We reported a few weeks ago on rumors that Office 2016 would launch on 22 September 2015. That date has now been officially confirmed by Microsoft in an Office Blog post. In addition to the initial launch date, the post also outlines the update process for Office 365 ProPlus customers and those with volume licenses.
Office 2016 is the fully featured and touch enabled version of Microsoft’s full Office Suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher. While the mobile versions of Office and the Mac version of Office 2016 have already been released, customers have had to be patient for their Windows release. The public preview of the software has been around since May however so we have a good idea of what the final product will look like.
A few notable features for Office 2016 include real time collaboration in Word, new charts in Excel, an Insights feature, and converting hand written equations into text. There are plenty of other new features and layout and interface changes as well.
For those with volume licenses, they can start downloading Office 2016 on 1 October. The Office Blog post also breaks down security update options for Office 365 ProPlus customers that elect to wait a four months after a products initial release.
Microsoft has made a major push to get Office on more devices, including the just announced iPad Pro, while also meeting the needs of a variety of customers. While many customers only need basic features that can be done in Mobile Office, enterprise users and other power Office users need the fully featured sweet. Office 2016 on Windows is one of the final steps in getting Office updated across a full range of devices.
