Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Office 2021 will arrive alongside Windows 11, that is, on October 5. The new perpetual version of the office suite par excellence had already been announced (by surprise) and now we know that from Redmond they do not want to leave it in the background and want to make a big launch in one day with their first operating system in six years.
Companies can now purchase the Office 2021 LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) version, which, like all LTSCs, will have longer support at the level of updates than the normal version. For example, although support for Windows 10 ends in 2025, the LTSC version ends its extended support in 2029.
Microsoft Office 2021 arrives with dark mode and more
The arrival of Microsoft Office 2021 is, as we said, quite a surprise. On the one hand there is the economic issue. Microsoft makes more money than ever with Office 365, a subscription that has paved the way for many others. The company has turned an income that occurred every several years into a recurring one thanks to adding value with more things like all the storage in the cloud.
Microsoft Office 2021 comes with new features such as dark mode, which the 2019 version did not have, and which puts it at the same level as Office 365. Line Focus also arrives, which helps to write with more concentration by focusing attention on the current line of Word document. There’s also XLOOKUP, which improves spreadsheet searching.
Overall, it is appreciated that Microsoft continues to update its suite in the version that does not expire if you do not pay each month. And it seemed that 2019 would leave us the latest version, because not even the company itself recommended it against Microsoft 365. Even so, despite focusing all efforts on the subscription version, Microsoft has already confirmed that Office 2021 will not be the last perpetual version.
Weird, because the subscription version is much better with modern workflows like handwriting recognition to transform into text (in the case of PowerPoint), integration with LinkedIn (in the case of Word) or filling in US state capitals and populations (in Excel tables), etc.
On prices, Microsoft has not yet announced details, but it is expected that it will be similar to that of Office Home and Student 2019: $ 149 through its website. Office Home and Business 2019 is going to 299 dollars.