Microsoft Office 2019 is finally rolling out on a consumer level. We\u2019re due for an update after years with Office 2016 \u2014 so is 2019 worth buying, and if so, what are the incentives? <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s first get the gross stuff out of the way – if you haven\u2019t yet upgraded to Windows 10 or macOS Sierra, you\u2019ll need to do so before you can use Office 2019. You\u2019ll find available 32- and 64-bit downloads if you\u2019re a Windows user, but the fact remains that Microsoft has officially relinquished support for Windows 7 and 8 as of this version of Office.<\/p>\n
These requirements alone may be enough to deter some would-be users, but it\u2019s clear that Microsoft (and, presumably, Apple by extension) isn\u2019t interested in supporting older iterations of their products as they\u2019ve done in the past.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting that 2019\u2019s features will only be available as part of the standalone Office 2019 package, meaning that you\u2019ll need to make a one-time purchase to access Office 2019 rather than receiving updates through an existing Office 365 subscription. <\/p>\n
This is another unpopular move by Microsoft, but it makes sense – Office 365 users will still continue to receive updates and tweaks that aren\u2019t available to Office 2019 users, so they aren\u2019t actually missing out on much.<\/p>\n
As for the Office 2019 suite\u2019s features themselves, the bulk of the improvements are centered around productivity and accessibility. <\/p>\n
Many of the Office 2019 apps have a \u201cfocus\u201d mode that darkens on-screen elements to show only the work area, and you\u2019ll find handwriting- and speech-to-text features for programs like OneNote and Word. This includes increased pen support if you\u2019re using a touch screen device.<\/p>\n
PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook are also seeing minor tweaks – you\u2019ll be able to export presentations as 4K videos in PowerPoint, browse new formulas and templates in Excel, and use \u201c@\u201d queries to tag inside emails on Outlook.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is that if you purchased a one-time version of Microsoft Office 2016 and have been using it ever since, Office 2019 is probably worth your time. Office 365 users need not look into 2019, however, as many of the standalone suite\u2019s features are either included or predicted to join the cloud-based service.<\/p>\n
This story first published on October 09, 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (TECHNOLOGY) As Microsoft announces a new version of Office, we wonder not only what is different, but if it is worth the money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337375,"featured_media":13530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[1234],"class_list":["post-13524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-tech","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/smartmockups_jn20wnd9.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13524"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13817,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions\/13817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}