Microsoft details features, announces pricing for Office 2021 ahead of launch on October 5

Microsoft will launch Office 2021 on October 5 alongside Microsoft 365 with the launch of Windows 11.

Ahead of the launch, the tech giant has revealed the pricing for Office 2021 along with the range of features that will be introduced with the update.

It will bring a range of new collaboration features to Office 11, some of which are already present in Microsoft 365.

It will add the real-time co-authoring feature to let users work with others in the same document at the same time.

"OneDrive, our cloud storage service, powers these collaboration features, so you’ll need to save your documents to OneDrive before you share them. OneDrive also ensures your updates are automatically saved. Sign in to the Office apps with your Microsoft account and get 5 GB of OneDrive cloud storage for free," it said

While Microsoft Teams app will be in focus with Windows 11, it is also adding it to both Microsoft 365 and Office 2021, so users can use it on Windows 10 and MacOS.

Updates

It is also adding a visual update to both Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 to be in line with Windows 11. This includes a "neutral color palette, softer window corners, refreshed tabs in the ribbon, and colourful presence indicators" so users can easily see who’s working on a document with them.

App themes will stay in sync with users' Windows light or dark mode by default.

"We’ve also intentionally aligned this visual update with the availability of Windows 11 to provide a coherent and seamless experience on a new Windows 11 PC. And yes, this update is also available to people using Windows 10," it said.

Updated apps include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Project, Publisher, and Visio.

These apps will also be getting other new features.

In Excel, the tech giant will introduce the XLOOKUP function that helps users find things in a table or range by row on a worksheet. It will also add Dynamic array support. A new LET function in Excel will assign names to calculation results.

"This allows storing intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula," the tech giant explained in a support document.

A new XMATCH function will search for a specified item in an array or range of cells. The function then returns the item's relative position. Users can also use XMATCH to return a value in an array.

In PowerPoint, the record Slide Show feature will now support presenter video recording, ink recording and laser pointer recording.

Separately, users can replay their ink strokes as they were drawn.

"This lets you illustrate things step by step or show a thought process. You can also pause the replay, and select the point to start the replay from," Microsoft explained.

It will also enable users to see the elements in screen-reading order and re-arrange them as necessary to communicate their message effectively.

On Outlook, it will enable users to translate email messages into more than 70 languages and view the transcript. Users can also annotate email images or draw in a separate canvas using their finger, pen, or mouse with the new update.

It has also added a new Microsoft Search box at the top of Microsoft Office apps on Windows.

"This powerful tool helps you quickly find what you're looking for, from text to commands to help and more," it said.

The new Office update will also bring improved performance, stability, and speed across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Additionally, the tech giant has introduced an updated Draw tab in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

It will let users quickly access and change the colour of all their inking tools in one place. Other new Draw tab additions include a Point Eraser, Ruler, and Lasso.

It will now also include support for the OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3 in these three apps. The ODF 1.3 specification adds support for many new features, it said.

Users can upload their files to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online to make sure all their updates are saved automatically.

Pricing

Office Home and Student 2021 will be priced at $149.99. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams for PC and Mac.

Office Home and Business 2021 will cost $249.99 and will come with everything in Office Home and Student 2021, plus Outlook for PC and Mac and the rights to use the apps for business purposes.

Users will be able to purchase Office 2021 from retailers worldwide and via Microsoft.com starting October 5, 2021.

Both Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 will run on Windows 11, Windows 10, and the three most recent versions of MacOS. Users must also take note that Office 2013 will not be supported on Windows 11.