Two weeks after releasing Office LTSC 2021, the brand new non-subscription model of its workplace suite for enterprises, Microsoft has launched Office 2021 for customers, college students, and small companies. The enterprise and client Office 2021 variations have the same set of recent options. Before we get into these new options, although, let’s take a look at how Microsoft has differentiated its subscription and non-subscription variations of Office.For years now, Microsoft has been pushing the subscription model of its workplace suite — referred to as Office 365 or Microsoft 365, relying on the license — over the non-subscription model, which it calls the “perpetual” model of Office. Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers pay ongoing charges to make use of the software program, whereas consumers of the perpetual model pay a one-time charge and personal it eternally.When Office 2016 was first launched in late 2015, the perpetual model and the Office 365 model had the identical options. But the 2 quickly diverged: Microsoft started rolling out new options to Office 365 that the perpetual Office 2016 model didn’t get. When Office 2019 was launched three years later, it included some, however not at all all, of the options that Office 365 had at the moment. Since then, perpetual Office 2019 has remained static, whereas Office 365/Microsoft 365 has continued to get new options. Microsoft even went as far as to launch an advert marketing campaign disparaging Office 2019 as in comparison with Office 365.Things aren’t any totally different with Office 2021 (and Office LTSC 2021). The new perpetual launch will get a handful of options that had been already current in Office 365/Microsoft 365, with many different options omitted. And like Office 2016 and 2019, Office 2021 will obtain no new options sooner or later, although it’s going to obtain safety updates.All that stated, the options which have been added to Office 2021 are welcome, notably a full collaborative modifying expertise. Here’s what’s new on this model, and what it’s going to value you.Real-time co-authoringAlthough Microsoft trumpeted stay collaboration as a key function in Office 2016, it turned out that the total real-time collaborative modifying expertise (what Microsoft calls “co-authoring”) was reserved for Office 365 subscribers. The Word 2016 and PowerPoint 2016 desktop shoppers for non-subscribers supplied a kludgy form of group collaboration, by which you needed to hold saving the shared doc to share your adjustments with others and see the adjustments they had been making. To truly see adjustments in actual time, you had to make use of the much less highly effective on-line variations of Word and PowerPoint. And the Excel 2016 desktop shopper didn’t provide stay collaboration to non-subscribers in any respect.In Office 2019, real-time co-authoring did come to Word, however to not Excel or PowerPoint. Non-subscribers nonetheless had to make use of Excel Online and PowerPoint Online to collaborate in actual time.With Office 2021, real-time co-authoring is lastly accessible in all three desktop shoppers, so long as the paperwork you’re collaborating on are saved in Microsoft’s cloud storage service, OneDrive. Everyone engaged on the paperwork sees the adjustments everybody else makes as they occur. Colored cursors point out the id of every individual. See our “PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet” for particulars on the way it works. Microsoft
Office 2021 customers lastly get real-time co-authoring within the desktop shoppers. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Windows 11 look and feelIt’s no coincidence that Microsoft is releasing Office 2021 on the identical day it begins to roll out Windows 11. As proven within the picture above and on the high of the web page, Office 2021 is getting a visible replace in order that it seems very similar to Windows 11, with rounded home windows, a extra impartial colour palette, and an total softer look.Despite that new look, Office 2021 nonetheless works with Windows 10.Integration with Microsoft TeamsOffice 2021 is built-in with the chat and video options of Microsoft Teams. You’ll be capable of chat and take part in Teams video calls from straight inside Office.Teams has been constructed into Windows 11, however with Office 2021 you’ll be capable of apply it to Windows 10 and macOS as effectively. Microsoft
The client model of Microsoft Teams is built-in with Office 2021. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Note that the model of Teams constructed into Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 just isn’t the total enterprise model, and lacks options resembling channels, having the ability to search via message archives, and others.Other new optionsThere are a number of different new options in Office 2021 that had been launched beforehand in Office 365/Microsoft 365.Excel will get a wide range of new options and features, together with XLOOKUP, which helps you to discover issues in a desk or vary. Also new to Excel are a variety of dynamic arrays, which allow you to write one formulation and have it return an array of values. Excel 2021’s new XMATCH perform permits you to seek for an merchandise in an array or vary of cells, after which return the merchandise’s relative place. You may also use it to return a worth in an array.
In PowerPoint, there are improved Record Slide Show capabilities, which embody presenter video recording, ink recording, and laser pointer recording.
Outlook will get an improved search known as Instant Search, in addition to the flexibility to translate messages into greater than 70 languages and to make use of ink to annotate electronic mail messages.
Access (accessible solely with sure enterprise Office editions) will get an up to date Linked Table Manager and a brand new Date/Time Extended information sort.
Overall, there are extra inventory pictures and icons; a Microsoft Search field for looking content material from a number of Office functions; AutoSave, which robotically saves adjustments to OneDrive; help for the OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3; and a few under-the-hood efficiency enhancements, amongst different adjustments.
See this Microsoft weblog submit for an summary of Office 2021’s new options, and this web page for a granular feature-by-feature checklist of what’s new.Office 2021 pricing and supportPrices for Office 2021 stay the identical as for Office 2019: Office Home and Student 2021, which incorporates Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams, prices $150. Office Home and Business 2021, which incorporates all that plus Outlook, prices $250 and contains rights to make use of the apps for enterprise. Each can be utilized by solely a single individual. You’ll want a Microsoft account to make use of them.Note that Windows 2013 gained’t work on Windows 11, so should you improve to the most recent model of Windows and wish to proceed to make use of the standalone model of Office, you’ll have to purchase Office 2021.Office LTSC 2021 for enterprises (accessible in Professional Plus and Standard editions) is out there solely via quantity licensing, with costs rising 10% from Office 2019.Both Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 will obtain solely 5 years of help, down from 10 years for Office 2016 and 7 for Office 2019 — yet one more methodology Microsoft is using to nudge each people and companies towards its subscription choices.

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