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Microsoft Office 2021: Release date, download, and everything we know so far

Microsoft's world-renowned productivity app suite is getting a 2021 version.


Microsoft Office, Microsoft's suite of productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, has been immensely popular among individuals and businesses for many years. The apps within Microsoft Office are some of the best Windows 10 apps available for completing work and schoolwork. Because of that, Microsoft Office has become the global standard for productivity. Every once in a while, Microsoft releases a new version of Office and its apps that feature several enhancements and additions. These improvements improve the already-great Office user experience, which naturally leads to increased work efficiency.

The latest version of Microsoft Office to release was the 2019 variant, but Microsoft recently launched a new 2021 version of Office. Here's everything you need to know about Microsoft Office 2021, including where you'll be able to download it, what's new with the new version of Office, and more.

Microsoft Office 2021 release date



Microsoft recently launched the consumer version of Microsoft Office 2021 alongside Windows 11 on Oct. 5, 2021. Additionally, a special version of Office called Office LTSC that has most of the upgrades from Office 2021 was released on Sept. 16.

Based on comments from Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, Office LTSC is meant for specific business circumstances rather than individual customers. "We have built Office LTSC for a limited set of specific situations: regulated devices that can not accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet, and speciality systems that must stay locked in time and require a long-term servicing channel."

For more information on how to get access to Office LTSC, check out Microsoft's Overview of Office LTSC 2021 and Deploy Office LTSC 2021 pages.

Microsoft Office 2021 system requirements



There aren't any publicly released system requirements for Microsoft Office 2021 yet. We don't expect that the system requirements between Office 2019 and Office 2021 have changed much, if at all. Therefore, if you have a device that can support Office 2019, there's a very good chance it will also be able to run Office 2021 without issues. Here's a look at what Office 2019's system requirements are:

What's new with Microsoft Office 2021?


Compared to Microsoft Office 2019, Microsoft Office 2021 boasts several new improvements and enhancements. Here's a breakdown of the additions you can expect from the full Microsoft Office 2021 app suite:

General

- Visual refresh designed with clean monoline iconography in mind

- New stock media content

- Microsoft Search bar in all apps for general search queries

- Performance improvements

- Updated Draw Tab with new Point Eraser, Ruler, and Lasso additions

- Support for OpenDocument format 1.3

- Sketched style outline option for shapes

- Addition of a Hex colour value box when picking colours

Microsoft Excel

- LOOKUP search for finding information in tables and ranges

- Dynamic array functions, including FILTER, SORT, SORT BY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, and RANDARRAY

- LET function that assigns names to calculation results

- MATCH function that searches for a specified item and then provides the item's relative position

Microsoft PowerPoint

- Record Slide Show now features options for presenter video recording, ink recording and laser pointer recording

- You can replay ink strokes to illustrate things step by step or visualize a thought process

- You can see slide elements in screen-reading order and rearrange them as necessary

Microsoft Outlook

- Email translation for over 70 different languages will be supported

- Annotate email images with your finger, pen, or mouse

- The instant search feature allows you to find specific emails quickly

Microsoft Access

- Updated Linked Table Manager with a refresh, relink or remove options

- Addition of SQL DateTime2 data type

- Tab manager that allows you to see active tabs rearrange tabs or close database objects

Microsoft Visio

- New Azure stencils and shapes

- New AWS stencils and shapes

- Workplace Social Distancing template and stencil

Where to download Microsoft Office 2021


Like previous versions of Microsoft Office, we expect that you'll be able to download Microsoft Office 2021 from Microsoft's official Office website by logging into the site after purchasing Office 2021. A listing for Office 2021 hasn't been spotted on Microsoft's website yet, but it will likely go live soon. You can also download Microsoft Office 2021 from purchases made on third-party storefronts like Amazon and Newegg.

For more information on how the Office download process currently works, view Microsoft's download guide.

Can youupgrade from Office 2019?


Unfortunately, it's impossible to upgrade from Office 2019 to Office 2021 without paying full price. With that said, you're in luck if you use Microsoft 365, which is Microsoft's subscription-based alternative to one-time purchases of Microsoft Office. Microsoft has previously stated that all Office apps and services are automatically updated with the latest features and improvements through Microsoft 365, which implies that Microsoft 365 users will receive the benefits of Office 2021 through the service.

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