Leaked marketing materials point to a Sept. 22 launch for Microsoft's overhauled productivity suite, Office 2016.
Office 2016 has been in preview mode for some Windows 10 users and has rolled out in full for the OS X crowd. Now, it seems, the rest of the computing world only has about a month left before it will have access to Office 2016.
The leaked marketing materials, first spotted by German language tech site Winfuture.de, allegedly appeared on the Office 2016 Launch hub. The site will be Office 2016's central hub for enterprise readiness, education and promotional materials, according to a memo posted to the hub.
"On September 22, 2015, we'll release office 2016 with updates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Skype for Business, Project, Visio, Access and Publisher," the memo stated. "The innovation wave continues in Q2 with the release of E5 and Skype for Business, and on-premise servers will follow."
As Microsoft's cloud business becomes more profitable, the company continues to focus on giving its software life off premises. In Office 2016, Microsoft will drive its software even deeper into the cloud.
Office 2016 allows users to save files locally or in the cloud: OneDrive and OneDrive for Business. Microsoft has also made it easier for people to share documents and collaborate on them, using a cloud connection to show who is currently viewing what and who is allowed to go where.
During the previews of Office 2016, Microsoft also gave users a go at Word's new real-time co-authoring. Thanks to its cloud connectivity, Word users can collaborate.
"When you're collaborating on a document, you can see text changes others are making as well as the location of their cursor within the document," said Microsoft. "Changes are displayed automatically as people use and update the document."
Real-time co-authoring will be available to users working on documents housed on SharePoint sites and OneDrive for Business.
Elsewhere in Office 2016, Microsoft has expanded Outlook's cloud connectivity to better support cloud-saved attachments.
Now, you will be "able to pick and attach files on your SharePoint or OneDrive accounts even if they don't appear in your recent items list," said Microsoft.
