You don't get it. Not having that one feature doesn't mean the app is useless to everybody. A company won't use Preview when Adobe CS is needed, nor will they use Pages or TextEdit when Word is needed, etc. Your making a ridiculous claim that all of iWork is useless because Pages doesn't support a certain use type. If Pages doesn't offer a feature then submit a request to Apple and then use MS Word or whatever suits your needs, but don't go making exaggerated claims.
I'm making the argument that Pages doesn't support the most important use type for getting wide spread adoption. If you don't make your Word processor usable for lawyers, you can't get significant market share and everyone ends up using MS Word.
Do you think it is wise for Apple to build a Word processor that has a maximum market penetration of less than 1%? WTF?
Why doesn't Apple F'ing fix Pages so that lawyers and their business clients can use it? Apple has its head stuck in the sand. There is no legitimate purpose to building a word processor that isn't suitable for use by the legal community.
I think Keynote is a good product, Pages has its limits but is rather OK, but Numbers is absolutely useless in a business environment. Not being able to link a cell from Numbers file to a cell in other Numbers file, is an show stopper if you want to do some serious financial processing in a business envrionment. Or typing =fact(50) in a cell of empty sheet, detecting how ridiculously bad the automatic number formatting is.
I actually use Numbers for work. I didn't want to use their Excel sheets for expenses and time reporting so I made my own with Numbers. It's perfect for that particular usage, because it's simple, along with a UI that is more appealing.
Now, I read a tweet from someone recently (I think the guy that does Minute Physics) where he tried to add many thousands of rows in Numbers but the app would just pause itself. I wondered why anyone would even consider Numbers for such a massive task.
edit: Nope, it was CGP Grey:
"Not to point fingers, but *someone* freezes the whole system every time I try to plot 55,000 x/y data points."
Words that Slurpy needs to heed, if he wishes to get anywhere in his life.
Blindly swearing in a rage in every post is fit for the mental asylum, but not for engaging in constructive discourse, something essential in the world of work.
Of course I was polite. I made well reasoned arguments and requests on Apple support a handful of times over the last 10 years. I'm bitching now because it's been a decade and Pages is still useless for me.
At one point I concluded that Apple didn't want to compete with MS in Word processing and intentionally didn't develop it. With the news that Pages will be platform agnostic, it appears Apple does want to compete. If so, they are being really stupid to not produce a product suitable for the legal community. It's not for lack of resources. If I were in product development at Apple, I would go survey 30 lawyers and 30 businesses and ask them what features they need to use the product in their work and then add the features. I know Apple is good at building products that consumers didn't even know they wanted, but that doesn't mean that's the best approach for everything.
I think Keynote is a good product, Pages has its limits but is rather OK, but Numbers is absolutely useless in a business environment. Not being able to link a cell from Numbers file to a cell in other Numbers file, is an show stopper if you want to do some serious financial processing in a business envrionment. Or typing =fact(50) in a cell of empty sheet, detecting how ridiculously bad the automatic number formatting is.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. Critical features that a large percentage of the potential customer base need and Apple could easily add but they either don't care if people use the product or are being really stupid when it comes to knowing what customers need. These are not nit picky omissions.
Maybe the problem is that culturally Apple doesn't usually ask its customers what they need. They build the product the customer will want. I think that works great for iPhones. It's a disaster for productivity software.
It's not what you were talking about. You said that the iWork suite of apps were useless. He said that Keynote is good (which means it's not without use), and that Pages is OK (which also means it has its uses). The fact is they all have a use and then all could be better both in terms of features as well being a long way off from truly competing with Word and Excel for all the niche use cases. It's unlikely Apple's suite of business apps will ever be common in the workplace, even as iOS dominates and Mac OS X slowly creeps in, if they never add critical features to Pages and Numbers. (See how I worded that without using hyperbole?)
This is bigger than it looks at first. Some functionality has been there and you could access iCloud before from any browser, but Beta has been removed. This signals a move in the right direction. Get ready for Big. I know there are naysayers, but this is a big thing in a small announcement. The apps are not bad, just a little different. The intent is to open up to all iCloud in an announcement and remove Beta.
This lawyer dude is really full of himself. There is no law that legal documents have to be written with software that supports numbered paragraphs. You can start a corporation using a typewriter if you can find one.
Personally I don't use Pages or Word because neither of them support the features I need. Desktop publishers prepare print for all magazines, newspapers, stationary, catalogs, books, billboards, signage, product packaging, material safety data sheets, instructions for use, advertisements, junk mail and even invoices.
Because neither Word nor Pages is able to do this very important work they are both useless for everyone. /s
Yeah, but it's still not platform agnostic as you can't use it on non-iOS tablets and phones.
I'll tell you another problem, I can share docs over the web, but not with native apps. An iPad user can't edit shared files, they have to download a copy of the files to edit them. Ironically, I can access shared docs over the web on a PC and edit them, but not on my iPad in the app or the web.
Yeah, but it's still not platform agnostic as you can't use it on non-iOS tablets and phones.
I'll tell you another problem, I can share docs over the web, but not with native apps. An iPad user can't edit shared files, they have to download a copy of the files to edit them. Ironically, I can access shared docs over the web on a PC and edit them, but not on my iPad in the app or the web.
Funny, how Apple is being more like Microsoft has been as it gets bigger and MS is getting more like Apple and Google as it becomes more platform agnostic.
Seems the more you are the top dog in certain markets, you can do as you please - until you can't.
No problem. Apple doesn't have to be the best and most useful for everything. Or they are just focusing where they can now and limit their offerings to get more right rather than less right.
Comments
Do you think it is wise for Apple to build a Word processor that has a maximum market penetration of less than 1%? WTF?
Why doesn't Apple F'ing fix Pages so that lawyers and their business clients can use it? Apple has its head stuck in the sand. There is no legitimate purpose to building a word processor that isn't suitable for use by the legal community.
I actually use Numbers for work. I didn't want to use their Excel sheets for expenses and time reporting so I made my own with Numbers. It's perfect for that particular usage, because it's simple, along with a UI that is more appealing.
Now, I read a tweet from someone recently
(I think the guy that does Minute Physics)where he tried to add many thousands of rows in Numbers but the app would just pause itself. I wondered why anyone would even consider Numbers for such a massive task.edit: Nope, it was CGP Grey:
At one point I concluded that Apple didn't want to compete with MS in Word processing and intentionally didn't develop it. With the news that Pages will be platform agnostic, it appears Apple does want to compete. If so, they are being really stupid to not produce a product suitable for the legal community. It's not for lack of resources. If I were in product development at Apple, I would go survey 30 lawyers and 30 businesses and ask them what features they need to use the product in their work and then add the features. I know Apple is good at building products that consumers didn't even know they wanted, but that doesn't mean that's the best approach for everything.
Maybe the problem is that culturally Apple doesn't usually ask its customers what they need. They build the product the customer will want. I think that works great for iPhones. It's a disaster for productivity software.
It's not what you were talking about. You said that the iWork suite of apps were useless. He said that Keynote is good (which means it's not without use), and that Pages is OK (which also means it has its uses). The fact is they all have a use and then all could be better both in terms of features as well being a long way off from truly competing with Word and Excel for all the niche use cases. It's unlikely Apple's suite of business apps will ever be common in the workplace, even as iOS dominates and Mac OS X slowly creeps in, if they never add critical features to Pages and Numbers. (See how I worded that without using hyperbole?)
Numbered paragraphs. Ha!
This lawyer dude is really full of himself. There is no law that legal documents have to be written with software that supports numbered paragraphs. You can start a corporation using a typewriter if you can find one.
Personally I don't use Pages or Word because neither of them support the features I need. Desktop publishers prepare print for all magazines, newspapers, stationary, catalogs, books, billboards, signage, product packaging, material safety data sheets, instructions for use, advertisements, junk mail and even invoices.
Because neither Word nor Pages is able to do this very important work they are both useless for everyone. /s
inDesign rules!
Yeah, but it's still not platform agnostic as you can't use it on non-iOS tablets and phones.
I'll tell you another problem, I can share docs over the web, but not with native apps. An iPad user can't edit shared files, they have to download a copy of the files to edit them. Ironically, I can access shared docs over the web on a PC and edit them, but not on my iPad in the app or the web.
Yeah, but it's still not platform agnostic as you can't use it on non-iOS tablets and phones.
I'll tell you another problem, I can share docs over the web, but not with native apps. An iPad user can't edit shared files, they have to download a copy of the files to edit them. Ironically, I can access shared docs over the web on a PC and edit them, but not on my iPad in the app or the web.
Funny, how Apple is being more like Microsoft has been as it gets bigger and MS is getting more like Apple and Google as it becomes more platform agnostic.
Seems the more you are the top dog in certain markets, you can do as you please - until you can't.
No problem. Apple doesn't have to be the best and most useful for everything. Or they are just focusing where they can now and limit their offerings to get more right rather than less right.
Here are some screenshots and an overview of Apple's iWork on iCloud.
Use Apple iWork on iCloud for Free - Create and Share Documents Online
- http://www.lifethinkist.com/apple-iwork-icloud-free
Here are some screenshots and an overview of Apple's iWork on iCloud.
Use Apple iWork on iCloud for Free - Create and Share Documents Online
- http://www.lifethinkist.com/apple-iwork-icloud-free