Microsoft announced a new version of its Office product, Microsoft Office 2021, and a new version of its long-term maintenance channel, Office LTSC 2021, earlier this year.
The company revealed yesterday that Office LTSC 2021 is now available and Office 2021 will be available on October 5, 2021. Both versions complement the company’s cloud services in the Office space.
Office LTSC 2021 is designed for corporate, institutional and corporate customers. The version of Office will be supported by Microsoft for 5 years, the same period of support that future versions of Windows Enterprise LTSC will receive when they are released.
Microsoft supported Windows 10 LTSC for the past 10 years but decided to synchronize the scope of support for its Office and Windows LTSC products. Synchronisation could have been set to 10 years for both products, but Microsoft opted for a 5-year support range instead.
Office LTSC 2021
The announcement by Microsoft 365 Vice President, Jared Sparato, focuses on Office LTSC 2021 and reveals very little about Office 2021.
Sparato said the currently available release of Office LTSC 2021 will not be the ultimate permanent release, but Microsoft will continue to drive for the adoption of Microsoft 365 and the cloud.
The following Office LTSC 2021 products will be offered for volume licensing customers:
– Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 (Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Skype for Business, Teams, and Word)
– Office LTSC Standard 2021
– Project Professional 2021
– Project Standard 2021
– Visio LTSC Professional 2021
– Visio LTSC Standard 2021
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The Office versions are supported on Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11. Mac OS customers can purchase Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 to run on Mac devices, however, access and publisher are not available in the Mac version.
Changes in Office LTSC 2021
– New privacy policies in User ConfigurationPoliciesAdministrative TemplatesMicrosoft Office 2016PrivacyTrust Center
– Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft
– Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content
– Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that download online content
– Allow the use of connected experiences in Office
– 5-years of mainstream support, no extended support.
– Microsoft Teams client is included, “but only includes the free or the Exploratory service for Microsoft Teams”.
– OpenDocument format 1.3 support.
– New Office Add-ins JavaScript APIs.
– Office Telemetry Dashboard is removed.
– OneDrive for Business (Groove) client is removed.
– Power View in Excel is not available. Power BI is the tool of choice
Microsoft recommends that administrators uninstall old versions of Office before installing a new version of Office LTSC 2021.
Office 2021
The feature list applies to Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 unless otherwise noted.
– Look left, look right… XLOOKUP is here!
– Dynamic arrays
– LET function
– XMATCH function
– New and improved Record Slide Show
– Replay your ink strokes
– Arrange elements on your slides for screen readers
– Translator and ink in Outlook
– In Outlook, use Instant Search to quickly find emails
– Visual refresh
– See what’s new in stock media
– Find what you need with Microsoft Search
– Performance improvements
– Updated Draw tab
– Save your changes as they happen
– Support for OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3
– Refresh, relink, or remove linked tables
– Try the new the Date/Time Extended data type in Access
– Keep tabs on your database objects in Access
– New Azure stencils and shapes in Visio
– New AWS stencils and shapes in Visio
– Content for social distancing planning in the workplace
– Try the Sketched style outline
– Pick the perfect colour
Microsoft has announced the official availability date of Office 2021 but has not provided other information such as pricing information or the versions of Office 2021 it will make available to home users and small businesses.
