Microsoft has released a new version of the Office suite for customers who don’t want to subscribe to Microsoft 365. The standalone version of Microsoft Office 2024 is available for both consumers and small businesses and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook for both Mac. and for PC. Office 2024 includes many of the updates that Microsoft has been providing to Microsoft 365 subscribers over the past few years.
The previous standalone version of Microsoft Office was released in 2021. Microsoft Office 2024 includes improvements to core applications as well as changes to the user interface. Office 2024 has a new default theme in Fluent Design, which matches the visual style of Windows 11. The biggest changes in Office 2024 affect Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Image source: Microsoft
Microsoft has added new functions to Excel for using text and arrays in sheets, as well as a new Image function that can pull images from the Internet. Excel 2024 can now reference dynamic arrays in automatically updating charts. Microsoft says the overall speed and stability of Excel 2024 has been improved.
PowerPoint now includes the ability to embed camera feeds into slides, as well as the ability to record voiceovers, animations, transitions, and inking. You can now add subtitles to video and audio files on slides.
Outlook 2024 has significantly redesigned search to return more relevant results when you search messages, attachments, contacts, and calendar entries. This release of Outlook also adds more meeting management tools, including the ability to automatically shorten meetings. Mac users can now use left and right swipe gestures in Outlook.
You can now easily insert images from your Android mobile device into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The new version of Microsoft’s office suite provides full support for version 1.4 of the OpenDocument format (ODF), which includes many improvements. Word and PowerPoint allow you to mark and respond to comments in documents.
Word 2024 users will be able to restore their session if their PC crashes – Word will automatically restore all documents that were open before the power outage or abnormal program shutdown.
OneNote 2024 users will have access to new inking and drawing capabilities.
Office 2024 requires a Microsoft account and an Internet connection. It is not yet clear whether a permanent connection is required, or is it only necessary to install the package, activate it and receive updates. On a PC, you’ll need Windows 10 or 11 to run Office 2024, and on a Mac, you’ll need any of the three latest releases of macOS.
Microsoft Office 2024 will be available in two different editions. Office Home 2024 for $149.99 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for PC or Mac. To use Outlook, you’ll need the $249.99 version of Office Home and Business 2024, which also includes rights to use the apps for business purposes.