There’s a new version of the most famous productivity suite out there, Microsoft Office. That’s right, Microsoft Office 2019 has been released, on the Windows and Mac platforms. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, as well as Visio, Access and Publisher. We have details below.
Office 2019 does an interesting 180, by offering independence from the cloud. Of course, the cloud isn’t killed, since Microsoft is making a ton of dough from it and also Satya Nadella, the company’s CEO is a cloud pusher and has been for a while now. Microsoft has been pushing the Office 365 quite heavily for both consumers and enterprise areas, in order to score more fees.
Office 2019 comes as an “on premises” version, being described as meant for customers who aren’t ready for the cloud yet. It also includes features that have been added gradually to the Office 365 ProPlus over the past 3 years. PowerPoint 2019 gets features like Morph and Zoom, useful to make presentations more cinematic. Excel 2019 has extra data analysis features, plus enhanced PowerPivot and a new set of charts.
Word 2019 features a Focus Mode, that lets you block distractions which may stop you from getting sentences to pages. Inking is available in all the Office 2019 apps, with support for pressure sensitivity, tilt effects and more. Focused Inbox offers the most important emails on top in Outlook 2019. Office 2019 is a one time launched product, not an ongoing series of releases like Office 365.
Commercial volume license customers will get their hands on Office 2019 from today, while others will have to wait a few weeks for it.
