Microsoft Office 2019 Now Available – Comparing 2019 vs 2016 vs 365, New Features in Access & Excel

Microsoft Office 2019 is out!

Microsoft started the roll-out today of Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows & Mac – with major updates to Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Visio, and Publisher – to commercial volume license customers.

Microsoft is following up with Office 2019 releases to consumers and other business customers, as well as SharePoint / Exchange / Skype / Project Server 2019 releases, in the coming weeks.

Example screenshot of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook

Office 2019 provides a subset of features Microsoft has added to Office 365 over the past three years. As Office 2019 is a one-time release, Office 365 is still the better choice with not only far more features (Co-Authoring, etc) unavailable in Office 2019, but also far earlier access to them than on-premises, non-subscription Office 2019, etc. editions.

Speculation has been that Office 2019 may be the last perpetual license (on-premises / non-subscription) release of Office, so that Microsoft can focus in on its Office 365 subscription offerings. However, Microsoft has responded in one case that there is likely to be one more perpetual license release after this one.

Either way, Microsoft Office 2019 product pages even describe Office 2019 as a "one-time release" with Office 365 being needed to gain access to new features after that. It may also be that there are fewer editions available for Office 2019 than for Office 2016.

Whether you move to Office 2019 or 365, it's suggested you don't delay doing so, as Office 2016 cloud support will be dropped in 2020, with Office 2016 installs barred from connecting to Microsoft's cloud-based services, including hosted email (Exchange) and online storage (OneDrive for Business), after Oct. 13, 2020.

Drawing a floorplan and extension on a Microsoft Surface Pro with a Microsoft Surface pen

New in Office 2019

Word – text-to-speech, improved inking & accessibility, focus mode, translator, Learning tools (captions & audio descriptions), @ Mentions
PowerPoint – Morph transitions, Zoom, SVG, 3D model, play in-click sequence, 4k video, @ Mentions
Excel – Power Query (Get & Transform) enhancements, Power Pivot included with all editions, new functions & connectors, publish to Power BI, AI-driven Excel Insights for chart suggestions, new charts, @ Mentions

Excludes Co-Authoring, new Data Types like Stocks, and some other new features only available in Office 365

Outlook – @ Mentions, Office 365 Groups
OneNote – OneNote for Windows 10 (Modern App included with Windows) has replaced OneNote desktop app (though OneNote 2016 will be available via Volume License Install tool)
All Office apps – Ribbon customizations and roaming pencil case
Microsoft Access - including the many updates we've seen recently such as:

Modern Charts
New Linked Table Manager
Dark theme
Big Int
Salesforce & Dynamics connectors

Example of Microsoft Modern Charts in Microsoft Excel 2019

Example of PowerAccess in Query Design SQL

Other Recent Developments with Microsoft Access

It's especially exciting to see all the new features, growing user base and communities, new integrations, and development team responsiveness seen with Microsoft Access of late.

Inclusion on the Office templates page
- Which I hope will become permanent soon
SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) updates
ODBC and OLE DB driver updates – for optimized use and new feature support for SQL Server, Azure SQL and other back-ends databases
Power BI support (via On-Premises Data Gateway)
- Considering On-Premises Data Gateway is shared with PowerApps, hopefully that means we may see PowerApps support too in the future
New & growing Access conferences and user communities:
- New Access Developers' Day in Amsterdam
- DevCon in Vienna, AEK in Germany, UKAUG in UK, PAUG in Portland, Access Day in Redmond, Access Madrid in Spain
- Presence at Microsoft Ignite and other conferences
- Access User Groups (AUG) webinars and local chapters (Chicago, Denver, Madrid, Hertfordshire, etc.)
Access now included in most Office editions
- Included in nearly all (besides Online-only) editions
- Access in Office 365 Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, ProPlus, E3, and E5 editions
- Access in Office 2016 Professional and ProPlus editions

With MS Access having been added to most Office editions, presumably it will likewise be available with most Office 2019 editions now too.

It's great to see these features available to Office 365 subscribers (or even sooner if opt-in for Insiders program) now being made available to others with Office 2019, and I look forward to the many more new advancements with Microsoft Access and Office to come.

Links to More Info about Office 2019

You can find out more about Office 2019 with the following articles, FAQs and product pages:

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-proplus?activetab=tabs%3aprimaryr4
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4133312/office-2019-commercial-for-windows-and-mac-frequently-asked-questions
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09/24/office-2019-is-now-available-for-windows-and-mac/
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3229906/software-productivity/office-2019-is-coming-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/24/17896700/microsoft-office-2019-release-date-features
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-starts-rolling-out-office-2019-for-windows-and-mac/
https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/24/microsoft-releases-office-2019/
https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/24/microsoft-launches-office-2019-for-windows-and-mac-promises-it-wont-be-the-last/
https://www.techspot.com/news/76598-microsoft-office-2019-launches-commercial-customers.html

Dan Moorehead

Founder & Chief Software Architect

PowerAccess (https://www.PowerAccess.net

DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI
Nov 15, 2018
That said, you can install https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ (with Coherence Mode enabled) or https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html (with Unity mode enabled) on a Mac and use that to run Microsoft Access inside of a native Mac window as if it was a native Mac app (though, under the hood, it uses Windows virtualization).

In a similar fashion, you can use RemoteApp, a form of Remote Desktop which allows many simultaneous users to connect to the same Windows Server (or PC) with Microsoft Access installed, so that all they ever see is the launched application Window, appearing on their own PC, iPad, Mac, Android, web browser or mobile device via an RDP client, allowing full-screen, almost native app-like use (full screen on in an app window, without ever seeing a Windows desktop or having to launch the app from it).

Server Bandwidth may be more of a constraining factor with RemoteApp-based Access usage, limiting the maximum number of effective simultaneous users for different reasons, and can sometimes result in lag and/or reduced frame rate (which may or may not be noticeable) especially with very slow cellular connections, even if the database operations themselves end up running much faster than with a typical multi-user Access database deployment via VPN / network share folders.

However RemoteApp does provide its own performance and reliability benefits, such as a much reduced chance of database corruption. It can allow the Access database transactions/queries (and underlying JET/ACE/Access database engine) to operate as if each client has the database located locally on their own PC (assuming you locate it on the same server/PC hosting RemoteApp, though in some cases even if not) resulting in the database itself performing like it would if you were to open multiple instances of Microsoft Access with the same database (saved to your local drive) at the same time on your PC. RemoteApp presents a tradeoff (vs. VPN multi-user deployment) with bandwidth usage and performance being more fixed/constant, meaning higher bandwidth usage even idle (vs. VPN) for all users but potentially lower bandwidth usage or latency in cases which would otherwise be slow on VPN (such as with heavy data processing/updates).

Though RemoteApp is designed for Windows Server use, it can be hosted from any Windows PC (for running in the background while using that PC), though limited to just 1 connection at a time for Windows PC vs. up to 255 simultaneous connections (or much higher if using a SQL Server database backend) with Windows Server. RemoteApp can even enable simultaneous use by many mobile devices (such as iPads) over cellular connections.

That said, I've implemented a workaround for that limitation, as part of the https://www.PowerAccess.net/Microsoft-Access-Toolset-VBA-Framework-Excel-SQL-Addin solutions platform, with tools for simplifying RemoteApp deployment and even enabling hosting from a single Windows Desktop PC (workstation) instead of just Windows Server, which avoids additional licensing costs and complexity. I have, through this method, enabled Microsoft Access to run on multiple iPads, Macs, phones and even in Web Browsers simultaneously (with full-featured, touch-optimized support for the same Access Forms, Queries, Macros used on Windows desktop) based on one Microsoft Access installation on a single Windows desktop PC.

In this way, through RemoteApps for mobile/web/Mac use and Parallels or VMware Fusion for Macs, Microsoft Access can be used on Macs, iPads, Android, Web Browsers and mobile devices, as a viable alternative to PowerApps and the like, for or most clients and use cases, which typically than 255 different users connecting to and using the same Access database at the same time, and for which an unlimited number of authorized potential users are supported.