The new Office is finally here for both Window and Mac

Sep 22, 2015 10:22 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has just announced that Office 2016 is now generally available for Windows and Mac, with the latter available as a one-time purchase option.

Many of the features that are available in Office 2016 have already been tested by millions of users who downloaded the preview builds, but the final bits are supposed to offer improved performance and stability, while also bringing several new tools.

For example, Office 2016 comes with real-time co-authoring, a feature that was previously available in web apps, but which now works from your desktop too. You can thus work with your colleagues or family on the same documents at the same time, but for the moment, only Microsoft Word is supported. Redmond says that real-time co-authoring should be added to the other native apps over time.

Skype for Business is also included in the suite, offering faster screen sharing and support for the aforementioned real-time co-authoring feature. This way, you can instantly start working on a document with a contact you’re already talking to on Skype.

Office 365 Plan is a new service that allows you to organize work and assign tasks using a visual dashboard and will be available in preview starting next quarter. And last but not least, GigJam, a collaboration service that was launched earlier this year, will make its debut in Office 365 in 2016.

Real-time co-authoring is now available on the desktop
Real-time co-authoring is now available on the desktop

There are several other new features integrated into Office 2016, such as Outlook 2016, which has been revamped from the ground up to bring your email closer to you.

“Outlook 2016 provides the smartest inbox yet, delivering lightning fast search, removing low priority mail automatically and making sure everyone on the To: line has the right access to modern, cloud-based attachments from OneDrive,” Microsoft explains.

At the same time, there’s a new Tell Me feature that provides you with information on a specific feature, as well as the so-called Smart Lookup which looks for information online and displays it in your documents.

Obviously, Office 2016 is fully compatible with Windows 10, and Microsoft says that there’s more to come for users of the new OS. Cortana will soon be integrated in Outlook 2016, the company has revealed, so you’ll be able to perform some tasks with voice commands.

At the same time, Windows 10 users are provided with Office Mobile apps, which are free for devices with a display of 10 inches or smaller.

Mac users get a one-time purchase option

Previously, Apple customers who wanted to use Office 2016 had to purchase an Office 365 subscription, but starting today, the productivity suite is also available as a one-time purchase.

This means that you don’t have to pay for a subscription, as you can purchase the software solution and use it for as long as you want and need.

Office 2016 system requirements

Office 2016 doesn’t require a super computer to run properly, so here’s what you need to be able to access all of its goodies:  

Computer and processor: 1 GHz or faster x86 or x64 with SSE2 instruction set
Memory: 2GB Ram
Hard disk: 3.0GB available
Display: 1280×800
Graphics: Hardware acceleration requires DirectX 10
Operating system: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, or Windows 10 Server
Browser: Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox 35 or higher, Chrome 40 or higher, Internet Explorer 9 or higher
.Net version: .NET 3.5 required, some features may require .NET 4.0 or 4.5 CLR to also be installed
Microsoft account

Office 2016 pricing

If you want to get the new Office 2016, you have several options. First, you can purchase an Office 365 subscription, which starts at $6.99 per month for the Personal version, or get the new productivity suite via a one-time purchase.

Office Home & Student costs $149, while Office Home & Business has a price of $229.

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Office 2016 offers Skype for Business integration
Real-time co-authoring is now available on the desktop
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