Microsoft has announced a new one-time purchase version of Microsoft Office that will be released for Windows and macOS later in 2021.
The company said it plans to release a Long-Term Servicing Channel variant of Microsoft Office as well as a consumer and small business version. Like the previous Office 2019 release, both versions are designed for those who don’t want to pay monthly for the cloud-based Microsoft 365 service.
Microsoft said the LTSC version will include new updates such as Dark Mode and accessibility improvements, as well as features such as Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel. It is likely that these features will also be included in the consumer office in 2021, but Microsoft is waiting to add details closer to the release date. The company did say it has no plans to change the one-time purchase cost.
In addition, there is a new change to the support window for Office 2021 LSTC. The window is bumped to five years, instead of the seven years it normally offered. Costs also increase by 10%.
The Office 2021 LTSC will be available in preview in April, but the consumer version will not. Microsoft expects LTSC to be released in the second half, although it is not clear whether it plans the same for Office 2021.