In March, Microsoft officially announced it would offer a new stand-alone version of its popular Office apps, with the expected name of Office 2024. In April, it launched a public preview of Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 for commercial and government customers for Windows and Mac.
Today, in a blog post, Microsoft announced that Office LTSC 2024 is now generally available for existing business and government customers. It is now also available for any new on-premises versions of Project and Visio. Microsoft says it will be rolled out for all commercial and government customers by October 1.
Office 2024 LTSC includes the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, and OneNote apps. Buying one copy gives the use the license to install and use it on one PC, either for Windows or Mac. Windows customers who get Office LTSC Professional Plus can also get the Microsoft Access ap. It also does not require an internet connection, which may be a big benefit for businesses, and especially government, customers who want to secure these apps.
The blog post added:
Office LTSC 2024 offers a locked-in-time version of familiar productivity tools, updated with a subset of the features that have been added to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise over the last three years. New features for this release include Dynamic Charts and more than a dozen new text and array functions in Excel, enhanced search and meeting creation options in Outlook, and improvements to performance, security, and accessibility.
Office 2024 LTSC will be officially supported by Microsoft for five years, in accordance with its Fixed Lifecycle Policy. If you are wondering when Microsoft will make any announcements about a version of Office 2024 for consumers, it looks like we will have to wait a bit longer. Microsoft says we will get info about Office 2024 for consumers "in the coming weeks."