Recently, along with Windows 11 launch, Microsoft also released the latest bundle of office applications named Microsoft Office 2021 for regular consumers and small businesses. The new office suite comes with a few salient features for almost every apps. The enterprise and consumer Office 2021 versions have a similar set of new features.
Let us dive into the new features that Microsoft Office 2021 has to offer to consumers.
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Features of Microsoft Office 2021
Co-Authoring Features
Microsoft introduced real-time co-authoring in Office 2019, but it was only available for Word application and not for Excel or Powerpoint. With Office 2021, Microsoft has finally made real-time co-authoring available for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint desktop applications, provided the documents you are collaborating on are saved on Microsoft Cloud service, OneDrive.There’s no need to send extra notes or emails because everyone will be notified as soon as the file is updated. This is a pretty productive feature, considering most people are currently working from home, and this function will let them collaborate without any hassle.

Apart from that, you can also put comments on the part of your document where editing is required. The modern comments on Office 2021 allow you to send comments to your co-authors and be productive with a consistent commenting experience between Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

While working on a document on Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, you will be able to see who is simultaneously editing it with you.
New Visuals

Like Windows 11, Microsoft has made some visual changes in Office 2021 too. It is based on Windows 11 theme. There are newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon. You will experience a clean, clear style with monoline iconography, a neutral color palette, and softer window corners. Clearly, it is not a coincidence that office was released on the same date as Windows 11. However, if you are a Windows 10 user, you don’t have to worry, as Office 2021 will work perfectly with it.
New Additions in Excel
In Microsoft Office 2021, Excel got the most number of new features and functionalities among all other Office apps. The new function XLOOKUP lets you find anything in a table or selected range. You can look in one column for a search term and return a result from the same row in another column, regardless of which side the return column is on.
Then there is an addition of Dynamic Array. It lets you write a formula and then get an array of values in return. You can speed up your calculations and insights with six new functions: FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, and RANDARRAY.
Another unique function added in the Excel 2021 is the LET function. It lets you assign the name to the calculation results. It also allows storing calculations, values, or assigning names inside a formula.
The new XMATCH function lets you search for a specified item in an array or range of cells and then returns the item’s relative position.
The new Sheets view feature allows you to create customized views in an Excel worksheet without disturbing others.

There is also an Accessibility ribbon feature that puts all the tools you require to create accessible content together in one place.

PowerPoint 2021 New Features
PowerPoint in Office 2021 comes with some new additions and improvements in the already existing features. The Record Slide Show feature, introduced in Office 2019, now provides additional options for more control while presenting and recording. Now the presenter can record video while using the digital pen on the screen or the laser pointer.

Link to this slide lets the presenter ask their colleague to contribute to their presentation at a specific slide.
Integration with Microsoft Teams
Microsoft has integrated Office 2021 with the Teams app. Now you can directly join a Teams meeting directly from Office applications. You can present your work and provide inputs while chatting and participating in the Microsoft Teams meeting.
More Inclusions
- The Outlook app now has an improved search known as Instant Search. It also comes with the ability to translate texts into more than 70 languages.
- More stock images and icons to use for free
- The Access application in Office 2021 comes with a reformed Linked Table Manager and a new Date/Time Extended data type.
- An updated draw tab allows you to quickly change the color of all your inking tools in a single place.
- The files uploaded on the OneDrive will automatically get updated if new changes are introduced.
- The Office 2021 applications Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now support the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.3.
- You will experience improved performance in all the apps. For example, the calculation is fast in Excel.
Is Microsoft Office 2021 worth buying?
Many users already working on Office 2019 or 2016 applications might question whether it is worth purchasing the Microsoft Office 2021?
The features listed in this post might give you a fair idea of what new inclusions and improvements the Office 2021 come with. You can compare those with your current Office version and easily decide whether to get Office 2021 or not.
In my personal opinion, I think Microsoft has introduced a lot of collaborative features and improvements to make working from home using the Office apps more comfortable, accurate, flexible, and quick. The co-authoring features will let your work seamlessly as a team, no matter where the members are working from. Similarly, the integration with Microsoft Teams and improvements in PowerPoinnt features again leads to more comfortable collaboration while working from different places.
So, if you and your team members are working from distant locations and frequently use the Office apps, adopting the new Microsoft Office 2021 might make your tasks easier and less time-consuming. You won’t have to sync your timings with your colleagues to complete an assignment. All can work and make necessary edits as per their flexibility.
Yes, Microsoft Office 2021 is released on October 5th, 2021 along with Windows 11.
Microsoft Office is priced at £249.99/US$249.99 for Office Home & Business 2021.
For Microsoft Office 365, you can choose to pay for your subscription on a monthly or yearly basis.
Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.
Do you know if the new features in Office 2021 will also be on the Office 365 while Customers are current on their subscriptions? And would the same features be available for Office 365 clients running Windows 10 pro?