Microsoft has released Office 2016, but saying “PowerPoint 2016” can mean several things…
I am sure the goal for Microsoft is to make things simple, so using one name for all platforms made sense – on paper.
Here are a few of the variations:
- Office 2016 Windows Desktop
- Office 2016 Mac
- Office 2016 subscription (Office 365)
- Office 2016 perpetual license (purchased)
Which are you using? Which is best? How do we let someone helping with troubleshooting know what variation is being used? All important because every variation has slightly different features, limitations, bugs, etc.
The biggest decision is Subscription or Perpetual License (I make this assumption, because if you use a Windows computer you are going to get the Windows version, and if you use a Mac you are going to get the Mac version – I am not saying which platform is best). There are some disadvantages to each option. But there is one advantage to the subscription option that makes it, for me, the better option.
Microsoft and Adobe (Creative Cloud) are now offering feature improvements and additions to only their subscription versions. So, if you purchase Office 2016, that is the feature set you will have. Microsoft will continue to update it with security and compatibility items, but new or improved features are not going to show up in a perpetual license version. Very quickly PowerPoint 2016 perpetual and PowerPoint 2016 subscription are going to be very different applications. And I can confidently say, the PowerPoint development team has more exciting features cued up for the next year than we have seen in the past (big number) years.
The next post demo’s one of the new subscription only features!
-Troy @ TLC