Why does big tech think that improvements always have to mean different? If you're over having to relearn your essential computer programs every time some tech genius thinks it's time to switch up, check out this Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows deal. During Deal Days (think of it as our rendition of Amazon's Prime Day), you can add the classic apps you love, like Word, Excel, and Publisher, to your PC with the layouts you like for just 19.97 (reg. With Microsoft Office 2019, you get all the essential programs you're familiar with in the Office suite to help you create documents and spreadsheets, draft presentations and design graphic art, and even track research and database information. Even though these are the older versions of Microsoft programs, your files will still be compatible with more recent iterations. You don't have to worry about integrating with existing Office setups, such as in a work team.

Why does big tech think that improvements always have to mean different? If you're over having to relearn your essential computer programs every time some tech genius thinks it's time to switch up, check out this Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows deal. You can add the old-school programs you love, like Word, Excel, and Publisher, with the layouts you like for just 29.97 for life. With Microsoft Office 2019, you get all the essential programs you're familiar with in the Office suite to help you create documents and spreadsheets, draft presentations and design graphic art, and even track research and database information. Even though these are the older versions of Microsoft programs, your files will still be compatible with more recent iterations.

TL;DR: Save 36% on Microsoft Office 2024, the latest version that comes with AI enhancements for apps like Word, Excel, and more. If you haven't heard, Microsoft Office 2024 hit the virtual shelves late last year. If you're still working with the 2019 or 2021 editions, you may be due for an upgrade, especially since the latest version of Microsoft Office comes with a fresh makeover, new productivity features, and AI integration that could streamline your work. Ready for your favorite productivity apps to get an upgrade? Save over 30% on a license and grab a lifetime license to Office 2024 for your PC or Mac for 159.97 (reg.

It's mind-blowing how much world-shaping work that gets done in hotel ballrooms. Machine learning experts regularly gather at conferences around the world to discuss noteworthy work and how to move the industry forward. Few are fortunate enough to attend in person, but you can sometimes find video online. The most recent example: The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) met in Hawaii last week, and among topics discussed was the roadmap for AI research in the United States for the next 20 years. The process to create a plan for the next two decades started in November with private workshops attended by academics and people from industry.

When Microsoft announced the standalone versions of Office last year, known as Office 2019, Microsoft's attitude seemed decidedly lukewarm. We were wrong: Now it's downright hostile. Microsoft released three videos Wednesday to try and demonstrate that the AI-powered, always-updated version of Office 365 trounces the standalone Office 2019 in tasks ranging from automatically filling in geographic data in an Excel spreadsheet to automatically adding relevant skills to a Word resume that can be then sent to a recruiter. In each of the "showdowns," Office 2019 forces the user to perform the tasks manually, while Office 365 either automatically performs the task or connects to the Internet to simplify it. According to Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, Office 2019 is "frozen in time:" "They [the Office 2019 apps] don't ever get updated with new features, and they're not cloud-connected," Spataro wrote.

Looking back at Microsoft's 2018, you could make the argument that the company ended on an all-time high. But our readers buy Microsoft products, not Microsoft stock. From that perspective (and with all due respect to Microsoft's enterprise business, which isn't part of what we cover here at PCWorld), Microsoft's record was conservative and somewhat underwhelming, with a few exceptions. Microsoft added merely a flourish or two to its existing Surface lineup, for instance, and both feature updates to Windows 10 have turned out to be fairly inconsequential. As we've done in recent years, we list the highlights, low points, and yes, "what the hell was that??!" moments, closing with what we think Microsoft needs to work on most for 2019. Everyone loves a killer tech demo, and Microsoft showed off a doozy at its Build conference: a conference room of the future where Cortana could both hear and see, identifying users as they walked in.

"Microsoft Monday" is a weekly column that focuses on all things Microsoft. This week "Microsoft Monday" features news about the Flipgrid acquisition, next-gen Xbox and Surface details leaking, a preview of Office 2019 for Mac, how AI is being used for determining which Windows 10 devices are ready to be updated and much more! Today Microsoft announced that it has acquired social education company Flipgrid. Microsoft is making Flipgrid free for all educators and is offering prorated refunds to everyone that bought a subscription in the last year. The terms of this deal were undisclosed.

Mac users who prefer Microsoft's suite of productivity tools but aren't keen on Office 365 are getting their first chance to try Office 2019 for Mac. A preview of the suite (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote) is now open to business users. Among the new features are a roaming "pencil case" (i.e. Word receives accessibility improvements, a translation tool and a focus mode. The PowerPoint updates include morph transitions and 4K video export.

Your favorite spreadsheet is about to get a lot smarter, thanks to the help of machine learning and a better connection to the outside world. As Jared Spataro, Microsoft's general manager for Office, and Rob Howard, the company's director of Office 365 ecosystem marketing, showed me during a briefing at the company's Ignite conference today, Excel will soon be able to understand more about your inputs and then pull additional information from the internet as necessary. "We're pleased to introduce new data types," Spataro explained. "That doesn't sound all that interesting and we had this interesting discussion about what we'd name these things, but at the end of the day we realized that if you're really an Excel wonk, the thing that you're going to get is that there's new data types." In today's demo, Spataro showed me how you will soon be able to tag a list of company names as -- well -- company names, for example.