Microsoft Office 2019 is Released for Windows and Mac

  Microsoft has launched the latest version of its productivity suite, Microsoft Office 2018, for Windows and Mac users as a one-time purchase option. While the company has been encouraging users to its cloud-based subscription service, Office 365, in order to get access to Office apps and regular feature updates, it realises some people still want to simply buy Microsoft Office like the used to: once - that's it - with no subscription fee. "We recognize that some customers can't move to the cloud in the near term," it explained. "We want to support all our customers". So, the company is rolling out Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac and Windows. You can purchase the suit once and use it as much as you want, but you won't get feature updates. Microsoft said Office 2019 includes a "meaningful subset of features that are found in Office 365", and it's not part of Office 365. Although this Office 2019 software won't be continually updated, it will receive "quality and security updates as required". Here's what you need to know.

What is Microsoft Office 2019? 

 Office 2019 is an upgrade to Office 2016 Office 365 is different; it's an Office subscription service Microsoft Office 2019 is the next release of Microsoft's productivity suite. Similar to Office 2016, the last major version of Office, it has four core apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. (The OneNote app is free and available outside of Office, regardless of platform). Office 2019 includes some features found in Office 365, a cloud-based subscription service that provides access to Office apps and regular feature updates. But Office 365 users will notice they have more unique features over Office 2019 users, including an Editor in Word, Designer in PowerPoint, Ideas in Excel, real-time collaboration across all apps, shared computer licensing, message encryption, and more. Microsoft said it plans to do additional releases post Office 2019, despite its primary focus of moving customers to Office 365.

 Is Office 2019 different from Office 2016? 

Yes. Since Office 2019 is an upgrade to Office 2016, it brings with it some new changes, including the following:

Word 

 Black theme
 Learning tools (captions and audio descriptions)
 Speech feature (text-to-speech)
Improved inking functionality

 Excel

 Funnel charts, 2D maps, and timelines.
 New Excel functions and connectors
 Ability to publish Excel to PowerBI

 PowerPoint

 Zoom capabilities for ordering of slides within presentations
Morph transition feature
 Ability to insert and manage Icons, SVG, and 3D models
 Improved roaming pencil case

 Outlook

 Updated contact cards
Office 365 Groups1
 @mentions
 Focused inbox
Travel and delivery summary cards
 Note: Office 2019 and Office 2016 cannot run concurrently on either a Windows PC or Mac.

Does Office 2019 have mobile apps? 

 No. Office 2019 has no mobile offering, but you can get the basic Office experience using Microsoft's Office apps for iOS and Android devices: Office for iPad Office for iPhone Office for Android tablet Office for Android phone For access to premium features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive, you need an Office 365 subscription. Go here for pricing.
What are the Office 2019 system requirements? 
 Office 2019 is compatible with a Windows 10 PC and a Mac running the three most recent versions of macOS. For more information, see this Microsoft support page. Note: The Office apps for Mac users and its specific features may differ from those available for PC users.

How much is Office 2019?

 Microsoft hasn't announced pricing yet. When will Office 2019 be available? Currently, only commercial volume customers can get Office 2019. The consumer version for regular users will launch "in the coming weeks". We will keep you posted on pricing and availability details as we learn more.