Microsoft to release Office 2021 for Windows and macOS later this year

Microsoft is going to release a new standalone version of Office for Windows and macOS this year. The package comes with five years of support and is a one-time purchase. There will also be a new version of Microsoft Office LTSC for businesses.

Microsoft Office 2021 is the successor to Office 2019 and is intended for consumers and small businesses who do not want to switch to the cloud version of Microsoft 365. It is a one-time purchase and the software will be supported for five years. According to Microsoft, the price will remain the same as that of Office 2019.

Microsoft has not yet announced details about the features in Office 2021. The company mentions the arrival of the consumer version in a message about a new business Office LTSC version. This concerns software in the long-term servicing channel. That LTSC version will include a dark mode and support for Dynamic Arrays and Xlookup in Excel. Office 2021 may get the same improvements. A preview version of Office LTSC will be released in April.

The LTSC version of Office will also receive support for five years. That’s shorter than previous versions, which received support for up to seven years. The software is compatible with 32bit and 64bit hardware. The new release of Office LTSC will be released in the second half of this year and will be 10 percent more expensive than the previous version.