Microsoft released the latest version of its esteemed productivity suite, Office 2016, on OS X in July – and now it seems that the software will be coming to the company’s own Windows desktop platform on September 22, according to the German website WinFuture.
This Windows version of Office 2016 will be first available for home and professional users, but will see few significant differences to the Mac variant. Identical features will include a “colorful” theme, while practical improvements over pre-2016 versions of Office include better search and attachment features in Outlook and easier image insertion in Word and Excel.
For corporate customers in particular, arguably the biggest new feature in Word 2016 is live co-authoring. This function is already available in the cloud-based Microsoft Word Online, but the addition of the feature to the desktop Word software will likely prove convenient for many businesses.
September 22 appears to be a leaked launch date still awaiting official confirmation from Microsoft. However, The Verge reports “sources familiar with the company’s plans” informing the tech news site that an Office 2016 build that could ultimately prove the final release build is currently being tested by Microsoft employees. This makes the relatively close September 22 seem a credible release date for the software.