Microsoft Office 2016 suite is available for free via the Windows Store. However that version has limitations. The complete Office desktop app package is needed to access all features and functionalities of the program.

As per experts who sell laptops, if you have an active, regular subscription to Office 365, you will receive an upgrade to Office 2016 for free. You just need Microsoft and OneDrive accounts to get all the benefits from Office 2016.

New Dark Theme

For some users, the light theme of Office 2016 is unusable. For those who can’t use it or don’t really like the light theme, Office 2016 highlights new upgrades to its dark theme. The darker shade makes it simpler to use the Office interface. It also promotes better readability.

Smart Lookup

Already available in both MS Word and Outlook, “Smart Lookup” is finally featured in Excel and PowerPoint. This function is known as “Insights from Bing.” It helps you find out more about your content by accumulating and showing the correct info in the context of what you’re writing or reading about. The details shown are obtained from several resources such as Bing Snapshot, Wikipedia, and Oxford dictionary.

Tell Me

There are several Office features and commands users fail to notice. This is because users don’t know these features exist or have trouble searching the right tools to use. To fix this issue, Microsoft integrated the “Tell Me” feature. This function makes use of natural language to assist you in finding what you’re searching for.

Except on OneNote, Skype, and Publisher, the “Tell Me” box is found at the right side of the tabs on the ribbon bar. To use the feature, simply type your question in the “Tell Me” box and the program will present the best possible answers for your query. These results are actions that can directly take you to the Menu.

Quick Shape Formatting

This function increases the number of the default shape variations found in Office 2016. It introduced new “preset” variations in MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. When you draw a shape in your document, simply put on a new preset style to change enhance the old shape.

Real-time Collaboration

Google Docs has been taking advantage of real-time document collaboration for many years now. Finally, Microsoft has caught up and enhanced its real-time collaboration in Office 2016 key apps. MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now make it possible to have multiple editors working on the same document. This is regardless if they’re using Office Online or the desktop version of Office apps.

Enhanced Backstage

The Backstage screen also received an upgrade which makes browsing, opening, and saving files faster and simpler. The “Recent Files” list is classified by document customization date and the “Browse” tab has been enhanced for increased visibility and now offers faster accessibility to the File Explorer.

There are a lot more new features and upgrades in Office 2016 like an updated grammar checker, security improvements, and unique charts and BI tools in Excel. All of these upgrades make Office more streamlined and effective, enabling you to become more productive.