Microsoft debuts Office 2019 for Mac, OneDrive Files on Demand for Mojave

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2018
At its Ignite event in Orlando, Microsoft announced the availability of Office 2019 for Windows and Mac, alongside a test version of Files on Demand which allows users to see all their OneDrive files on the Mac desktop, and only download what needs to be used.

Microsoft Office 2019


According to a blog post on Microsoft's website, the Office release features numerous features that have been added to Office 365 ProPlus, its cloud-connected version, over the course of the last three years.

Commercial volume licensing customers can access Office 2019 immediately, while it will become available all customers in the coming weeks, Microsoft said. It's described as a "one-time release" that "won't receive future feature updates."

"For customers who aren't ready for the cloud, Office 2019 provides new features and updates to the on-premises apps for both users and IT professionals," Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office and Windows Marketing, wrote in the post. "Like Windows Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) releases, Office 2019 provides a set of valuable enhancements for customers who can't be cloud-connected or receive regular updates."

The Office suite for Windows, as usual, includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Visio, Access, and Publisher, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook available for the Mac. New features include the addition of "Morph" and "Zoom" to PowerPoint, new data analysis features on Excel, and the new addition of Read Aloud and Text Spacing to Word and Outlook. A standalone preview for Office 2019 arrived in June.

Also Monday, Microsoft announced the availability of the Files On-Demand for Mac, which allows Mac users to "access all your files in OneDrive without having to download all of them and use storage space on your device." It arrives along with Mac OS Mojave, which also became available Monday.

Files On-Demand allows users to see all files in the Finder on a APFS-formatted volume in macOS Mojave, and allows access to them if the computer is connected to the Internet. Microsoft offers instructions for configuring Files On-Demand for Mac users.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    Meh
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    How can the Office Suite for Mac include, as usual, Project, Visio and Access, when none of these products has never been released for Mac *before*. So are they included now or was that a Windows typo?
    edited September 2018
  • Reply 3 of 14
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    theile said:
    How can the Office Suite for Mac include, as usual, Project, Visio and Access, when none of these products has never been released for Mac *before*. So are they included now or was that a Windows typo?
    Check out the asterisk on their website:

    *Project 2019, Visio 2019, Access 2019, and Publisher 2019 are available for Windows only. Office 2019 customers will have access to OneNote. For more details, see Frequently asked questions about OneNote in Office 2019.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    Is this a subscription or can I buy outright? I dumped Office 365. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 14
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    pslice said:
    Is this a subscription or can I buy outright? I dumped Office 365. 
    This version can be bought outright and costs $249 for the home and business version which excludes publisher and access. The open license version will likely be at least $100 more expensive.
    edited September 2018 watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    I've been an Office 365 user for a few years and have never noticed it being referred to as Office ProPlus.  Weird double branding.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    65026502 Posts: 380member
    I remember back in the day it was huge news when a new Office version was released, now it's sorta meh.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 14
    crowley said:
    I've been an Office 365 user for a few years and have never noticed it being referred to as Office ProPlus.  Weird double branding.
    ProPlus has a few more features than Pro.  PowerPivot and PowerView in Excel for one.  There are other features that related to things like SharePoint that are only in ProPlus too.

    ProPlus is not exclusively part of Office 365.  True, it is available as part of the enterprise / government subscription model, but it is also available in standalone perpetual licenses too.  I've currently got ProPlus 2013 perpetual on my work machine.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    6502 said:
    I remember back in the day it was huge news when a new Office version was released, now it's sorta meh.
    Same for iPhone announcemens to be honest. This year was very meh.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    6502 said:
    I remember back in the day it was huge news when a new Office version was released, now it's sorta meh.
    Well, there’s not much you can do with an Office suite to get folk excited about. 
  • Reply 11 of 14

    I like my Office 365 subscription.

    I'm forced to use Windows at work, so rather than Microsoft's Files on Demand, I prefer Apple's iCloud for Windows!!

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 14
    hodarhodar Posts: 357member
    Used to be that every Office release, added some new feature that was either an emerging technology, or some tool that made the update necessary for a business to remain competitive. Looks like the past couple Office releases have been little more than an over-rated, over-priced money grab.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    78Bandit said:
    crowley said:
    I've been an Office 365 user for a few years and have never noticed it being referred to as Office ProPlus.  Weird double branding.
    ProPlus has a few more features than Pro.  PowerPivot and PowerView in Excel for one.  There are other features that related to things like SharePoint that are only in ProPlus too.

    ProPlus is not exclusively part of Office 365.  True, it is available as part of the enterprise / government subscription model, but it is also available in standalone perpetual licenses too.  I've currently got ProPlus 2013 perpetual on my work machine.
    Apparently I have Office 365 Enterprise E5 without Audio Conferencing, which somewhat reminds me of MacBook Pro 13" 2017 without Touch Bar.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,273member
    I'm sure it's very nice (no seriously -- the Mac/iOS Office team do great work), but -- my need for "Office" type work has gone down to pretty much zero over the past 20 years, and when the rare occasion presents itself, I just fire up Pages and save as PDF -- and get raves over how great everything looks. :)

    I've never been a fan of spreadsheets (have needed to make one roughly twice since Bush Sr. was president), but I like Numbers' approach better than Excel's, and Keynote -- well I don't think I need to argue that Keynote is better than PP, that's not really up for debate in the circles in which I travel.

    That said, the iPad version of Office (which I tried for a particular gig) is really pretty great, and if you use Office-type stuff a lot and/or have to collaborate with people using PC Office, by all means you should probably get this.
    watto_cobra
Sign In or Register to comment.