Apple updates Pages, Numbers, Keynote for iOS 14, iPadOS 14

AppleInsider

Apple has updated its suite of iWork apps to include new features introduced in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, as well as other enhancements in both iOS and macOS.

Credit: Apple

The apps updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote -- which are now available on the App Store -- introduce the new iPadOS 14 Scribble feature that lets users handwrite words into text fields using an Apple Pencil.

There are also more incremental updates, including new editable shapes in Pages, an Outline View for Keynote, and improved performance for working with large tables in Numbers. Keynote also supports YouTube and Vimeo playback within a presentation, and Pages features an updated image picker.

Additionally, Apple has updated the macOS versions of the iWork apps with updated templates and editable shapes.

Users can download the iOS and iPadOS versions of the updates from these links: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.

The iWork suite is free to download and use for all Apple users across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Full release notes for the individual app updates are available below.

Pages

• Use Scribble to write by hand with Apple Pencil, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires iPadOS 14


• Select from new report templates to help you get started.


• Enhance your documents with a variety of new, editable shapes.


• Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image

Keynote

• Use Scribble to write by hand with Apple Pencil, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires iPadOS 14


• Use the new Outline View to focus on the structure and flow of your content without other distractions.


• Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in your presentations.


• Movie export now supports a wide selection of formats and frame rates.


• Hold the option key while dragging an object to duplicate it.


• Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image picker. Requires iOS 14 or iPadOS 14.


• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new, editable shapes.

Numbers

• Use Scribble to write by hand with Apple Pencil, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires iPadOS 14


• Forms are now easier to create and customize. Add a form to any table or use the new Basic Form template.


• Improved performance when working with large tables.
  Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image picker. Requires iOS 14 or iPadOS 14.


• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new, editable shapes.
Read on AppleInsider

Beats

It's a shame Pages isn't more popular. We've been using it at work and wow, it's so simple yet effective. It's so Apple.

sidrictheviking

Have been using Pages and Keynote for years on my iPad Air 2 (I’ve no use for Numbers — so far!), mostly for serious work (but the occasional Quiz in Keynote, too).

I love the enhancements they introduce from time to time. Really looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

emoeller

Interesting that the MacOS Work suite update is only available for 10.15 and above.   I thought Apple usually updates the last two MacOS versions, but I could be incorrect on that.

fastasleep

emoeller said:

Interesting that the MacOS Work suite update is only available for 10.15 and above.   I thought Apple usually updates the last two MacOS versions, but I could be incorrect on that.

For security issues, yes.  If the software is using frameworks/APIs new to the most recent macOS, not really. 

bobolicious

emoeller said:

Interesting that the MacOS Work suite update is only available for 10.15 and above.   I thought Apple usually updates the last two MacOS versions, but I could be incorrect on that.

For those that are unwilling, unable or unhappy to work with the decreasing flexibility offered by Apple for macOS and iOS post 2011 there are alternatives:

Collabora - the world's leading LibreOffice services company - online & pc
LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft
Internet for people, not profit — Mozilla
Thunderbird — Make Email Easier. — Thunderbird

OwnCloud - The leading OpenSource Cloud Collaboration Platform

OpenProject - online project management software - free and open source

Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

The Seashore Project download | SourceForge.net

Ultimaker Cura: Powerful, easy-to-use 3D printing software

as the frog boiling continues...

Has Apple merely adopted a hardware oriented variation of 'Embrace, extend, extinguish'...?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

...and then there is the question of the iCloud data, for which Apple apparently retains user access keys,
perhaps worth considering globally in context of the Patriot Act: https://fixitalready.eff.org/apple/#/
How does this compare to a decade hence...?

0ID0

sidrictheviking said:

Have been using Pages and Keynote for years on my iPad Air 2 (I’ve no use for Numbers — so far!), mostly for serious work (but the occasional Quiz in Keynote, too).

I love the enhancements they introduce from time to time. Really looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

Yes, Pages and Keynote are fine, but Numbers is a joke when compared to Excel.

Fidonet127

0ID0 said:

sidrictheviking said:

Have been using Pages and Keynote for years on my iPad Air 2 (I’ve no use for Numbers — so far!), mostly for serious work (but the occasional Quiz in Keynote, too).

I love the enhancements they introduce from time to time. Really looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

Yes, Pages and Keynote are fine, but Numbers is a joke when compared to Excel.

While Numbers doesn’t have the same features, it can do a lot of which most people need. Certainly not a joke. Quite a few people use it for their businesses. I use it a lot at home. 

CheeseFreeze

Beats said:

It's a shame Pages isn't more popular. We've been using it at work and wow, it's so simple yet effective. It's so Apple.

It’s because they are old fashioned. Despite the fact these apps are really great to use on desktop, they are part of a service offering that is far behind and consumer centric only.
If you take a look at Google, their productivity apps are part of a service that scales to enterprise use, including advanced team and permission setup, the ability to connect their software with other services through APIs (think Slack, databases, etc), includes survey creation app, etc, web-first centric software (circumventing installation of apps) despite Apple having a (very clumsy) web counterpart as well.
It’s pretty great for companies and consumers alike. 

In fact Google Docs is much more simple on the layout front compared to Pages. A pure word processor approach. Pages is still stuck in the “design your own birthday card” age. Apple is not catering for today’s needs but positioning their apps in a consumer-only ecosystem without any APIs that developers can leverage to integrate it with other business tools. 

So in my opinion it’s not so much the apps themselves that are the issue - just partially - but it’s the service that surrounds these apps.

StrangeDays

0ID0 said:

sidrictheviking said:

Have been using Pages and Keynote for years on my iPad Air 2 (I’ve no use for Numbers — so far!), mostly for serious work (but the occasional Quiz in Keynote, too).

I love the enhancements they introduce from time to time. Really looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

Yes, Pages and Keynote are fine, but Numbers is a joke when compared to Excel.

For my home and small business, Numbers has been fine. I’ve never used advanced features of Excel even in my day job in IT. The major difference has been Excel uses one table for the entire sheet, and Pages allows an unlimited number of drag & drop tables, which means you can design them independently of one another on the same sheet. This is nice. 

StrangeDays

CheeseFreeze said:

Beats said:

It's a shame Pages isn't more popular. We've been using it at work and wow, it's so simple yet effective. It's so Apple.

It’s because they are old fashioned. Despite the fact these apps are really great to use on desktop, they are part of a service offering that is far behind and consumer centric only.
If you take a look at Google, their productivity apps are part of a service that scales to enterprise use, including advanced team and permission setup, the ability to connect their software with other services through APIs (think Slack, databases, etc), includes survey creation app, etc, web-first centric software (circumventing installation of apps) despite Apple having a (very clumsy) web counterpart as well.
It’s pretty great for companies and consumers alike. 

Why do you say the web version is clumsy? It’s an extremely rich web app, and I’m under the impression it has feature parity or very near. I find it more pleasant to use than Google’s web apps. 

bobolicious

0ID0 said:

sidrictheviking said:

Have been using Pages and Keynote for years on my iPad Air 2 (I’ve no use for Numbers — so far!), mostly for serious work (but the occasional Quiz in Keynote, too).

I love the enhancements they introduce from time to time. Really looking forward to experimenting with these new additions.

Yes, Pages and Keynote are fine, but Numbers is a joke when compared to Excel.

I understand PKN as a replacement for AppleWorks, in intent and extension in the technical aspects. iOS usability may be key for some. I find the iWork integration is improving and the interface, presentation and charting compelling and beautiful.

Libre Office seems to translate better with excel and has such things as pivot tables (vs category sorting) and being fully multi os and multi platform, as perhaps a middle ground technically, and generally more flexible for minimum system requirements: macOS 10.10 and W7 or newer, with the current version seemingly usable on all iMacs as far back as the first aluminum version of 2007...  Download LibreOffice

And of course once installed both can be used independently of a remote corporate server or web access...

MplsP

Beats said:

It's a shame Pages isn't more popular. We've been using it at work and wow, it's so simple yet effective. It's so Apple.

I generally like pages and numbers, but agree that numbers still lacks some features to put it on par with excel. 

My big wish is that you could set them to save in .docx/.xlsx format automatically. For better or worse, MS office is still the standard for business, and people with PCs can’t read a pages or Numbers file. 

fastasleep

MplsP said:

Beats said:

It's a shame Pages isn't more popular. We've been using it at work and wow, it's so simple yet effective. It's so Apple.

I generally like pages and numbers, but agree that numbers still lacks some features to put it on par with excel. 

My big wish is that you could set them to save in .docx/.xlsx format automatically. For better or worse, MS office is still the standard for business, and people with PCs can’t read a pages or Numbers file. 

No way — automatically saving in those formats would immediately cause loss of work as you'd be stripping the documents of their native app data. It's not like it's hard to export when you need to.