Five years after rolling out Office 2011 for Mac, Microsoft has made a first public preview of its successor, Office 2016 for Mac, available to testers for download.

Microsoft already has updated OneNote and Outlook (available in limited preview form) available for the Mac. On Thursday, the company is delivering refreshed public previews of those two apps in addition to the first public previews of the 2016 versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and is making all five apps available to anyone running Yosemite (Mac OS 10.10).

The Office for Mac 2016 preview is available for download from Microsoft’s Office.com preview site, and can be run alongside Office for Mac 2011.

Microsoft plans to deliver regular updates to the preview, and will let testers know via a notification from the Office for Mac Auto-Update tool. Every new preview build will expire roughly 60 days after it’s posted. The final preview build will continue to function for roughly a month after Office 2016 for Mac becomes generally available, sometime this summer, officials said. That’s likely to be several months ahead of the Office 2016 for Windows release in the second half of 2015. Officials said they’d have more news to share soon about opening up the Office 2016 for Windows suite publicly. (The Windows version has been in private testing for several months.)

Microsoft’s goal with Office 2016 for Mac is to make it look and feel more like Office for Windows (and other Office suite flavors), while not losing the styling that makes the suite feel like it’s built for Mac OS X, said Eric Wilfrid, director of Office product marketing.

The updated Mac suite includes a newly designed Ribbon that’s similar in formatting and organization to the Office for Windows Ribbon. The suite includes full support for retina displays and is built to be “cloud connected,” so it’s tightly integrated with OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint and Office 365.

Office 2016 for Mac allows users to access files across all their devices running Office by signing in with their Office sign-in credentials. This way, a user could start writing a document on Office for Android, access it later on Office 2016 for Mac and then finish it on Office for iPad, while always having access to the most up-to-date version.

In the new version of Word 2016 for Mac, Microsoft has added threaded comments to improve coauthoring. In Excel, there’s now support for the same keyboard shortcuts as Office for Windows users have. The PowerPoint 2016 for Mac update adds the same presenter view as is available in PowerPoint for iOS.

So far, as is the case with the Office 2016 for Windows private preview, new features and functionality seem rather limited for the next version of Office for Mac. So what took Microsoft so long to bring the coming version to market?

Wilfrid said that Microsoft shifted gears after rolling out Office 365 and decided to focus on Office 365 and prioritize some of the new Office mobile releases, such as Office for iOS.

Office’s focus is now on cloud connectivity, he said, noting that anyone who has a current Office 365 subscription with support for downloadable versions of the Office suite apps will get Office 2016 for Mac as soon as it is released for no additional cost. Microsoft is not yet releasing Office 2016 for Mac pricing for those who don’t have an Office 365 subscription.

This story originally posted as “Microsoft delivers first public preview of Office 2016 for Mac” at ZDNet.

Microsoft Office 365, a cloud-based productivity service hosted by Microsoft and managed by Aperio IT, provides anywhere access to your familiar Office applications, email, calendar, HD video conferencing, and most up-to-date documents across your devices—all for one predictable fee. With Office 365 your organization can take advantage of the latest Office client and enterprise-ready tools on virtually any device—from laptops to tablets to smartphones—without having to upgrade your organizations servers. With a financially-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee, best-in-class virus and malware protection, automatic backup and server patches, and geo-redundant data centers, Office 365 delivers business continuity that’s easy to set up and manage and doesn’t require upfront server costs. With Office 365 you get the best value to fit your changing needs as you grow your business.

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[vc_video link=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt-0pdcyn8U’]

As a recent convert of Microsoft Office 365, I wanted to take a moment and outline why I applaud my company’s decision to transition to this new cloud-based email platform. To put it lightly, it has transformed the way we do business (and yes, I would shout it from the rooftops if I had access to our office building roof).

To give a better understanding for why I love Microsoft Office 365 so much, I first have to take you on a journey to the past to understand what Clast Act, our client’s office was dealing with before. They were working in an environment that was filled with desktops, the only people that had access to mobile email solutions were the mobile managers. They were able to work from anywhere and everywhere and were the envy of every employee.  This was when we realized that their company was metaphorically duck taped to their desktops.

This is when the unthinkable happened.  A disaster had occurred when the sewage line in Class Act’s building decided to explode everywhere which rendered their office closed while the building manager took care of the dilemma.  Class Act was shutdown for a week, and things grinded to a stand-still since most of the office didn’t have access to the files they needed or the ability to communicate with one another other than through text messages on our personal cell phones.

No one had the ability to work from home, and our internal email server was giving us another fight to contend with. Emails were being delayed or lost, clients were unsatisfied, and our IT Director was ready to lose it from all of the complaints that were being registered. It was time for something new. And that’s when the glory that is Microsoft 365 came into our lives.

At first, Class Act and our deparmented astounded at the ability to now work from anywhere and everywhere, but to our great fortune, that was only the beginning. Do you know what kinds of awesome add-ons come with Office 365? We didn’t, but here’s a brief list:

• Calendar Sharing – Instead of having an office full of people requesting to know my schedule to set up calls with clients, I now have only to accept calendar invitations. It has simplified our ability to set internal meetings, as well. I love this tool.
• Documentation Collaboration – We avoid the rounds of edits that come with multiple file versions, the great task of combining feedback, as well as the frantic search for the final version at the end of it all. We can simply work from one file that tracks every change made, so versions are kept nice and neat.
• Group Chat – Lync is our new instant messenger and group chat tool. We no longer have to rely on out-of-date programs like AOL Instant Messenger that lack security.
• OneDrive – Our company can share files easier and faster than ever. With automatic syncing, collaboration has never been easier.
• Share Point – We now have the ability to share work and organize projects and teams like never before. The managers in our department found this tool far simpler than the legacy systems we were using. We have the ability to upload new work applications in the blink of an eye, manage content, run dashboards for business intelligence, and more.

My friends, I have seen the future of email at work, and it is glorious. I urge you all to join me and my company and discover for yourselves what Microsoft Office 365 – particularly when combined with IBM servers – can do for your business.

Discover what Microsoft 365 can offer your business.