Office 2018 Announced
At the developer conference 'Ignite' in Florida, Microsoft announced a new release of the Office Suite. The new software release will bear the name Office 2019 and will be launched during the second half of the year 2018. A public preview will be available for interested users from summer 2018.
The Office Suite will not only include upgraded versions of the well-known apps, like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook, but will also contain new versions of the Server applications Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business.
No further details about expected innovations were substantiated. Planned features for the desktop applications should be for example new visual animation features in PowerPoint or new formulas and charts in Excel. Improvements in manageability, usability and security are announced for the Server versions. According to Microsoft, technical details will be available from next year on.
Microsoft has not yet stated whether there will be another on-premise release of Office. The software company will decide this later, first wanting to wait for customers’ feedback. It is not improbable, that Microsoft will continue offering an Office on-premise version, after the year 2020, but with a limited range of functions. Then at the latest, only the Office365 ProPlus subscription will include the full range of functions. The 'Perpetual Office Apps' - which is the new Microsoft terminology - will include functions either later or not at all.