What's new in Office 2021
Applies To
Office 2021 Office 2021 for MacIn Office 2021, you'll find new co-authoring features, inking tools, data types, functions, translation and editing tools, motion graphics, ease-of-use features, and so much more! Check out what's available to you today.
Note: Some features listed below are not included in Office LTSC 2021 for commercial customers. Each of those features is noted if it does not apply to Office LTSC 2021 for commercial customers.
Important: If you have a subscription through a Microsoft 365 (or Office 365) plan, that's separate from Office 2021 or Office LTSC 2021. For example, if you are already using Microsoft 365 or if your organization deployed Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (previously named Office 365 ProPlus) to the users in your organization, you don't need Office 2021 or Office LTSC 2021. You already have all the features that are included in Office 2021 or Office LTSC 2021, along with many more features that aren't in Office 2021 or Office LTSC 2021.
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One-time purchases of Office 2021 |
Co-author documents
With real-time co-authoring, you can work with others in the same document at the same time. There's no need to send extra notes or emails because everyone will be notified when a file is updated.
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Note: Co-authoring is not available in Office LTSC 2021.
Better collaboration with modern comments
Have control of when you send comments to your co-authors and be productive with a consistent commenting experience between Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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Note: Modern comments is not available in Office LTSC 2021.
Know who's in your document
See who else is working along with you and where they are in the document. You'll find this experience in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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Note: This feature is not available in Office LTSC 2021.
Visual refresh
Work with a modernized Start experience and newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon. Experience a clean, clear style with monoline iconography, neutral color palette, and softer window corners. These updates communicate action and provide features with simple visuals.
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Note: Visual refresh is not available in Office LTSC 2021.
Look left, look right… XLOOKUP is here!
Row by row, find anything you need in a table or range with XLOOKUP.
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LET function
The LET function assigns names to calculation results. This allows storing intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula.
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XMATCH function
The XMATCH function searches for a specified item in an array or range of cells, and then returns the item's relative position. You can also use XMATCH to return a value in an array.
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Sheet views
Create customized views in an Excel worksheet without disrupting others.
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Note: Sheet views are not available in Excel LTSC 2021.
Accessibility ribbon
The Accessibility ribbon puts all the tools you need to create accessible content in one place.
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Note: The Accessibility ribbon is not available in Excel LTSC 2021.
New and improved Record Slide Show
Record Slide Show now supports presenter video recording, ink recording and laser pointer recording.
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Ink Replay - Slide Animation for Ink object
Now you can apply the new Replay or Rewind animation to ink and get the drawing effect directly in your presentations. You can adjust the timing of these animations to be faster or slower to match the experience you want.
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Arrange elements on your slides for screen readers
See the elements in screen-reading order and re-arrange them as necessary to communicate your message effectively.
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Link to a slide
Ask a colleague to contribute to your slide deck, and start them directly on the slide you need help with.
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Note: Link to a slide is not available in PowerPoint LTSC 2021.
Translator and ink in Outlook
Translate email messages into more than 70 languages on the fly and view the transcript—all within Outlook.
Annotate email images or draw in a separate canvas using your finger, pen, or mouse.
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In Outlook, use Instant Search to quickly find emails
Select the search bar (located above the Outlook ribbon) to help find email messages anywhere in Outlook.
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Reduce eye strain with Dark Mode
Previously, you could use Word with a dark ribbon and toolbars, but your document color stayed bright white. Now, Dark Mode in Word offers a dark canvas as well.
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Improve comprehension with Line Focus
Move through a document in Word, line by line, without distractions. Adjust the focus to put one, three, or five lines in view at a time.
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See what's new in stock media
We're constantly adding more rich media content to the Microsoft 365 Premium Creative Content collection, a curated library of stock images, icons, and more that helps you express yourself.
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Find what you need with Microsoft Search
At the top of your Microsoft 365 apps on Windows you'll find the new Microsoft Search box. This powerful tool helps you quickly find what you're looking for, from text to commands to help and more.
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Increase the reach of your content
Accessibility Checker keeps an eye on your documents and tells you in the status bar when it finds something you should look at. Try it by clicking Review > Check Accessibility.
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Performance improvements
Experience improved performance, stability, and speed across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Get faster calculations from common Excel functions like SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF.
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Updated Draw tab
Quickly access and change the color of all your inking tools in one place.
Simplify how you work with ink using new Draw tab additions: Point Eraser, Ruler, and Lasso.
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Save your changes as they happen
Upload your files to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online to make sure all your updates are saved automatically.
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Support for OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3
We now include support for the OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3. The ODF 1.3 specification adds support for many new features.
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Refresh, relink, or remove linked tables
The updated Linked Table Manager is a central location for viewing and managing all data sources and linked tables in an Access database. See all the improvements we've made to the Linked Table Manager based on your feedback.
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Try the new the Date/Time Extended data type in Access
To enhance syntax compatibility with SQL and to increase accuracy and level of detail in records that include dates and times, we've implemented the SQL DateTime2 data type into Access.
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Keep tabs on your database objects in Access
You can clearly see the active tab, easily drag tabs to rearrange them, and close database objects with just one click.
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New Azure stencils and shapes in Visio
We've added many more stencils to help you create up-to-date Azure diagrams. You can use these new stencils to build Azure diagrams for network topologies, virtual machine configurations, operations, and more.
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New AWS stencils and shapes in Visio
We have enabled infrastructure shapes from another major cloud provider: Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can now use stencils with the latest AWS shapes to help you create diagrams.
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Content for social distancing planning in the workplace
Many workplaces need to be re-planned to follow the social distancing guidelines in force. This new Visio template, and the Workplace Social Distancing stencil, provide a number of shapes, fill patterns and line patterns, both scaled and unscaled, to help with this process.
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Try the Sketched style outline
You can give a casual, hand-drawn look to shapes in your presentations with the Sketched style outline.
Try out the Curved, Freehand, or Scribble options under Format Shape > Line > Sketched style.
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Pick the perfect color
Based on your feedback, we've added a new input field in the Colors dialog for Hex color values. Now you won't have to spend time converting Hex color values into RGB values.
For any property where you can define a color, you can now enter a Hex color value in the Hex box, for example, #0F4C81 or 444.
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What's new in your favorite Microsoft 365 app
Co-author documents
With real-time co-authoring, you can work with others in the same document at the same time. There's no need to send extra notes or emails because everyone will be notified when a file is updated.
New in:
Note: Co-authoring is not available in Office LTSC 2021 for Mac.
Better collaboration with modern comments
Have control of when you send comments to your co-authors and be productive with a consistent commenting experience between Excel and PowerPoint.
New in:
Note: Modern comments is not available in Office LTSC 2021 for Mac.
Know who's in your document
See who else is working along with you and where they are in the document. You'll find this experience in Excel and PowerPoint.
New in:
Note: This feature is not available in Office LTSC 2021 for Mac.
Save your changes as they happen
Upload your files to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online to make sure all your updates are saved automatically.
New in:
Note: This feature is not available in Office LTSC 2021 for Mac.
Sheet views
Create customized views in an Excel worksheet without disrupting others.
New in:
Note: Sheet views are not available in Excel LTSC 2021 for Mac.
Look left, look right… XLOOKUP is here!
Row by row, find anything you need in a table or range with XLOOKUP.
New in:
LET function
The LET function assigns names to calculation results. This allows storing intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula.
New in:
XMATCH function
The XMATCH function searches for a specified item in an array or range of cells, and then returns the item's relative position. You can also use XMATCH to return a value in an array.
New in:
Watch your formulas
Watch cells across multiple sheets and books in a single pane or window.
The Watch Window makes it convenient to inspect, audit, or confirm formula calculations and results in large worksheets.
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Reduce eye strain with Dark Mode
Previously, you could use Word with a dark ribbon and toolbars, but your document color stayed bright white. Now, Dark Mode in Word offers a dark canvas as well.
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Immersive Reader advanced color support
In Immersive Reader, we've added many additional ways you can choose a page color. Selecting a page color can make text easy to scan with less eye strain.
On the Immersive Reader tab click Page Color to see a 4x5 color picker.
Click More Colors to see additional color selection options such as Wheel, Sliders, Color Palettes, Image Palettes, and Pencils.
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Natural-sounding voices with Read Aloud
The Read Aloud feature in Word's Immersive Reader is great for authors and readers alike. Whether you use it to "prooflisten" a document or an email you've drafted to catch errors, or simply to give your eyes a break, Read Aloud now features more natural-sounding voices for an improved listening experience.
To access the feature, click the Read Aloud button on the Review tab.
To switch between different voice options, select the Settings icon at the upper-right corner of your message or document and click the Voice Selection drop-down menu.
New in:
Ink Replay - Slide Animation for Ink object
Now you can apply the new Replay or Rewind animation to ink and get the drawing effect directly in your presentations. You can adjust the timing of these animations to be faster or slower to match the experience you want.
New in:
Make an animated GIF from a slide show
You can now save a presentation as an animated GIF which can be shared via social or other digital channels.
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Visual refresh
Work with a modernized Start experience and newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon.
Experience a clean, clear style with monoline iconography that communicates action and features with simple visuals.
New in:
See what's new in stock media
We're constantly adding more rich media content to the Microsoft 365 Premium Creative Content collection, a curated library of stock images, icons, and more that helps you express yourself.
New in:
Find what you're looking for
Use the search box to find text, commands, help, and more.
Tell me is a text field where you can enter words and phrases about what you want to do next, and quickly get to features you want to use or actions you want to perform.
New in:
Performance improvements
Experience improved performance, stability, and speed across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Get faster calculations from common Excel functions like SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF.
New in:
Save as SVG for your pictures and graphics
We now support saving pictures, charts, and other graphics from your documents in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) format.
Your saved images can be resized with no loss of image quality.
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Try the Sketched style outline
You can give a casual, hand-drawn look to shapes in your presentations with the Sketched style outline.
Try out the Curved, Freehand, or Scribble options under Format Shape > Line > Sketched style.
New in:
What's new in your favorite Microsoft 365 for Mac app
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