Microsoft’s more-or-less-triennial release of offline Office is once again upon us, with the announce of the 2016 release of its productivity suite.
According to Microsoft, there is new focus on collaboration, security and smart functions that anticipate a user’s needs.
Among new features, the software giant is touting co-authoring in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, including the new real-time typing in Word. Meanwhile, something the company is calling “Tell Me” and “Smart Lookup” try to intelligently help users find what they’re looking for within a document and on the web.
On the collaboration front, the suite will feature Skype in-app integration within documents, Office 365 Groups are now integrated into Outlook 2016 and available on smartphones through the Outlook Groups app, and GigJam, a brand new feature, will be available in private preview.
Lastly, Microsoft promised upgrades to OneDrive for Business, data loss prevention (including an enterprise-specific data protection feature), and multi-factor authentication.
The entire suite consists of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Project, Visio and Access.
Office 2016 will work on machines running Windows 7 and later. Office 365 customers are now able to download office 2016 apps, although automatic updates will roll out in October. The 2016 suite is available for single-time purchase starting today.