If Microsoft had its way, Office 2021 would probably not be news at all – the Redmond giant would almost certainly prefer that everyone simply subscribe to Microsoft 365, pay a small monthly or annual fee and get new features and solutions as they roll out . For many, if not most Office users, the subscription service is the easiest way to get Office, even if they want to use it as locally installed software rather than doing their work in the browser and in the cloud.
For the rest of us – and for those who do not want to follow the Byzantine procedures of installing Microsoft 365 applications on Remote Desktop Servers – there is now Office 2019, and there will be Office 2021 later this year. There will also be a new Office LTSC (Long Term Service Channel), which trades a price increase of 10 percent for a guarantee of longer support periods … longer than the consumer version of Office 2021, that is.
In fact, the “Long Term Service Channel” version of Office 2021 will still have a shorter life cycle than previous versions of Office. Office 2019 had a seven-year support window – Office 2021 LTSC offers only five. There is still no official word on the support cycle of the supposedly short-lived consumer version of Office 2021.
So far, Office 2021 seems to focus mostly on visual updates; its apps include a new dark mode for those who prefer light text on a dark background, and there are also no specified enhancements for accessibility on the way. Excel is scheduled to receive some flesh-out enhancements from Office 365, including dynamic arrays and xlookup. The few Office 2021 screenshots we’ve seen otherwise do not look dramatically different from earlier versions.
Both Office 2021 and Office 2021 LTSC include OneNote and are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Office 2021 is expected to be available on Windows and Mac in the second half of 2021, with a Windows preview of the LTSC version expected in April.