Developers and IT pros have been test-driving a preview of Office 2016 since March, but the final version is now set to launch starting September 22.
Advertisement
The new features being introduced to Office 2016 include monthly updates through Office 365.
As for pricing, Microsoft still has said how much Office 2016 will cost.
Aside from this time-saving co-authoring and co-editing feature, the Office pack will also include a “Tell me” button helping users to find specific menu items, as well as new color themes, following the success of this feature on Office mobile apps. Office 2016 for Mac was previously released in July, initially to Office365 subscribers. The monthly update for Office has been dubbed the “Current Branch“, and it borrows from the Windows 10 update approach.
The first version of Microsoft’s Office suite developed specifically for Windows 10 is just days from landing on the PC desktop.
Microsoft is also adding another updating branch called Current Branch for Business.
September 22 is the date Microsoft’s Office 2016 will roll-out for Office 365 Personal and Home users, the company has stated.
Advertisement
For the moment, the pricing for the standalone version of the software has yet to be announced by Microsoft. This discussion mostly appeared centered on Office 365 ProPlus subscribers, which is an Enterprise edition offering within Microsoft’s broader universe of subscription plans for organizations. Not everyone will get the new productivity suite on the same day, as Office 365 users might have to wait a little bit longer, depending on their subscription and region. Office 365 ProPlus users will have the latest Office apps and capabilities delivered to them via a new method called Current Branch. And Office 2016 supports new deployment and management options, support for Data Loss Prevention across all of the suite’s applications, multi-factor authentication, and more. In addition Microsoft will be running a Cloud Roadshow in November with free two-day training sessions in 12 cities around the world covering topics spanning Office, Azure and Windows.
