Microsoft wants you to sign up for a Microsoft 365 subscription to experience its suite of office and productivity tools. However, the company knows that not everyone wants to take an ongoing expense for their word processing . Some people want to pay once and get on with their life. As such, Microsoft is offering Office 2024 at a one-time cost of $149.
While not necessarily cheap, you get locked-in-time versions of all the major Microsoft software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook are all part of your purchase. Locked-in-time means you won't get all the new features that come with Microsoft 365, but if you're OK with how Office functions now — and it's definitely in a good place right now — this is a viable option.
This is Microsoft's first Office release since 2021 that isn't part of Microsoft 365. If you were worried that a new version wouldn't come, you can finally relax and grab the latest version. Since 2021, Microsoft has added many new features to subscribers, many of which are part of Office 2024.
There are tons of accessibility and UI changes found in Office 2024, so if you're more familiar with the 2021 version, it might feel a little weird at first. That said, the Fluent Design principles match the visuals in Windows 11 much better than previous versions, so it looks right at home.
Here are some of the improvements coming to Office 2024:
- Excel: Use text and arrays in worksheets
- Excel: a new IMAGE function pulls pictures from the web
- Excel: can now reference Dynamic Arrays in charts
- PowerPoint: new cameo feature lets you insert a live camera feed into slides
- PowerPoint: new recording studio with features for narration, animations, transitions, and inking
- PowerPoint: you can add closed captions or subtitles to videos and audio files in slides
- Outlook: improvements to search
- Word: recover a session if your PC crashes
- Word, Excel and PowerPoint: insert a picture easily from an Android mobile device
The $149 version of Office 2024 is for home users only. If you plan to use it for commercial purposes, the Home & Business version costs $249.
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