Office 2019 Professional Plus Provides Limited Improvements

• Office 2019 is a maintenance release of the desktop software, with few compelling new features.
• The suite is mostly used to extend Mainstream support for users who are not moving to ProPlus.
• Organizations will need to stay on their current version or choose an upgrade path that leads to subscription software.

Office 2019 Professional Plus received relatively minor improvements, except for specialized features in Excel and Outlook, and has altered its deployment technology and life cycle. It is deployable only via installation technology based on Click-to-Run (C2R), which may affect some add-on customizations. It also has a unique life cycle with five years of Mainstream support, but only two years of Extended support, ending the same year as Office 2016. Consequently, few customers will find the new version compelling.

New and Missing Features in Professional Plus

Office Professional Plus is an application suite usually bought Per-Device with a perpetual license. The 2019 version consists of Access, Excel, a limited version of OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word, and the Skype for Business client. Project Professional and Visio Professional are packaged and licensed separately.