Microsoft has released a preview/beta version of Office 2016 to effectively all comers. Here’s how to get it.
The Preview version comes with the 2016 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote and Publisher.
Office 2016 requires Windows 7 or later. Similar memory and drive space requirements to Office 2013.
Office 2016 Preview cannot co-exist with any earlier version of Office on the same computer. Other versions of Office should be uninstalled before getting Office 2016.
Download or Stream
Go to https://products.office.com/en-us/office-2016-preview to get the Office 2016 Preview.
There’s a traditional download (MSI) preview version available on that page with a Product Key displayed.
If you have an Office 365 package with Office software, the Office 2016 Preview can be downloaded as part of your allowable Office licences. This is a ‘streaming installation’ which might be preferable because the Preview can be updated more easily.
The Office 2016 Preview option is buried quite deep. Go to your Office 365 account page then Language and Install options | Additional Install Options then choose Office Preview from the pull-down list (32 or 64 bit).
That will download the tiny install starter. Run that to commence the streaming install.
In our tests the download took a long time, probably because the download servers were overloaded. The key moment in the installation is at roughly 60-65% mark when the Office 2016 menu items show on the Start Menu. From that point you can click on the new programs and start using them (the installer with prioritize features you try to use). We were using Word 2016 and Outlook 2016 long before the installation officially ended.
As you’d expect, your settings from an earlier Office are mostly used by Office 2016. We found a couple of exceptions where we had to change a setting that didn’t migrate but nothing major.
The currently Office 2016 Preview has little that’s obviously new or radical. There’s the usual interface revamp that comes with every new Office version but it’s basically the same.
There are some different color schemes available from Options | General. Light Gray (above), Medium Gray, Dark Gray, White and Colorful (we’d rename it ‘Ugly’ but it has the virtue of giving a different color to each Office application).
The other obvious change is ‘Tell me what to do’ which is a new natural language help system. It’s been in Office online for some time and works fairly well. It not only gives help but can display the feature you’re trying to find.
As always, be careful with Preview/Beta software. It’s buggy and doesn’t have all the features that are promoted for the final release.
Source: Microsoft
You’ll see mentions of various new Office 2016 features like Insights, which we can’t find in current Office 2016 Preview.
Collaboration has been improved (again) with ‘real time’ collaboration where you can see where each online author is in a document and the changes they are making almost instantly.
Clutter is a machine learning tool to organize your Inbox, but it’s an Exchange Server feature not Outlook 2016 so it isn’t available unless you have the right server software.
Sometimes the most welcome changes are the little things that Microsoft doesn’t bother promoting. For example Outlook’s Insert | Attach File has a welcome surprise – a list of recently used documents.
It’s one of those ‘what took them so long’ features in Office.
If you choose an OneDrive saved document (marked by the cloud in the icon) you can email a link to the online document instead of the document itself.
Confusion
There’s also considerable confusion in the press between Office 2016 and Office for Windows 10. Office 2016 for Windows is NOT the ‘universal app’ that Microsoft has been boasting about – that’s in Office for Windows 10.
Office 2016 has virtually no touch interface features. Only the ‘touch’ option which merely increases the spacing on the ribbon etc. Office 2013 has the same option.
