Microsoft launches new Office suite

The trick for Microsoft is to get customers hooked onto the subscription model, when buying an upgrade every few years has worked fine until now and some users don’t care about having the latest and greatest all the time. To help encourage that, the firm is giving away Windows 10 for free to anyone with a Windows 7 or 8 license, but it will be charging for the new version of Office. After two months of windows 10’s launch, these functions are available on windows desktops.

The new Microsoft Office 2016 apps are available in 14 languages in India and 47 languages across the world.

Microsoft is careful to point out that today’s Office 2016 release is only the beginning of what its teams have planned. In 2016 updated version, the application will allow two or more users of the software to “type” simultaneously into the same document and view the changes as they are made.

With the new “Tell Me” tool, users can search Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Office’s features and commands rather than having to tediously browse through Office’s plethora of menus.

According to the Vice President of Microsoft Corporation Corporate services, John Case, consumers can look forward to the same quality of treatment, namely, new features updates per month. It’s not clear when the deal will end, either, though it seems unlikely that Microsoft will keep it around forever.

Maria Martinez Torres, Director for the Office and Office 365 Business Group at Microsoft New Zealand, believes the new Office offers kiwi businesses new ways to collaborate and work smarter. Office 365, which starts at $70 a year, also includes online storage and other services that let users access their files on any Internet-connected device.

For standalone version, Microsoft Office 2016 Home & Student edition will cost $150 instead of $140 for the previous version.

Other new features in Office 2016 include Groups, bundled as part of Outlook 2016 and in a new Outlook Groups app on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

It also boasts of built-in data loss prevention across Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook, to reduce the risk of leaking sensitive data with tools for IT administrators to manage content authoring and document sharing policies.

Skype for business will be available in the client apps allowing users to share screens and conduct video chats directly about the documents.

What about licensing? If you have a subscription to Office 365, you are eligible for Microsoft Office 2016.