A lot happened for Microsoft Office customers in 2024, maybe you missed some of the highlights of the year? Many improvements to Excel with more to come, Word got a Paste upheaval, Publisher given the chop plus relentless pushing of new Outlook and Copilot.
Outlook (new)
The new, totally different, Outlook for Windows was prematurely released to the public on 1 August 2024. That was just arbitrary date for a PR release, making you believe that Outlook (new) is ready when it is not. Outlook (new) is NOT ready, ignore what Microsoft says
It’s not that Outlook (new) is bad, more that there’s some major omissions plus plenty of other problems. Anyone switching to new Outlook has volunteered to be an unpaid software tester for Microsoft.
Among the remaining problems:
- Offline support – Does Outlook (new) really have offline support? it’s not clear what will finally serve as ‘offline support’, as defined by Microsoft.
- Mail Merge – Outlook (new) doesn’t mail merge with Word. There’s no sign of when or how Word’s email merge will be possible with new Outlook.
- Add-ins – classic Outlook add-ins have no place in new Outlook. If you rely on an add-in, stick with the current Outlook and hope a replacement add-in will arrive for Outlook (new).
- PST support – we’re promised PST support in 2025 (PST files are the long-standing Outlook for Windows storage file). But at first Outlook will only be able to read emails in a PST, not calendar, contacts etc.
Drip by drip release
This is typical of Microsoft’s ‘drip by drip’ approach to developing Outlook (new). Important parts are offered to the public in small increments instead of something more fully formed. Is this a development based strategy or a PR trick that lets Microsoft hype each change separately?
Forced march in 2026
Microsoft has announced a forced move to Outlook (new) in April 2026 for commercial customers. This set off a lot of incredibly misinformed media coverage, Oh FFS, classic Outlook isn’t dying in 2026.
Patience, grasshopper
Our advice remains the same. Do NOT change to Outlook (new) unless you really must. There’s no hurry because Outlook (classic), as it’s now known, will be supported until 2029.
Excel’s big 2024
Excel 365 introduced several fantastic and incredibly useful updates this year.
Python
Commercial Excel 365 customers can now access Python, offering new features. They can use Python libraries for graphing, data normalization, statistical analysis, and creating sample data.
Pivotby() and Groupby()
Pivotby() and Groupby() have simplified many PivotTable and grouping jobs to a single function. PivotTable recommendations are now better and clearer in a side-pane.
Focus Cell
Focus Cell highlights the current cell and bypasses the code and conditional formatting we’ve used until now.
If you’d like more options that in Focus Cell or don’t have Excel 365, check out Excel tricks to highlight selected row, column, heading and more
Still to come
Some Excel features have been available to Insider releases for months but are not yet public.
- Regular Expressions have been available in Excel 365 Insiders releases since May 2024 through functions such as RegexTest(), RegexExtract(), and RegexReplace(). These functions implement genuine PCRE2 Regular Expressions, which are an open standard, well-documented and widely used.
- Xlookup() and Xmatch() received a Regex upgrade for Insiders.
- Translate() and DetectLanguage() have been in beta purgatory since August
Copilot
Microsoft continued to push their Copilot AI system in every possible way without restraint, the phrase “rammed down your throat” springs to mind.
The Copilot Wave2 hype involved vague promises, lacking important details. While some enterprise customers benefited, consumer Microsoft 365 users received nothing new. There were numerous announcements boasting “General Availability,” which, in Microsoft jargon, means that the features are accessible to some customers who have subscribed to the appropriate Microsoft plans.
The Copilot key, announced in only in January but now has to be remapped because it doesn’t suit Microsoft current deployment of Copilot in organizations and the poor choice of shortcut in the Teams app. There seems to be little communication between Microsoft teams or Teams.
Copilot AI Credits
Microsoft 365 consumer plans are now 22-31% more expensive in test markets like Australia and New Zealand. They include just sixty monthly “AI Credits” with each use of Copilot costing one credit.
That’s very likely to spread worldwide in 2025 with higher prices for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans with the inclusion of AI Credits.
Microsoft has found a way to increase their revenue from Microsoft 365 and at the same time push Copilot with the hope they’ll pay for the full Copilot Pro add-on.
Money Saving opportunity
I’ve been expecting Microsoft’s consumer 365 plans to become more expensive, as prices have been stable for years in most countries. The limited Copilot feature is their way of masking a significant price hike and encouraging people to pay more for Copilot Pro. It’s a clever marketing move.
The ongoing trial may expand globally in its current or a similar format, presenting a potential cost-saving opportunity for individuals in regions such as North America, the UK, Europe, and other locations.
To avoid the unexpected Microsoft 365 price increase, secure the current rates now. You can pay for Microsoft 365 up to five years in advance by purchasing up to four 12-month packs at today’s prices and applying them to your existing plan.
There’s no downside because, at worst, you’ve paid in advance.
Microsoft 365 Classic
Two new Microsoft 365 consumer plans, called Microsoft 365 Classic (Personal or Family), have also been introduced. This version is not sold directly but only offered to those who try to cancel their more expensive plan with Copilot. Microsoft 365 Classic provides the current software plan without Copilot.
Office 2024
Office 2024 was released in October with little fanfare, which Microsoft intended. This perpetual license version offers minor updates. Excel 2024 includes new array and text functions and a “picture in cell” feature, while Word and other apps saw few changes.
Get up to date with Office 2024 with our book Office 2024 for Windows: Straight Talk which also covers all the changes and additions to Office 2021 and Office 2019.
End of Publisher
Publisher is not part of any Office 2024 bundle because it will be discontinued in October 2026 (about 1 year, 8 months from today) or ‘end of life’ which is Microsoft’s preferred phrase, see Microsoft Publisher is ending – what you need to know
Paste confusion
There have been significant changes to the shortcut keys in Word 365.
The overhaul of Word’s Paste shortcut keys was likely necessary, but it has resulted in some confusion. A specific Paste Text shortcut has been introduced, but the commonly used Copyright shortcut has been removed. However, an AutoCorrect option for (c) is still available.
The issue was compounded by Teams using the Ctrl + Shift + V shortcut, which conflicted with Word. As a result, the Format Paint shortcuts were changed from Ctrl+Shift combinations to Ctrl+Alt.
How Word pastes into your document
WordPad disappeared
Wordpad was removed from Windows 11 in late 2024 updates, making it harder to read and edit Word .docx files on any Windows computer.
Occasionally it becomes necessary to download from third-party sources,.Win7Games.com offers a variety of older Windows applications. Their Wordpad download includes an installer, supports both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and comes with multiple language files.
Stupid Stuff
As well as the major Microsoft Office news, 2024 had some less serious stories.
No Data? Excel’s Autofill is not the answer to people who used Excel to fill in the blank cells in their data.
Plenty of social media posts bashing Microsoft for supposed problems with the Editor word suggestions – The truth behind the Word controversy “Economically disadvantaged” vs “poor”
What Microsoft Word does with “Drunkonyms” after an academic paper coined the term.
We especially enjoyed watching Microsoft start an online poll, only to be told that customers prefer the old default font over their forced replacement. It’s official – Calibri beats Aptos in font poll
Hours of fun making monsters and pipes with this clever font
What do fonts say to each other?
Recycling – good. Paper shredding – good. Together – not so good.
