What’s new in Office 2021

Reduce eye strain with Dark Mode

Previously, you could use Word with a dark ribbon and toolbars, but your document color stayed bright white. Now, Dark Mode in Word offers a dark canvas as well.

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Improve comprehension with Line Focus

Move through a document in Word, line by line, without distractions. Adjust the focus to put one, three, or five lines in view at a time.

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See what’s new in stock media

We’re constantly adding more rich media content to the Office Premium Creative Content collection, a curated library of stock images, icons, and more that helps you express yourself.

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Find what you need with Microsoft Search

At the top of your Microsoft Office apps on Windows you’ll find the new Microsoft Search box. This powerful tool helps you quickly find what you’re looking for, from text to commands to help and more.

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Visual refresh

Work with a modernized Start experience and newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon. Experience a clean, clear style with monoline iconography, neutral color palette, and softer window corners. These updates communicate action and provide features with simple visuals.

Look left, look right… XLOOKUP

Row by row, find anything you need in a table or range with XLOOKUP.

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Dynamic arrays

Write one formula and return an array of values. Expedite calculations and insights with six new functions: FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE and RANDARRAY

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LET function

The LET function assigns names to calculation results. This allows storing intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula.

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XMATCH function

The XMATCH function searches for a specified item in an array or range of cells, and then returns the item’s relative position. You can also use XMATCH to return a value in an array.

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Sheet views

Create customized views in an Excel worksheet without disrupting others.

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Accessibility ribbon

The Accessibility ribbon puts all the tools you need to create accessible content in one place.

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New and improved Record Slide Show

Record Slide Show now supports presenter video recording, ink recording and laser pointer recording.

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Ink Replay – Slide Animation for Ink object

Now you can apply the new Replay or Rewind animation to ink and get the drawing effect directly in your presentations. You can adjust the timing of these animations to be faster or slower to match the experience you want.

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Arrange elements on your slides for screen readers

See the elements in screen-reading order and re-arrange them as necessary to communicate your message effectively.

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Link to a slide

Ask a colleague to contribute to your slide deck, and start them directly on the slide you need help with.

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Translator and ink in Outlook

Translate email messages into more than 70 languages on the fly and view the transcript—all within Outlook.

Annotate email images or draw in a separate canvas using your finger, pen, or mouse.

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In Outlook 2021, use Instant Search to quickly find emails

Select the search bar (located above the Outlook ribbon) to help find email messages anywhere in Outlook.

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Increase the reach of your content

Accessibility Checker keeps an eye on your documents and tells you in the status bar when it finds something you should look at. Try it by clicking Review > Check Accessibility.

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Performance improvements

Experience improved performance, stability, and speed across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook​.

Get faster calculations from common Excel functions like SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF.

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Updated Draw tab

Quickly access and change the color of all your inking tools in one place.

Simplify how you work with ink using new Draw tab additions: Point Eraser, Ruler, and Lasso.

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Save your changes as they happen

Upload your files to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online to make sure all your updates are saved automatically.

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