Microsoft released Office LTSC 2021 two weeks after releasing the non-subscription version for business users. Today, Microsoft has released Office 2021 to students, consumers as well as small businesses. Both the business office 2021 and consumer office 2021 versions have similar features. Let's first look at the differences between Office subscription and non-subscription versions.

For a long time, Microsoft has been pushing its subscription-based version of its office suitealso known as Office 365 or Microsoft 365, depending on the license -- over the non-subscription version, which Microsoft refers to as the "perpetual" version of Office. Office 365/Microsoft365 users pay an annual fee for access to the software. But perpetual purchasers pay a single payment and get it for life.

The Office 365 version was released in the latter half of 2015. In the beginning, both the perpetual as well as the Office 2016 versions had the identical features. Both versions quickly were different. Microsoft started adding new features to Office 365, which the perpetual Office 2016 version did not get. The moment Microsoft Office 2019 was released three years later, it had some, but by no means all, of the features Office 365 had at that time. It is perpetual. Office 2019 has remained static while Office 365/Microsoft365 continues to get new features. Microsoft even launched an ad campaign denigring Office 2019 in comparison to Microsoft Office 365.

Real-time co-authoring

Although Microsoft announced live collaboration as a major feature in Microsoft Office 2016, it was discovered that the complete real-time collaborative editing experience (what Microsoft calls "co-authoring") was reserved for Office 365 subscribers. Non-subscribers could use the PowerPoint 2016 and Word 2016 desktop clients to collaborate with other users. But, it was a cumbersome method to collaborate with a group. You had to save the document shared in order to share the changes with others and then view their changes. In order to see the changes live, you had to use the less powerful online versions of Word and PowerPoint. And the Excel desktop client doesn't offer live collaboration to non-subscribers at all.

In Microsoft Office 2019, real-time co-authoring is available in Word but not to Excel or PowerPoint. To collaborate in real-time, non-subscribers had to use Excel Online or PowerPoint Online.

Windows 11 look and feel

Microsoft releases office pakket on the same day it begins rolling out Windows 11. Microsoft Office 2021 will be getting a visual overhaul as seen in the above image and in the upper right. It will look much similar to Windows 11. The updated style features rounded windows as well as a more neutral colors.

Integration with Microsoft Teams

Office 2021 integrates with Microsoft Teams' chat and video capabilities. You'll be able chat and participate in Teams video calls right from within Office.

Pricing for Office 2021 and support

Microsoft Office 2021 prices are identical to Office 2019. Office Home and Student 2021 will include Word, Excel PowerPoint, OneNote and Microsoft Teams. Office Home and Business 2021 is a bundle that includes all that plus Outlook, costs $250 and includes access to Microsoft Office for business. Each one can be used by just a single person. You'll require a Microsoft account to access these.

Windows 2013 will not work with Windows 11. If you want to keep using the stand-alone Office version, you'll have to upgrade to Windows 10.

Posted by: NatheniBarker at 04:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 562 words, total size 4 kb.