The new Microsoft Office is coming: release date, price and major changes

Microsoft’s new fixed-price version of its Office productivity software will arrive on October 5, the same day Windows 11 is starting to roll out, according to a company blog post on Thursday.

Microsoft has previously pointed out that while its primary focus remains its subscription offering, Microsoft 365, it will release the Office 2021 one-time purchase for those who are not ready to move to the cloud.

Office 2021 comes in two versions: one for business users, called Office LTSC (which stands for Long Term Servicing Channel), and one for personal use. Office LTSC is generally available today, according to the post, and includes improved accessibility features, performance improvements in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as visual improvements, such as support for dark mode in all. applications. It is intended for specialized situations, as opposed to an entire organization, such as process control devices on the shop floor that are not connected to the Internet.

Meanwhile, Office 2021 for personal use will arrive on October 5, although Microsoft has yet to announce pricing information.

Both versions of Office will be supported on Windows and Mac and will ship with the OneNote app. They will also ship 32-bit and 64-bit versions, according to the post. Microsoft will support the software for five years and has said it has no plans to change the price at the time of release.

In April 2020, Microsoft made the transition from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, a subscription service that added more functionality to the suite of software tools, but required a monthly payment of $ 7 for an individual plan or $ 10 for a family of up to six (this price will increase in March 2022) . The company has said its primary focus will remain in the cloud, but it understands that not everyone is ready to take this step. While you can use Microsoft 365 applications like Word, PowerPoint and Excel online for free with limited features, you will need a perpetual version or a subscription to take full advantage of their capabilities.

Some have questioned whether Office 2019 would be the last perpetual version of the software since the arrival of Microsoft 365. But then Microsoft announced its plan for a perpetual version of Office in a September blog post.

For more information, see how to download Windows 10 for free, how to download windows 11 for free and all you need to know about switch from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

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