Microsoft is out with a free preview of Office 2016 for Mac, software that clearly demonstrates the changes that have taken place in Redmond as the company moves to a cloud first, mobile first footing.

Where Microsoft for decades offered only tepid support for non-Microsoft platforms, today’s Microsoft accepts that owning the operating system is just not as important as it used to be.

Thus, early in Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s administration, we were given Office for smartphones and tablets, OneNote for Mac, Outlook for Mac and now a brand new Office for Macintosh. If there was any question that a new Microsoft has emerged a company that accepts a multiplatform, multidevice world, this is the answer.

For decades, Microsoft’s Office for Macintosh had always been hobbled, just enough to keep Windows users from easily switching to Mac without making it too daunting for Mac users to move to Windows.

There are many good things to be said about the Office 2016 preview. Here are a few:

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1. It requires the fewest compromises of any Mac Office ever released. That’s another way of saying…
2. It is closer to the Windows version of Office than any of its predecessors. Both of those are very good things, since the little differences between the two versions always seemed like a not-so-subtle way to keep Windows customers away from Macintosh.
3. Office 2016 looks a lot like Office 2013 for Windows. Going forward, all platforms with share a common Office user experience. That is welcome news, especially in a world where users will move from platform to platform, accessing the same documents and information, throughout the day.
4. The free preview will timeout when the production software is released. It is not freeware, similar to the iOS version of Office, but it is the next best thing: Office365 subscribers will get the upgrade for free.
5. Microsoft still manages to bake in some Macintosh goodness, like Retina display support. But you cannot save or rename files from the title bar because, according to Microsoft, that feature does not work well with OneDrive cloud storage. Office 2016 is designed work closely with OneDrive and SharePoint.
6. Cross-platform Office is at least as important to Microsoft as the Windows OS platform. And for Microsoft to succeed the company needs everyone using Office and storing their stuff on Microsoft’s cloud. That isn’t too much to ask for, is it?
7. The changes at Microsoft are real and seem to have staying power. Satya Nadella is helming a different Microsoft than the one Steve Ballmer ran. I wonder how much of this planning was done during Steve’s tenure and how much was a cold start after Nadella’s appointment?
8. I have downloaded the preview but haven’t had much of an opportunity to do anything with it, so these comments are not any sort of a product review. My user notes will appear in a week or so.

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Office 2016 for Mac shows Microsoft can still be fast on its feet when it has to be. If you have a Mac and are running Yosemite, download the preview and tell me what you think.

photo credit: n.bhupinder via photopin cc