Changes in Office 2016 for Windows desktop
Summary: Provides admins with information about which features in Office 2016 for Windows changed or were removed since Office 2013 was released.
Each of the following tables describes features that are changed or removed in the applications in Office 2016 for Windows.
There are tables for the following applications: Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. The Office suite table lists features that are changed or removed from several or all apps.
If you're looking for information about the new features in Office 2016, see Microsoft 365 Training.
Office suite
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Office 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Clip Art |
The Office.com Clip Art and image library was removed. |
Clip Art now powered by Bing Images Add online pictures or clip art to your file |
| Document Information Panel |
The Document Information Panel is removed. |
Where is the Document Information Panel in Office 2016? |
| EPS images |
The ability to insert images that use the EPS file format is no longer supported. |
A red X placeholder replaces the image in your Office file if it uses the EPS file format. Support for EPS images has been turned off in Office for Windows |
| Equation Editor |
Microsoft Equation Editor 3.0 isn't supported in Office 2016. |
You don't need to install anything to write or edit math equations in Office 2016. Just choose Insert > Equation. For more information, see Write an equation. |
| Localized languages |
Language packs that allow the user to display the Office user interface in a specific language are no longer available for the following languages: - Central Kurdish - Hausa (Latin) - Igbo - isiXhosa - isiZulu - K'iche - Kinyarwanda - Punjabi (Arabic) - Sesotho sa Leboa - Setswana (South Africa) - Tajik - Tigrigna - Wolof - Yoruba |
Proofing tools are still available for the following languages: - Hausa (Latin) - Igbo - isiXhosa - isiZulu - Kinyarwanda - Sesotho sa Leboa - Setswana (South Africa) - Wolof - Yoruba For more information, see Language Accessory Pack for Office 2016. |
| Themes |
The following changes were made to Office themes: - The light gray theme was removed. - The dark gray theme is updated. - A black theme was added. |
The black theme is only available to Office 365 subscribers. |
| Version information |
The version information shown under File > Account > About application name no longer shows the version information for the application's .exe file. |
This change only applies to Windows Installer (MSI) versions of Office 2016. The version number that is shown is for the Mso20win32client.dll file. |
Access
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Access 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Web apps |
Microsoft no longer recommends creating and using Access web apps in SharePoint. |
This feature is retiring from SharePoint Server in 10 years and is retired from Office 365. Access Services in SharePoint Roadmap |
Excel
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Excel 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Marketplace connector |
The following options were removed from the ribbon and are no longer available: - Data > Get External Data > From Other Sources > From Windows Azure Marketplace - Data > Get Data > From Azure > From Azure Marketplace |
Data services are no longer available from Azure Marketplace. |
| Power View |
The Power View button was removed from Insert > Reports on the ribbon. |
Roadmap for Power View in Excel If you want to continue to use Power View, you can follow these steps to turn on Power View. |
OneNote
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in OneNote 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Scanned images |
The Scanned Image button was removed from Insert > Images on the ribbon. |
The ability to insert a scanned image from a scanner is no longer supported. For other options, see How can I Insert scanned images into OneNote? |
Outlook
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Outlook 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Autodiscover |
Outlook 2016 requires Autodiscover to be configured, or it can't connect to Exchange Server. |
Outlook 2016 retrieves Exchange Server connectivity settings directly from Autodiscover instead of the registry, making profiles more reliable, but that also makes Autodiscover a required feature. Errors when you upgrade to Office 2016 |
| Cached Exchange Mode Sync Slider |
There are three new options for how much mail is available when you're working offline and you're using Cached Exchange Mode: - three days - one week - two weeks |
Change how much mail to keep offline |
| Exchange Server support |
Outlook 2016 doesn't support connecting to Exchange Server 2007. |
Error: Stop, you should wait to install Office 2016. You won’t be able to receive mail from a current mailbox] |
| Outlook Social Connector |
Access to LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media sites was removed. |
In some cases, these social sites have Office add-in solutions that you can use instead. Visit the Office Store for more solutions. Can you connect to a social network in Outlook? |
| People Pane |
The People Pane is off by default. Also, the Account Settings option was removed. |
To show the People Pane when reading messages, go to View > People Pane, and then choose Normal or Minimized. |
| PRF files |
PRF files for configuring Exchange Server accounts are no longer supported. |
Accounts should be configured automatically in the account wizard when you use Autodiscover. |
PowerPoint
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in PowerPoint 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| HTML files |
Opening an HTML file is no longer supported. |
The "All Web Pages" choice was removed from the File > Open dialog box. |
Publisher
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Publisher 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Live Preview |
The ability to preview the effects of formatting changes was removed. |
The Enable Live Preview option was removed from File > Options > General > User Interface options. Live Preview is removed starting with Version 1606 (Build 7070.2022). |
Word
The following table lists features that are changed or removed in Word 2016.
| Area | What's changed | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Blogging |
The ability to publish a document as a blog post to Blogger is no longer supported. |
The Blogger option was removed from File > Share > Post to Blog. You can still publish a document as a blog post to other blogging platforms. Help with blogging in Word |
| Grammar & Style |
The Grammar & Style option was removed from the Writing Style drop-down menu in the "When correcting spelling and grammar in Word" section under File > Options > Proofing. |
The Grammar & Style option was removed for the following languages: - Arabic - Danish - Dutch - English - Finnish - French - German - Italian - Norwegian Bokmål - Portuguese (Brazilian) - Portuguese (Portugal) - Russian - Spanish |
| Korean data recognizers |
Korean data recognizers are no longer available under File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > Actions. |
The following Korean data recognizers are removed: - Address - Date - Person name - Telephone number - Time |
| Research |
The Research button was removed from Review > Proofing on the ribbon. |
You can add the Research button to the ribbon by customizing the ribbon. |