Office 2016 for Mac Now Available

On July 9, Microsoft finally released Office 2016 for Mac. In a post on the Microsoft Office Blog, the company touted a series of enhancements to the familiar productivity suite, and its familiarity for current users. “The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users—the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac.”  The current incarnation of Office for Mac includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, optimized for OSX.

The new programs feature multi-touch gestures similar to the touchscreen experience on iOS.  Microsoft has a list of all of the differences between this version and the previous update in 2011 on their See What’s New page. The updates to Word, Excel and PowerPoint are relatively superficial, but the functionality of OneNote and Outlook have been enhanced dramatically.

Microsoft productivity apps are already available for iPhones and iPads, so this release will round out the Apple users’ experience to all of their various devices.  Office 2016 for Mac is available now with an Office 365 subscription. It will be available as a one-time purchase in September.