Microsoft has announced a new one-time purchase version of Microsoft Office that will launch for Windows and macOS later in 2021.
The company said it plans to release both a long-term maintenance channel variant of Microsoft Office and a version designed for consumers and small businesses. Like the previous version of Office 2019, both versions are designed for those who do not want to pay monthly for the cloud-based Microsoft 365 service.
Microsoft has said that the LTSC version will include new updates like Dark Mode and accessibility enhancements, as well as features like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel. This is likely to include the features in the Office 2021 consumer as well, but Microsoft will not keep details until it is closer to the release date. The company did say that it does not intend to change the one-time purchase cost.
In addition, there is a new change to the Office 2021 LSTC support window. The window is bumped up to five years, instead of the seven years it usually offers. The cost also increases by 10%.
The Office 2021 LTSC will be available as a preview version in April, but the consumer version will not. Microsoft is looking at a release in the second half for LTSC, although it is not clear if it plans the same for Office 2021.