Mac users it’s time to celebrate!
Microsoft has officially rewarded its Office 365 subscribers with an early release of Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac. The release for non-subscribers is set to occur in September of 2015. Office 2016 will include all of our favorite features including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and now, OneNote! The master plan behind this release is not only to provide an updated Office for Mac users, but to once and for all unify Office across all platforms. With the obvious rise in mobility in the workplace, this unification will allow the way you work to remain the same, no matter where you are or what device you are using.
What Makes Office 2016 Special?
Over the past five years, since the release of Office 2011, many other office suites, including Apple’s iWork, have filled the gap with Mac designed office tools, but Office 2016 is expected to blow them away. Your Mac is required to run on Yosemite, in which the entire suite has been tailored to compliment. With the ability to store all of your work in the cloud as well and the adaption of software and data intelligence, the office applications are better than ever. 
Key Features
Word
It can become a challenge to send edited documents back and forth, saving new versions every time changes are made. With Office 2016, users are able to work on documents at the same time while editing and posting comments next to the related text. The insights tool pulls related content directly from the web to provide further knowledge on the topics written directly in Word. When creating a document that is more than just text and is appealing to the eye, the new design tab allows you to manage the colors, layout, and font across your document.
Excel
Like the insights tab in the new Word, Excel will allow you to turn your data into insights. To increase efficiency and save time, there are new keyboard shortcuts and data enhancements that will automatically complete your entries. Visualization has also been enhanced to create the best charts to showcase specific data. When working with large amounts of data, the PivotTable Slicers assist in helping users identify trends and patterns with ease.
PowerPoint
Presentation is one of the most important elements in a meeting. With the PowerPoint 2016, you are able to perfect and polish your animations and transitions between slides. When it comes time to display your presentation you are now able to view the current slide, next slide and speaker notes on your computer. Of course, the collaboration between colleagues is also included in PowerPoint, allowing team members working on projects at the same time.
OneNote
Organize and share notes from meetings and presentations in a digital workbook stored in the cloud. Use the search engine to track tags, notes and images.
Outlook
Outlook for Mac has been designed to align with the new office applications. Users will receive push mail support to keep their inbox up-to-date. New message previews include the entire first sentence of each email, making it easy for users to decide if they want to open immediately or come back to the email at a later time. Search has been simplified by the conversion view that catalogs threaded emails, enabling you to find specific conversations effortlessly.
Questions about Office 2016 or 365 subscriptions?
Detroit IT’s sister company, Mac Detroit is the leading provider of Apple Support Services in Metro Detroit. The Apple Certified Consultants at Mac Detroit have extensive knowledge on the latest software updates, product releases and security tools for your Mac.
