What you need to know
- Microsoft Office 2021 arrives on October 5.
- Office 2021 shares this release date with Windows 11.
- Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) is available today, September 16.
For those of you married to the intricate network of systems established by Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more: Good news. Microsoft Office 2021, the latest iteration of the long-running program suite, is headed to a PC near you on October 5, 2021. It will be icing on the proverbial cake that is Windows 11, which also launches on October 5.
Pricing details aren't available yet for Office 2021, but that information will become public knowledge soon enough when the package launches in early October. As for Office releases closer to primetime, take note that Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) is available right now, having released on September 16 (today). It's available on Windows and macOS for both commercial and government customers. Here's a key snippet of what Microsoft had to say in its announcement post:
Office LTSC is designed for specific scenarios: regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates, process control devices on the manufacturing floor, and specialty systems that cannot connect to the internet. To meet this need, Office LTSC will provide a locked-in-time version of familiar productivity tools. While it offers performance improvements and expanded accessibility, it will not offer the cloud-based capabilities of Microsoft 365 Apps like real-time collaboration and AI-driven automation in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as security and compliance capabilities that give added confidence in a hybrid world.
Microsoft made it clear this won't be its last perpetual release.
As soon as pricing details are available regarding Microsoft Office 2021, we'll update our coverage to reflect the news. Until then, get those Word docs ready.
