Stand-alone Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac preview arrives for enterprise customers

Some improvements across Office 2019 for Mac include a roaming pencil case and ribbon customizations. Word-specific improvements include a Focus mode, while PowerPoint now has 4K video export, Morph transitions, and in-click sequencing. Outlook offers a "focused" inbox, and finally Excel includes new charts and functions.

These features are already available to Office 365 ProPlus subscribers, but have been missing in the "perpetual," non-cloud versions of Office for Mac.

Among IT-directed upgrades are command-line tools for central control Office updates, and compatibility with standard mobile device management policies. The software was recently integrated with Jamf Pro, for instance.

The Commercial Preview includes only the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, not iPhone or iPad apps, which require an Office 365 subscription.

Office 2019 for Mac is supported on the two most recent versions of macOS. When a new version of macOS is released, Office 2019 for Mac's Operating System requirement becomes the then-current two most recent versions at that time: the new version of macOS and the previous version. Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2016 for Mac cannot run concurrently on either Windows or Mac.

The finished suite is due to launch sometime in the second half of 2018.