Microsoft Office is powered by the cloud so you can access your documents anytime, anywhere, and on any device. It’s unmistakably Office – but thoughtfully designed to take advantage of the unique features of the Windows. Microsoft Office is an office suite of desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft. The new Microsoft Office includes updated versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook and the moment you open any one of the apps, you’ll immediately feel the difference. A refreshed task pane interface makes positioning, resizing, or rotating graphics easy so you can create exactly the layout you want. And new themes and styles help you pull it all together to produce stunning, professional documents.

Get hold of Microsoft Office 2019 and you’ve got the most powerful office applications at your fingertips: Word, Excel and PowerPoint offer a level of depth and control that you don’t get from the likes of Google Docs or open source office alternatives.

Word – Able to ace any kind of word processing job, Word is equally comfortable drafting letters, wrangling huge essays, or whipping up quick newsletters. Despite its wealth of features and tools, the app manages to still come across as accessible and intuitive, thanks to that Ribbon interface. Even after 30 years, this remains the word processor to beat.

Excel – Packed with functions, no other spreadsheet program really comes close to Excel in terms of advanced capabilities. New features have been thin on the ground in recent years, but that’s only because it already has everything you’re going to need – from crunching the numbers on the annual budget to organizing the tea rota.

PowerPoint – The all-powerful presentation tool gets some new tricks in Office 2019, including support for advancing slides with Bluetooth pens, a new zoom interface for jumping between slides, and a cool morph transition. It might not be as lean as some of its newer rivals (like Google Slides) but it’s hard to beat in terms of overall capabilities.

Outlook – The one email, calendar, contacts and tasks application to rule them all, Outlook continues to impress, though like Excel it hasn’t been blessed with many upgrades in recent years. Still, it’s guaranteed to do a fine job of managing your emails across multiple accounts, and now features a new Focused inbox for your most important messages only.

Access – Microsoft’s venerable database application is still available to you when you pick up an Office 2019 purchase, should you have a need for it, and the app remains as solid and dependable as ever. New in this version are some improved chart types, support for a handful of new data types, and accessibility upgrades as well, but nothing major.

Note that Microsoft hasn’t included OneNote in the Office 2019 package, though you can choose to install the 2016 version if you want to. Instead, Microsoft is pushing users towards the Windows 10 OneNote app (universally available to everyone), which should be enough to take care of all your note-taking needs.

In terms of features and capabilities, the likes of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are still hard to touch. However, the cloud-based features and regular updates of Office 365 are well worth considering for your business needs, even if you do have to fork out money to Microsoft every month.

If you are going to pay a monthly fee, G Suite is also a strong contender for your cash. Its apps aren’t quite as powerful as Microsoft’s, but they’re slick and fast, and built with the web in mind. They might suit you better if you need speed and simplicity rather than a long list of features that you’re never going to use.

It really all comes down to you and the needs of your business. If you work on a single computer, with not much need for sharing and collaborating on documents, then Office 2019 remains hard to beat – you can make your single payment, get your software installed, and then you’re set for years to come.