suites-90635a1d-aec8-4653-b358-67e1b766fc4d?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US Repair uninstall Office 2010

Does that answer your concern?

Good luck.

Some context:

You used to be able to download and use Office 2010 with an Office 365 subscription. By the time we'd bought the subscription and activated it, these rights had been removed and you had to use Office 2013.

There is currently a similar situation (as I understand it). With Office 365 (one of the editions with the rights to download) you can either use Office 2013 or 2016. At some point in January next year you will no longer be able to use Office 2013, only Office 2016.

If you have media and licence for Office 2010, you should have no worries, just uninstall (definitely uninstall, not delete) Office 365 and install Office 2010 from your media.

Regards,

Rob.