Microsoft Office may be the de facto productivity tool for millions of workers worldwide, but it's no monolith. Rather than a single, towering smooth-black Office, there's a whole Stonehenge of options: Office on the iPhone, on iPad, Office on Android smartphones, Office on personal computers, Windows and macOS, Office with a handful of applications, Office with fistfuls'. But when you get down to it, there are really only two kinds of Office. One, which most label Office 2016, is the stand-alone suite that traces its roots back to the last century. (Its successor is Office 2019.) The other, Office 365, is the subscription service that debuted in 2011.

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How they differ can be confusing, especially since each includes, more or less, the same applications. Here are three top ways to tell these tools apart, and a look at what's coming, based on Microsoft's recently announced new support policies for the upcoming Office 2019, as well as Office 365, down the road. How Office is paid for Of the differences between Office 2016 and Office 365, purchase plans are among the most striking. Office 2016, whether bought one copy at a time in retail or in lots of hundreds via volume licensing, has been dubbed a 'one-time purchase' by Microsoft to spell out how it's paid for. (Labels like 'perpetual,' which has been widely used by Computerworld, technically note the type of license rather than payment methodology, but in Office's case, the kind of license is tied to whether it was bought outright or simply 'rented.' ) [ To comment on this story, visit.

] Microsoft defines the term as when '.you pay a single, up-front cost to get Office applications for one computer.' Up-front is the key adjective there; Office 2016's entire purchase price must be laid out before receiving the software. That purchase, actually of a license to legally run the software, gives the buyer the right to use Office 2016 in perpetuity. In other words, the license has no expiration date, and users may run the suite as long as they want.

Pay for Office 2016 this year and use it for the next eight years? Run it until 2030? Nothing to stop you.

Office, made for Mac. Office 2016 for Mac is designed from the ground up to take advantage of the latest Mac features, including Retina display, full screen view support, and even scroll bounce. It's the perfect combination of the Office you know and trust, and the Mac you love.