Ignite 2017: Microsoft announces Office 2019, set for release next year

Laurent Giret

Microsoft announced today at Ignite the next perpetual release of Office, which will be called Office 2019. This major release will ship in the second half of 2018, and include new perpetual versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook as well as Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business.

If the cloud is one of the big theme of this year’s Ignite conference, Microsoft’s General Manager for Office Jared Spataro explained that Office 2019 will be an interesting release for customers who prefer to keep their apps and servers on-premises:

Office 2019 will add new user and IT capabilities for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. For example, new and improved inking features—like pressure sensitivity, tilt effects, and ink replay—will allow you to work more naturally. New formulas and charts will make data analysis for Excel more powerful. Visual animation features—like Morph and Zoom—will add polish to PowerPoint presentations. Server enhancements will include updates to IT manageability, usability, voice, and security.

The new Office 2019 apps will be available in preview in mid-2018, and Microsoft will share more details about this release in the coming months.