Microsoft Office 2024 announced: No subscription obligation, but also with limited functions

A few days ago, Microsoft announced Office 2024. This is the first standalone version of Microsoft Office to be released in three years. However, the approach is different than expected. Instead of a subscription model, the focus is on dispensing with functions.

Microsoft Office 2024 announced: Why without a subscription?

Subscription models are now ubiquitous in the software sector. This makes it all the more surprising that Microsoft has announced Office 2024 and indicated that it does not intend to introduce a subscription model.

However, if you think about it more closely, it makes perfect sense to do without a subscription for a new Office package. After all, this is already covered by Office 365. With Office 2024, Microsoft now wants to take an alternative approach. The idea is probably to appeal to even more customers. Mainly those who do not want to take out a subscription.

There is definitely demand for an Office without a subscription requirement. According to Microsoft, the request was expressed by numerous users who continue to use Office 2021. This is the current standalone version of Office. In the meantime, Microsoft has of course optimized and expanded some features of the individual programs in the Office package. These functions will presumably also be included in Office 2024 and bring users outside of Office 365 up to date.

However, Microsoft has announced Office 2024 and made it quite clear that users will have to make sacrifices.

Microsoft Office 2024 announced: What's in and what's not?

Office 365 will remain the centerpiece of Microsoft's Office range. There is no doubt about that. Even though Microsoft has announced Office 2024, it was immediately made clear that this version will not have the scope of the 365 version.

There are basically no changes to the programs themselves in Office 2021. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook are included as usual. Exactly which programs are available depends, as usual, on the package selected. There will again be different editions, which will include and exclude certain programs.

The missing features in Office 2024 will mainly be features that have to do with the internet connection. This also makes sense, as Office 2024 can also be used offline as a standalone, whereas Office 365 requires an internet connection.

As a result, the following features, among others, will be removed in Office 2024:

- Functions that require access to a cloud

- Joint editing of documents

- Connection to Microsoft Teams

- AI functions

- Security functions related to cloud storage

However, Office 2024 will also contain innovations that will be released for Office 365 at the same time. These include new functions for Excel, an optimized search in Outlook and improved accessibility to the programs. In other words, Office 2024 will be on a par with Office 365. Microsoft has also already confirmed that Office 2024 will receive support for at least five years. Security updates and possible optimizations to the functions are therefore also guaranteed.

The price should not change compared to its predecessor, Office 2021, and Office 2024 should also run smoothly on Windows 10.

However, there is no release date yet.

Get to know Microsoft applications with skill it

Office more or less contains the software programs that Microsoft started with (in addition to the development of user interfaces such as DOS or Windows, of course). However, Microsoft's product range now includes numerous programs. In our seminars, you can easily get to grips with some of them or expand your knowledge.

In the two-day course Microsoft 365 Fundamentals you will familiarize yourself with Microsoft's cloud and the programs in 365. The focus is on the applications in the cloud.

Our course also lasts two days Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentalsin which you will learn about the individual components of Power Platform. This will prepare you for the PL-900 exam.

You can learn more about the basics of a Microsoft program in PowerShell - Introduction & Basics. Learn how to create scripts and work with PowerShell in general.