Microsoft has officially rolled out Office 2016 for Mac in 139 countries and 16 languages. This means that the Redmond’s productivity suite for Mac, which was in preview testing since March, will now be available for use by the general public.
Microsoft has made some modern changes in Office 2016 for Mac to support how Office and OS X have changed over the years. The list of new features includes a new Ribbon user interface that fits in with the OS X theme and features like sandboxed apps, full screen view, multi-touch gestures and Retina screen optimization. There’s also integration of OneDrive cloud storage into Office 2016 for Mac. The updated suite includes updated versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
Word 2016 for Mac includes a new Design tab for quick customizing of layouts, colours, and fonts. There’s also a sharing interface at the top right of the app that allows multiple people to work on the same document at once, with threaded comments to communicate.
Excel 2016 for Mac includes a chart preview feature which suggests the charts that best fit a set of data. The version adds deeper data analysis functionality with PivotTable slicers to deal with large volumes of data and discover patterns. It maintains familiar keyboard shortcuts and features an improved formula builder to save time when creating a new spreadsheet or entering masses of data.
PowerPoint 2016 for Mac includes an improved Presenter view that shows current slide, next slide, speaker notes, and a timer. There’s also a new animation pane for designing and tweaking animations, plus new slide transitions.
Outlook for Mac is also designed to work with the new Office apps, with push mail support, an improved conversation view, and message previews.
OneNote for Mac is the newest addition to Office for Mac. The application offers cloud-synced, collaborative note-taking options accessible from any device.
Microsoft has also promised that Office 2016 for Mac will continue to get better over time, with updates and releases for Office 365 customers “at least once per quarter”.
Office 2016 for Mac is available for all Office 365 subscribers (Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus) beginning Thursday. The suite will be available as a one-time purchase option in September.
To get the suite, Office 365 subscribers can visit their account page at office.com/myaccount and follow the installation procedure.
