Microsoft is succeeding Office 2016 with Office 2019, which means several new features for popular programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Although, new... it's a bit nuanced. Because how does Office 2019 compare to Office 365? This is all new in Office 2019.
Office 2019 and Office 365 difference
Office 2019 is a so-called standalone version of Office, while Office 365 works on a subscription basis. You pay monthly or annually for access to all Office software, which are regularly updated. This way you are always on the latest version of Office.
Office 2019 is seen as the successor to Office 2016 in that three years of updates that Office 365 users have already received are now bundled in a one-time release. You pay for that once and there are no more new functions after that.
What does Office cost?
Microsoft ultimately prefers that you switch to Office 365, which also includes benefits such as 1 TB OneDrive cloud storage and installation on multiple PCs. Office 2019, on the other hand, can only be used on one PC at a time, so you purchase a one-time license for Windows or Mac.
Office 365 for one PC costs 7 euros per month, for five devices a tenner. A euro price for Office 2019 is not yet known, but the American suggested retail price is a hefty $ 249.99. In comparison: Office 2016 costs 149 euros for one PC.
Office 2019 is therefore especially suitable for users and companies who do not necessarily want to be tied to a subscription, even though this can be canceled monthly. Both Office versions include the following programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. The latter two only work on Windows PCs.
OneNote has been replaced by the version of OneNote that is already a standard part of Windows 10. Office 2019 is expected to be available to everyone within a few weeks.
New in Office 2019
The Office programs have received a lot of new features over the years. Some striking, others subtle. We pick out a few of the most important features, starting with Word. There you can now opt for a dark theme, ideal for those who often sit behind the PC in the evenings.
Also new is a speech-to-text function so you can dictate. There is just no support for the Dutch language yet. The new read-aloud function does work in our language.
In PowerPoint you can get started with Zoom and Morph. Zoom is a way to quickly get an overview of all slides during a presentation and then quickly jump to the slide you are looking for.
Morph is a new transition that allows one slide to flow smoothly into another, useful for bar charts, for example. Watch the video below to learn how to get started.
It will come as no surprise that several new formulas have been added to Excel, as well as adjustments to existing formulas to make them easier to perform. An overview of those formulas can be found here.
There are also new ways to visualize data, such as in a so-called funnel diagram (see below) and a geographical map. In the latter case, you can clearly display data from different countries.
The most important change in Outlook is the arrival of the Focussed Inbox, 'Priority Inbox' in Dutch. The e-mail program then automatically distinguishes between important e-mails and, for example, advertising e-mails. You can also turn this off again if you want.
@-mentions are also useful, as you know them from WhatsApp and Slack, among others. As soon as someone specifically wants to grab your attention in an email that is sent to several people, they do so with an @ in front of it. You will then receive an extra notification.
As the crow flies, there are also features that apply to all Office programs. Consider improved support for Windows Ink for use with a stylus on touch devices. Like the Surface tablets. For example, you can now write calculations that are then calculated for you by Office. Shapes such as circles and triangles that you quickly (read: carelessly) draw down are automatically converted into clean lines.
You can also import 3D models into Word, PowerPoint and Excel, which you have created in Paint 3D, for example. The Microsoft translation service is also part of all three programs and there is now support for .svg files.
Finally, would you like to read the new features and adjustments in great detail? You can do that on this overview page from Microsoft.
