Today at Ignite in Orlando, FL, Microsoft announced the next version of Office is in the development and expected to release in the second half of year 2018. Office 2019 will include perpetual versions of the Office products including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook and servers including Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. The Previews of the new products will start shipping mid-year 2018.
The news was announced via a blog post by Jared Spataro, GM for Office. Jared wrote:
Office 2019 will add new user and IT capabilities for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. For example, new and improved inking features—like pressure sensitivity, tilt effects, and ink replay—will allow you to work more naturally. New formulas and charts will make data analysis for Excel more powerful. Visual animation features—like Morph and Zoom—will add polish to PowerPoint presentations. Server enhancements will include updates to IT manageability, usability, voice, and security.