Office 2016 is the latest version of the ever-popular Microsoft Office suite. Replacing the 2013 version released a few years ago, Office 2016 packs a number of new improvements and features that many people have been asking for ever since the Office 2016 preview program began. Now today, Microsoft has announced that Office 2016 is ready, and is now beginning to rollout to all Office 365 subscribers and for sale for new customers looking to buy the latest edition of Office 2016.
Alongside the Windows release, Microsoft is also rolling out Office 2016 for Mac, which brings the same much needed features over to the Apple platform. Those who use Office on a Mac will likely want to upgrade as soon as possible, as the last version of Office to be released on a Mac was back in 2011!
Here are some of the new features Microsoft is advertising in Office 2016:
- We have had real-time co-authoring in all of our web apps since 2013. We are now taking it to the next level by building it directly into our native apps. With this release, we’re making co-authoring in Word real-time, which lets you see what others are writing immediately, as it happens. We’re committed to expanding real-time co-authoring to each of our native apps and you should expect to see more over time.
- Keep teams connected with Office 365 Groups, now available as part of Outlook 2016 and in a new Outlook Groups app on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Office 365 Groups allows individuals to easily create public or private teams. Each group includes a shared inbox, calendar, cloud storage for group files, and a shared OneNote notebook to keep the team productive.
- Office 365 Planner helps teams organize their work, with the ability to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, set due dates and update status. Planner’s visual dashboards and email notifications help keep everyone informed on the overall progress of their initiative. Planner will be available in preview, to Office 365 First Release customers, starting next quarter
- Outlook 2016 provides the smartest inbox yet, delivering lightning fast search, removing low priority mail automatically and making sure everyone on the To: line has the right access to modern, cloud-based attachments from OneDrive.
- We also have significant new updates to OneDrive for Business coming later this month across sync, browser, mobile, IT control and developer experiences. The highlight is the preview of the next generation sync client for Windows and Mac, offering improved reliability and selective sync, as well as increased file size and volume limits.
- Tell Me helps you easily and quickly find the right Office feature or command, and Smart Lookup brings insights from the web right into your documents. Previously available only in Office Online, Tell Me and Smart Lookup are now available across the Office 2016 client apps.
- Excel 2016 now includes integrated publishing to Power BI and new modern chart-types to help you make the most of your data.
- The cloud-powered most recently used documents list allows you to pick up right where you left off in seconds, because it travels with you across your devices whether working in Office Online, the mobile apps or in the 2016 client apps.
- With Windows Hello, you can sign in to your PC and Office 365 with a simple look or a touch—no need to type a password anymore.
- With the Office Mobile apps and Continuum on Windows phones, your phone can act as a desktop, and you can project, create or edit your presentation or sales budget from your phone to a monitor while using the same phone to take notes with the OneNote app.
If you’re an Office 365 subscriber, Office 2016 should automatically download and install via Windows Update soon. If you’re someone who prefers buying Office outright, you can do so today too. Will you be upgrading to Office 2016?
