Microsoft Office 2019 was announced and released on September 24, 2018, and is now available for Mac and Windows 10 users to purchase in all regions. Microsoft Office 2019 contains a number of small tweaks and additions, so we decided to highlight all the most interesting changes in this article.
What is Microsoft Office 2019?
Microsoft Office 2019 is the latest standalone version of Microsoft Office software. Like previous versions, Microsoft Office 2019 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access 2019, Publisher 2019, and Visio 2019.
While Microsoft has shifted its efforts to a subscription-based cloud service, Office 365, Office 2019 allows users to pay a one-time fee to access Microsoft services forever. Office 2019 is also useful for those who prefer to save and access files offline without backing up to the cloud.
The most important new changes in Microsoft Office 2019
As a quick overview, we’ll take a look at the major new changes that have occurred in Office 2019. Keep in mind that all of these changes will also be available for Office 365. If you already have an active 365 subscription, you can immediately take advantage of these changes.
- Scalable Vector Graphics for Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Microsoft Translator to Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Create math equations using the LaTeX equation in Word
- Create smoother animations and movements with Morph in PowerPoint
- New navigation feature called Zoom for PowerPoint.
- Use Surface Pen to navigate slides in PowerPoint
- Exciting new features in Excel
- More powerful ink features for all Office 2019
I’ll go into more detail on each of these changes in Microsoft Office 2019 below.
Vector graphics are scalable
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In Office 2019, you can now add scalable vector graphics (SVG) to Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents. This type of graphic can be easily rotated, moved, colored, and resized without degrading image quality. You can also find a number of icons in the Insert tab.
There will be a new icon button that can be used to access many of the commonly used SVG icons. These icons can serve as an easy way to come up with your emails or presentations, or just bring a boring document to life.
Built-in Microsoft Translator support
Microsoft Translator is a new feature added to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. To access it, open the Review tab in your document and click the new Translate and Language buttons. From here you will have the option to translate the entire document or translate a selected portion of the text.
Microsoft Translator has been around for a while, but seeing it integrated into Office is great. Translation services like Microsoft Translator aren’t perfect, but they get more accurate over time.
LaTeX equations in Word
Using LaTeX equations in Word, you can now enter mathematical expressions using LaTeX syntax. Full details on how to use this new system in Microsoft Word have been explained by Microsoft here .
You will find the LaTeX option under the Design tab. Or you can press Alt + = on your keyboard.
Morph in PowerPoint adds better animation and animation
A new transition called Morph has been added to PowerPoint. This powerful transition allows you to seamlessly transition from one slide to the next in your presentation. Basically, it’s an easy way to create any animation in seconds. PowerPoint does all the hard work for you.
To use morphing, you must first duplicate a slide, then move, resize, or edit objects on the duplicated slide, and then click Transitions and Morphing. This will automatically create a smooth animation from the original slide to the duplicated one.
New PowerPoint Zoom Navigation
Zoom adds a new dynamic navigation option for PowerPoint slide presentation. With Zoom, you have thumbnails of all your slides on one page. You can then click each slide individually and a little transition animation will take you to that slide.
Zooming has proven to be a fun and engaging way to transition between slides during a presentation, and it allows for a more fluid approach to the presentation than the typical default slide-by-slide.
Surface Pen Slide Navigation for PowerPoint
Thanks to the changes made in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can now use a Surface Pen or a competitor’s similar product to move through slides in your PowerPoint presentation. The digital pen can navigate slides up to 30 feet wirelessly.
You just need to press the eraser button to advance the slide and press and hold the eraser to go back one slide. This is actually a small feature, but it will go a long way for those who regularly present PowerPoint presentations to real audiences.
Exciting new functions in Excel
6 new functions have been added to Excel; CONCAT, IFS, MAXIFS, MINIFS, SWITCH and TEXTJOIN.
Starting at the top, CONCAT is similar to CONCATENATE, but now supports referencing ranges, not just individual cells.
MAXIFS can be used to return the largest number in a range – you can also set the returned result to only be a number that meets certain criteria. MINIFS is the same, but will return the smallest number.
SWITCH can be used to evaluate one value against a list of values, and it will return the result that matches the first value that matches. If there is no match, you can set an optional default.
Finally, TEXTJOIN is a unique feature that can combine text from multiple ranges – you can choose how to separate each text, such as a comma, period or any other separator.
More powerful inking functions
If you have a touchscreen device, you’ll be happy to know about the new inking features added in Microsoft Office 2019. In Ink Tools Pens, you can choose options such as ink color and stroke width.
You can select text or delete entire written words or areas of text by using the Inking Tools Eraser option on the Pens tab. All of these tools are now also automatically available in Office 365 for the web, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile.
Summary
Thank you for reading our roundup of what’s new in Microsoft Office 2019. Which of these new features are you interested in? If you have any questions about these new additions or Office 2019 in general, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer. Enjoy!
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