Following the release of Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones two weeks ago, Microsoft today announced that the latest version of its productivity suite for Mac, which was in preview testing since March, will now be available to the general public.
Microsoft will be making the software first available to Office 365 subscribers, no matter the type of their subscription. The standalone version of the suite will be available later this year, probably in September and the pricing will be reviewed shortly before that.
Depending on your Office 365 subscription type, Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus, the pricing for the new office suite will be different, the company says. The pricing ranges from $6.99 per month for the Personal subscription to $9.99 per month for the Home subscription type while students can get the software as a one time purchase with significant discounts.
Microsoft says that it received close to 100,000 pieces of feedback from testers all over the world, when the software was in preview testing, and the company says that using this data they were able to bring about many changes and fixes to the final product.
Microsoft has updated the software seven times to improve its performance and stability, taking all the reports and feedback into account. The updates include addition of features like improved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel.
The software, as of now available in 139 countries and 16 languages with the familiar Microsoft Office design i.e. the ribbon theme and the added Mac OS features like Full Screen view, multi-touch gestures, and Retina support.
To get the suite via Office 365, current customers can visit their account page at office.com/myaccount and follow installation instructions. And if you aren’t already an Office 365 subscriber you can purchase an Office 365 subscription at office.com/Mac.
