Microsoft Office Suite Office 2021 (16.0)

2021, October 5

Microsoft Office 2021 (third release codenamed Office 16) is a version of the Microsoft Office suite of applications for the Microsoft Windows and macOS operating systems. It was released on October 5, 2021. Office 2021 is compatible with Windows 10 v1809 and Windows Server 2019 through Windows 11 v24H2 and Windows Server 2025. It is also compatible with macOS Catalina through macOS Sequoia. Its successor, Microsoft Office 2024 was released on October 1, 2024.

Office 2021 retains the same major version number of 16 that previous versions of Office had. It introduces new dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP features for Excel, full dark-mode support in Windows and performance improvements. Support for retail versions of Office 2021 will end on October 13, 2026; unlike older versions of Office, there is no extended support period.

Development

The office suite updates include better support for the OASIS OpenDocument file format. The version update adds features to the LET function, has better search for XMATCH function, dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP. It enhances Ink for Translate in Microsoft Outlook and PowerPoint.

Editions

Office 2021

Home & Student: Home & Student includes the core applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. This edition can be installed either on PC or on Mac.

Home & Business: Home & Business includes the core applications and Outlook. This edition can be installed either on PC or on Mac.

Professional: Professional includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, and Access. This edition is exclusive for PC only.

Professional Plus: Professional Plus includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Teams (replacement of previous Skype for Business). This edition is exclusive for PC only.

Office LTSC 2021

Volume licensing perpetual branch of Microsoft Office, 3 editions were released:

Standard for Mac: Standard for Mac includes the core applications as well as Outlook. It is only available for Apple Macintosh computers.

Standard: Standard includes the core applications, as well as Outlook and Publisher. It is only available for Microsoft Windows PCs.

Professional Plus: Professional Plus includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Teams. It is only available for Microsoft Windows PCs.

Default font change

Midway through the life cycle of Office 2021, after two years of evaluating five newly commissioned fonts in July – the default font across all Office applications was changed to Aptos. This marked the first time since 16 years that Microsoft had changed the default fonts.

User interface

The default interface, when the Office theme set to Use system setting, dark gray, black, or white, shows a Mica background (whence the name) across the top of each screen; the application icon is in the top left corner. When Colorful is selected (must be done manually), a band in the application color shows across the top of each screen; this is called the Metro background.