Microsoft Office 2016


 * For the Mac version of Microsoft Office 2016, see Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac.

Microsoft Office 2016 (codenamed Office 16) is a version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite, succeeding both Office 2013 and Office for Mac 2011. It was released on OS X on July 9, 2015 for Office 365 subscribers. The perpetually licensed version on OS X and Windows was released on September 22, 2015. Since its successor Office 2019 only supports Windows 10 or Windows Server 2019, this is the last version of Microsoft Office compatible with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.

Windows
New features in the Windows release include the ability to create, open, edit, and save files in the cloud straight from the desktop, a new search tool for commands available in Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook named "Tell Me", and co-authoring in real time with users connected to Office Online. Other smaller features include Insights, a feature powered by Bing to provide contextual information from the web, new chart types in Excel (such as treemap, sunburst chart (also known as a ring chart), waterfall chart, box plot and histogram), and a data loss prevention feature in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

In addition, Microsoft has removed the ability to run parallel versions of Office with the 2016 release. Part of the installer will search and remove any previous version and not permit the operation of older components. e.g. an older version of Outlook 2013/2010 with Publisher 2016.

Mac
New features in the Mac release include an updated user interface that uses ribbons, full support for Retina Display, and new sharing features for Office documents.

In Word, there is a new Design tab, an Insights feature, which is powered by Bing, and real-time co-authoring. In Excel, there is a Recommended Charts feature, and PivotTable Slicers. In PowerPoint, there are theme variants, which provide different color schemes for a theme. In Outlook, there is a Propose New Time feature, the ability to see calendars side by side, and a weather forecast in the calendar view.

Outlook 2016 for Mac has very limited support for synchronization of collaboration services outside of basic email.

Traditional editions
As with previous versions, Office 2016 is made available in several distinct editions aimed towards different markets. All traditional editions of Microsoft Office 2016 contain Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote and are licensed for use on one computer.

Five traditional editions of Office 2016 were released for Windows:
 * Home & Student: This retail suite includes the core applications only.
 * Home & Business: This retail suite includes the core applications and Outlook.
 * Standard: This suite, only available through volume licensing channels, includes the core applications, as well as, Outlook and Publisher.
 * Professional: This retail suite includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher and Access.
 * Professional Plus: This suite, only available through volume licensing channels, includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access and Skype for Business.

Three traditional editions of Office 2016 were released for Mac:
 * Home & Student: This retail suite includes the core applications only.
 * Home & Business: This retail suite includes the core applications and Outlook.
 * Standard: This suite, only available through volume licensing channels, includes the core applications and Outlook.

Office 365
The Office 365 subscription services, which were previously aimed towards business and enterprise users, were expanded for Office 2016 to include new plans aimed at home use. The subscriptions allow use of the Office 2016 applications by multiple users using a software as a service model. Different plans are available for Office 365, some of which also include value-added services, such as 1 TB of OneDrive storage and 60 Skype minutes per month on the Home Premium plan.

Design
The user interface design of Office 2016 is relatively unchanged from its predecessor, Office 2013. It retains the flat design that was introduced along with Microsoft design language, albeit a few modifications to the layout are made, in order to conform with the design of Microsoft Office Mobile. Office 2016 has three themes. The default theme, known as "colorful", features a solid colour on the top band of the ribbon, corresponding to the colour of the Office app being used, for example, a solid dark blue is featured prominently in Microsoft Word. The theme had been described as useful in making the tab headings more distinct. In addition, both the "white" and "dark grey" themes from Office 2013 are available as well, though, no new backgrounds have been added, nor existing backgrounds removed.