Upgrading To Microsoft Office 2016 On Your Surface Book And Other PCs, Mac Devices, And Laptops


Microsoft just released its newest Microsoft Surface Book, and the internet is going gaga over Microsoft’s first notebook, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. But the latest upgrade to one of Microsoft’s biggest products, Microsoft Office, seemed to have escaped the discerning eye of techies and Microsoft users.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Just last month, Microsoft Office 2016 was released officially on the market, with Microsoft offering the Office 2016 standalone packs for sale for both Windows and OS X. On September 22, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Office 2016 will be available for a one-time purchase for Windows PC and Mac users starting $149.99.

As usual, like previous Office versions released, Microsoft is offering three different version of Office 2016. The Office Home & Student version, which includes Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote, will cost $149.99. The Office 2016 Home & Business version, which includes Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, OneNote, and Outlook, will cost you $229.99. The Office 2016 Professional will cost you as much as $399.99, but it’s worth the extra bucks if you’re a serious Office suite user since it includes Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (although we doubt many people still use this with Adobe InDesign a staple in Mac and Windows PCs nowadays), and Access.

Microsoft Office 2016 is a bit pricey, considering Office 2013 Student and Home version sold at $140 while Business and Home sold at $220. But what’s new with the Office 2016 to rationalize the steep prices? Wall Street Journalreviewed Office 2016 and notes that the new Microsoft Office suite will add a co-authoring feature and other collaboration experience on top of its features this year, a move that Google has long pulled off with Google Docs, which, it’s worth mentioning, is free to use for everyone.

Well, office and corporate establishments won’t be able to escape the Microsoft upgrade since primarily, they are the target of the Office suite. While regular people and students can go about working with Google Docs or Microsoft 365, office computers require licensed and regularly updated Microsoft Office programs to suit their needs. But it’s worth mentioning that there are 15 million people who pay $70 or more a year for Microsoft Office upgrades — so is it really worth all those bucks?

Well, this is the first time, TechRadar notes, that both Mac OS X and Windows go in sync with their word-processing programs, and Microsoft 2016 is the program behind it. We do know that Windows 10 is transcending the boundaries of Apple and Microsoft, with legal and legitimate ways of installing the new OS on both Mac OS X and Windows, so it seems Microsoft is really trying to bridge the gap between the two operating systems to capture a larger segment of the market.

Microsoft Office 2016 on Android and Mac
Microsoft Office 2016 on Android and Mac

Wall Street Journal notes some details and features with the new Office 2016.

“When you’re live-editing a Word doc, there’s occasionally a delay that can lead to not-so-hilarious ‘Who’s on First?’ scenarios with your colleagues. You also can’t both edit the same paragraph, like you can in Google Docs. You can’t collaborate in real time yet in Excel and PowerPoint—or the Word apps for Mac, phones or tablets. The Save As screen presents the option to place files in a recent collaborator’s OneDrive account. Sounds handy, but clicking on it made the whole app crash every time I tried.”

With all these inaccuracies, among others, is it really worth upgrading your shiny new Surface Pro or your handy old Windows PC to the new Microsoft Office 2016? With all the work and effort Microsoft has put in to make Office 2016 available not only on Windows devices but on Apple and Android devices, as well, was it really fruitful in the end? Collaboration tools in Microsoft Office 2016, as of now, are only available on Windows PCs anyway. So why bother if you’re a Mac user?

Last June, tech company BetterCloud conducted a survey and found that employees aged 18-34 were 55 percent more likely to use Google programs like Google Docs than Microsoft Office. With this huge competition posed in front of Microsoft, they should really be stepping up their game aggressively, not bringing substandard Office upgrades, especially with their newest notebook, the Surface Pro, out in the market. What good is it if people buy a Microsoft Surface Pro but end up just preferring Google Docs over using Microsoft Word? It’s still a loss for Microsoft in the end.

Are you upgrading to the new Microsoft Office 2016? Or are you getting that new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with the old Office suite?

[Images courtesy of Spencer Platt / Getty Images, Microsoft]

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