September is a big month for Microsoft Office: the next desktop version of Office for Windows will be available starting September 22nd, and an updated version of Office for iPhone and iPad will be available when iOS 9 launches on September 16th.
Office 2016 for Windows desktop users includes updated versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook which support saving documents directly the cloud, opening cloud documents for editing, and real-time co-authoring tools that let multiple users edit a document at the same time.
There are also new tools including “Tell Me” which lets you search for commands by description, and “Clutter” for Outlook, which moves low-priority messages out of view.
Office for iOS, meanwhile, is getting a pretty significant update, with support for Split View on iPads, allowing you to use two different apps at once (such as Word and PowerPoint). There’s also support for inking on the iPad Pro, letting you write, draw, or mark highlights using an Apple Pen.
There’s also improved support for wireless keyboards, allowing you to hit the Command key to view available shortcuts, for instance.
Office for iPhone also gets a few updates, including support for viewing OneNote notes and outlook messages in search.
I gave Office 2016 a long trial a few months ago. The only thing that made me go back to 2013 is Outlook cannot be setup connected to Exchange via a proxy. Outside of that, it looks very clean and works great when I used Word and Excel.