Microsoft announces ‘Office 2019’ Commercial preview for Mac users

Microsoft debuts Office 2019 commercial preview for Mac enterprise users. (Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has launched the commercial preview of Office 2019 for Mac. In a blog post, Microsoft said the commercial preview of Office 2019 for Mac will be released in the “second-half” of 2018. The company said that Office 2019 for Mac is suitable for those customers who are yet to move to the cloud.

New features include the roaming pencil case and ribbon customisations across all Office apps. There’s a focus mode coming in MS Word, while Excel is getting new charts and functions, including CONCAT, Switch, TEXT Join, and IFS. Powerpoint gets a new Morph function, in-click sequence, and 4K video support. Microsoft is also bringing focused Inbox in Outlook. These features are already included in Office 365 ProPlus but are not available in Office for Mac 2016.

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Microsoft also explained in a blog post, “Office 2019 for Mac also includes features for IT that will help simplify deployment and management. Command-line tools will allow IT admins to centrally control how and when Office updates are applied to users’ devices, and support for industry-standard MDM policies and preferences will give IT the power to enforce organization-wide security policies, including preferences for Visual Basic macros and app settings. Recent integration with Jamf Pro will add additional control and make it easier than ever to manage the velocity of Office updates across devices”.

Do keep in mind that this preview is not for regular customers. Instead, Microsoft says the preview is created for volume license customers.