Today’s post was authored by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office.

Today we’re pleased to announce the commercial preview of Office 2019 for Mac – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Office 2019 for Mac is the next perpetual update to Office on Mac and is set to ship alongside Office 2019 for Windows in the second half of 2018.

Office 365 ProPlus delivers the most productive and most secure Office experience – with the lowest TCO for deployment and management. But for customers who aren’t yet ready to move to the cloud, Office 2019 for Mac provides an update to the perpetual apps with new features for both end users and IT.

Office 2019 for Mac delivers new features to help end users create amazing content in less time. Updates include the roaming pencil case and ribbon customizations across Office apps; focus mode in Word; Morph transitions, in-click sequence, and 4k video export in PowerPoint; new charts and functions in Excel; and focused inbox in Outlook. These features are already included in Office 365 ProPlus but are not available in Office for Mac 2016. For a longer list of the end-user features in Office 2019 for Mac, see the FAQ.

Focus Mode in Word

Morph transitions in PowerPoint

2D maps in Excel

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.

Office 365 ProPlus delivers continuous cloud-powered innovation for increased productivity, better security, and the lowest TCO. But we recognize that for many customers, moving to the cloud is a journey with many considerations along the way. Office 2019 for Mac will be a valuable upgrade for customers who feel they need to keep some or all of their apps on-premises.

To join Office 2019 for Mac preview, sign up here.