Microsoft have this month released Office 2019. At this moment in time, there are currently three versions of Microsoft Office currently available – Office 365, Office 2016 and now Office 2019. If you’re not sure whether to upgrade, continue reading the information below.
Office 365
Office 365 is the subscription version of software provided by Microsoft. It includes many Cloud based collaboration tools such as Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. Office applications including Word, Excel and Outlook are all kept up to date with the latest features and security patches as they’re released, or based on your organisations release schedule.
Depending on the licenses you purchase, Office 365 also provides email services, allowing you to remain in contact with all your business contacts.
The Office 365 subscription model is perfect for businesses with the internet capabilities to run Cloud based solutions, that need flexibility with their licenses, or that want to stay as up to date as possible.
Office 2019
The newest release of Office has upgrades for every product, as well as suite-wide changes. It will only run on Windows 10 machines, and currently on macOS 10.12 or higher.
Microsoft has increased support for pen/touch screen systems, including tilt recognition, pressure sensitivity, and the ability to move parts of your document with the pen.
Word has a new ability to put your documents in Focus Mode, allowing you to cut out distractions, as well and new tools such as translation and text-to-speech features.
Outlook is bringing the Focused Inbox to 2019. If you’ve used the online version of Outlook for Office 365, you’ll have seen this feature already. It is there to help cut out the clutter and streamline workflow. You can now also use the “@” symbol to tag people in emails.
Powerpoint updates are all about the visuals. There’s now support for 3D model display and manipulation, and the ability to export your presentation in 4K Ultra High Definition format.
OneNote is an entire new release, OneNote for Windows 10, with better syncing between devices and Ink-to-Text support to change your hand written notes to text.
Excel is getting all new formulas and chart options, support for 2D maps and timelines, and updates to Power Pivot and Power Query.
Office 2016
Microsoft Office 2016 was released at the end of September in 2015, making it 3 years old now. Microsoft are still providing Mainstream Support until the 13/10/2020. There is no date as to when they’ll stop having this version available for purchase.
Rule Technology recommends upgrading your machines over the next couple of years. Once mainstream support ends you’ll leave yourself open to security vulnerabilities. Contact us today if you’d like any quotes or assistance with upgrading!
