Microsoft Office 2021 will launch on October 5

Microsoft has now begun rolling out the next permanent version of Microsoft Office to commercial customers on September 17, and has promised to release Office 2021 to consumers on October 5.

Microsoft has now started rolling out the next permanent version of Microsoft Office to commercial customers on September 17, and has promised to release Office 2021 to consumers on October 5 - around the same time. Official launch of Windows 11.

The Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel for Windows and Mac becomes available to commercial and government users today, offering a limited release of Office with no subscription required.

Office LTSC is designed for users who are businesses that need consistency in managing Office-based workflows. The timing of Office LTSC support is more in line with how Windows is supported, and as a result Microsoft is also adjusting the release schedule for both Office and Windows more closely.

Office LTSC will not come with the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based features found in Microsoft 365, nor will it receive new features. Microsoft will maintain a 5-year policy of support for both versions through a one-time "permanent" license purchase, but that also means users won't receive any new features or updates. until the next "permanent" license is released.

Here are the Microsoft-listed additions to Office LTSC, which will also apply to Office 2021:

Line Focus - A feature similar to a reading mode, which helps to improve concentration, limit distractions, and allows scrolling through Word documents line by line.
XLOOKUP function - New tool to find everything in a table or range by row in an Excel worksheet.
Dynamic array support - new functions in Excel that use dynamic arrays.
Dark mode - all Office apps will include enableable dark mode support as default.
OpenDocument Format (ODF 1.3) Support (Only applicable to Office LTSC)

Microsoft Office 2021 will launch on October 5 Picture 1 Microsoft Office 2021 will launch on October 5 Picture 1

Additionally, Office LTSC will also come with Teams as part of the pre-installed features, instead of Skype for Business. This is a logical shift in the context of more and more businesses using Teams as their primary communication tool.

For now, Microsoft will still recommend Microsoft 365 for both businesses and consumers. The Redmond Company recently announced the first price hike for both Microsoft 365 and Office 365, effective March 2022.

Pricing details for Office 2021 have not yet been revealed. Similar to the Office 2019 version, Office 2021 will be released as a one-time purchase for general users on both Windows and macOS who don't want to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription. All will be made public on the same day. October 5 is here.