What’s New in Microsoft Office 2021?

What’s New in Microsoft Office 2021. With the release of Windows 11, Office 2021 officially landed in users’ hands on October 5, 2021. Similar to its predecessor, Office 2019, Office 2021 is a one-time purchase supported on both Windows 11, Windows 10, and the latest three macOS versions. This edition is designed for users who prefer not to subscribe to the Microsoft 365 cloud-based service.

What’s New in Microsoft Office 2021

Overall, the new version doesn’t introduce significant changes in the interface, with the dark mode being the most notable update. In terms of features, Office 2021 has incorporated several new functionalities, detailed below.

New Features in Microsoft Office 2021

• Co-author documents: Real-time collaboration across Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, enabling simultaneous work within the same document without the need for additional notes or emails.
• Enhanced modern commenting: Ensuring consistent commenting experiences across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for better collaboration.
• Document collaboration visibility: Showing who is working alongside you and where they are within the document across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Visual Refresh: Modernized Start experience, refreshed tabs in Ribbon, and a cleaner, clearer interface with updated visuals across Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, OneNote, and OneDrive.
• Dark Mode: A new feature providing a darker canvas, reducing eye strain within Office applications.
• Excel Improvements: Introducing XLOOKUP, dynamic array functions (FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, RANDARRAY), LET function, and XMATCH function for efficient calculations.
• Support for OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3: Enhanced compatibility with the ODF format.
• Word Enhancements: Line Focus for easier document reading, updated Draw tab, and performance improvements.
• PowerPoint Updates: Improved Record Slide Show, Ink Replay, Reading Order, and performance enhancements.
• Outlook Features: Translator and ink for annotations, drawings, or email translations into over 70 languages, and Instant Search for quick email finding.

This edition of Office, like its predecessors, offers a perpetual license, contrasting with the subscription-based model of Office 365. While Office 365 provides additional features such as Skype access and 1TB OneDrive storage, Microsoft Office 2021 remains a more cost-effective one-time purchase option, offering collaboration features akin to Office 365.