In March of this year, Microsoft released a free preview of its Office 2016 suite for Mac computers, aiming to collect feedback from users as to how to improve upon its efforts. Now, the company has announced that the final build of the package is ready to launch, starting today for subscribers to its Office 365 service.
Microsoft hasn’t released a completely new iteration of Office for Macs since 2011, so the 2016 version might prove to be something of an overhaul for Apple-centric users. This marks the first version of the software to be released on OS X that makes use of the Ribbon UI, which has been standard in the Windows variant since 2010.
Office 2016 provides updates and upgrades to a host of functionality across the five applications it’s comprised of; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Of particular note is the cloud functionality that’s been included this time around, which seems to be part of Microsoft’s broader attempt to combat the rise of Google Drive and other web-based services.
Related: Preview: Office 2016 isn’t revolutionary, and that’s ok
OneDrive is used to add some cross-platform integration into the new Office suite, with documents from all devices saved to OneDrive being accessible from the package. A OneDrive subscription is included with Office 365 for Mac users who don’t have access to the service via a standard Windows account.
However, Office 2016 doesn’t just bring Windows features to the Mac; there’s some OS X specific functionality on offer too. The suite is compatible with full screen mode on Mac computers, according to a report from 9to5Mac.
Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac is available now via an Office 365 subscription, which costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year. However, there are plans for a one-time purchase option to be released in September, although pricing information for that route hasn’t been made available at this time.
